If  the  independence  of  the  United  States  was  a  good  principle  to  be
secured,  here  again  is  a  case  where  war  achieved  a  better  result  than
could  have  been  accomplished  by  arbitration.
56  It  seems  possible  that  one  better  skilled  in  the  study  of  inter-
national law  might  evolve  an  acceptable  generalization  from  these
and  other  instances  which  could  be  found  in  history,  and  lay  down  a
principle  that  the  established  order,  as  contained  in  the  whole  body
of  international  law  and  usage,  and  custom,  being  the  product  of
human  wisdom,  is  subject  to  being  wrong,  and  to  being  found  inap-
plicable to  changed  conditions  and  relations  which  arise  in  the  prog-
ress of  the  world;  that  when  such  is  found  to  be  the  case  it  is  clear
that  the  existing  law  should  be  changed;  but  that  when  such  change


ORDNANCE  DEPARTMENT  AS  AN  ENGINEERINQ  ORGANIZATION       89

is  resisted  by  a  community  whose  interest  is  supposedly  or  actually
bound  up  in  the  wrong  order,  there  is  no  judicial  process  by  which  the
change  can  be  effected;  that  the  process  must  be  a  revolutionary  one,
and  that  resistance  entails  that  the  revolution  must  be  brought  about
by  force,  that  is  by  war.  And  the  people  which  has  become  satisfied
that  the  change  is  necessary  must  state  its  case  to  the  world,  gird  on
the  sword,  and  guided  by  its  conscience  and  hoping  for  the  approval  of
the  public  opinion  of  mankind,  must  resort  to  the  only  process  by
which  that  change  which  it  believes  makes  for  the  highest  good,  can  be
accomplished.
