This doctrine may seem harsh, and untenable even, to those sickly
philanthropists who are always weeping over extinct or oppressed
nationalities; but nationality in modern civilization is a fact,
not a right antecedent to the fact. The repugnance felt to this
assertion arises chiefly from using the word nation sometimes in
a strictly political sense, and sometimes in its original sense
of tribe, and understanding by it not simply the body politic,
but a certain relation of origin, family, kindred, blood, or
race. But God has made of one blood, or race, all the nations of
men; and, besides, no political rights are founded by the law of
nature on relations of blood, kindred, or family. Under the
patriarchal or tribal system, and, to some extent, under
feudalism, these relations form the basis of government, but they
are economical relations rather than civil or political, and,
under Christian and modern civilization, are restricted to the
household, are domestic relations, and enter not the state or
body politic, except by way of reminiscence or abuse. They are
protected by the state, but do not found or constitute it. The
vicissitudes of time, the revolutions of states and empires,
migration, conquest, and intermixture of families and races, have
rendered it impracticable, even if it were desirable, to
distribute people into nations according to their relations of
blood or descent.
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