Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/262

come tyrants, muſt probably approve of this opinion, and be willing to eſtabliſh it; but is it not a dangerous one? ſince, on that principle, if the tyrant commands his army to attack and deſtroy, not only an unoffending neighbour nation, but even his own ſubjects, the army is bound to obey. A negro ſlave, in our colonies, being commanded by his maſter to rob or murder a neighbour, or do any other immoral act, may refuſe; and the magiſtrate will protect him in his refuſal. The ſlavery then of a ſoldier is worſe than that of a negro! A conſcientious officer, if not reſtrained by the apprehenſion of its being imputed to another cauſe, may indeed reſign, rather than be employed in an unjuſt war; but the private men are ſlaves for life; and they are perhaps incapable of judging for themſelves. We can only lament their fate, and ſtill more that of a ſailor, who is often dragged by force from his honeſt occupation, and compelled to imbrue his hands in perhaps innocent blood. But methinks it well behoves merchants (men more enlightened by their education, and perfectly free from any ſuch force or obligation) to conſider well of the juſtice of a war, before they voluntarily engage a gang of ruffians to attack their fellow-merchants of a neighbouring nation, to plunder them of their property, and perhaps ruin them and their families, if they yield it; or to wound, maim, and murder them, if they endeavour to defend it. Yet theſe things are done by Chriſtian merchants, whether a war be juſt or unjuſt; and it can hardly be juſt on both ſides. They are done by Engliſh and American merchants, who, nevertheleſs, complain of private theft, and hang by dozens the thieves they have taught by their own example.