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[47]
They,
too, do wrong who would debar foreigners from
enjoying the advantages of their city and would
exclude them from its borders, as was done by
Pennus in the time of our fathers, and in recent
times by Papius. It may not be right, of course,
for one who is not a citizen to exercise the rights and
privileges of citizenship; and the law on this point
was secured by two of our wisest consuls, Crassus and
Scaevola. Still, to debar foreigners from enjoying
the advantages of the city is altogether contrary to
the laws of humanity.
There are splendid examples in history where the1
apparent expediency of the state has been set at
naught out of regard for moral rectitude. Our own
country has many instances to offer throughout her
history, and especially in the Second Punic War,
[p. 317]
when news came of the disaster at Cannae, Rome displayed a loftier courage than ever she did in success;
never a trace of faint-heartedness, never a mention
of making terms. The influence of moral right is so
potent, that it eclipses the specious appearance of
expediency.
1 Moral right far outweighs apparent expediency.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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