RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

This joint resolution (H.R. 338 Resolution 24) was passed unanimously by the House of Representatives of North Carolina March 11, 1941, and by a vote of 45 to five by the Senate of North Carolina on March 12, 1941.

Whereas, it is necessary at the present juncture of human affairs to enlarge the bases of organized society by establishing a government for the community of nations, in order to preserve civilization and enable mankind to live in peace and be free, the following principles and objectives are hereby enunciated in the Declaration of the Federation of the World:

Man, the source of all political authority, is a manifold political being. He is a citizen of several communities: the city, the State, the nation and the world. To each of these communities he owes inalienable obligations and from each he receives enduring benefits.

Communities may exist for a time without being incorporated but, under the stress of adversity, they disintegrate unless legally organized. Slowly but purposefully through the centuries, civilization has united the world, integrating its diverse local interests and creating an international community that now embraces every region and every person on the globe. This community has no government, and communities without governments perish. Either this community must succumb to anarchy or submit to the restraints of law and order...

The ceaseless changes wrought in human society by science, industry and economics, as well as by the spiritual, social and intellectual forces which impregnated all cultures, make political and geographical isolation of nations hereafter impossible. The organic life of the human race is at last indissolubly unified and can never be severed, but it must be politically ordained and made subject to law. Only a government capable of discharging all the functions of sovereignty in the executive, legislative and judicial spheres can accomplish such a task. Civilization now requires laws, in the place of treaties, as instruments to regulate commerce between peoples. The intricate conditions of modern life have rendered treaties ineffectual and obsolete, and made laws essential and inevitable. The age of treaties is dead; the age of laws is here...

History has revealed but on principle by which free peoples, inhabiting extensive territories, can unite under one government without impairing their local autonomy. That principle is federation, whose virtue preserves the whole without destroying its parts and strengthens its parts without jeopardizing the whole. Federation vitalizes all nations by endowing them with security and freedom to develop their respective cultures without menace of foreign domination. It regards as sacrosanct man's personality, his rights as an individual and as a citizen and his role as a partner with all other men in the common enterprise of building civilization for the benefit of mankind. It suppresses the crime of war by reducing to the ultimate minimum the possibility of its occurrence. It renders unnecessary the further paralyzing expenditure of wealth for belligerent activity, and cancels through the ages the mortgages of war against the fortunes and services of men. It releases the full energies, intelligence and assets of society for creative, ameliorative and redemptive work on behalf of humanity. It recognizes man's morning vision of his destiny as an authentic potentiality. It apprehends the entire human race as one family, human beings everywhere as brothers and all nations as component parts of an indivisible community.

There is no alternative to the federation of all nations except endless war. No substitute for the Federation of the World can organize the international community on the basis of freedom and permanent peace. Even if continental, regional or ideological federations were attempted, the governments of these federation, in an effort to make impregnable their separate defenses, would be obliged to maintain stupendously competitive armies and navies, thereby condemning humanity indefinitely to exhaustive taxation, compulsory military service and ultimate carnage, which history reveals to be not only criminally futile but positively avoidable through judicious foresight in federating all nations. No nation should be excluded from membership in the Federation of the World that is willing to suppress its military, naval and air forces, retaining only a constabulary sufficient to police its territory and to maintain order within its jurisdiction, provided that the eligible voters of that nation are permitted the free expression of their opinions at the polls...

Now, therefore, be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring;

Section 1. That the General Assembly of North Carolina does hereby solemnly declare that all peoples of the earth should now be united in a commonwealth of nations to be known as The Federation of the World, and to that end it hereby endorses The Declaration of the Federation of the World as is specifically set forth in the preamble hereof, and makes said Declaration a part of this Resolution in the same manner as if same were recited herein, and requests the Senators and Members of the House of Representatives in Congress from the State of North Carolina to introduce and secure the passage of a Resolution in the Congress of the United States, committing the United States to the acceptance of the principle of the Federation of the World and requesting the President of the United States to call an International Convention to formulate a Constitution for The Federation of the World, which shall be submitted to each nation for its ratification.

Sec. 2. That when the said International Convention is called, it be urged to select a territory for the seat of government for The Federation of the World, and that the nation in which the said territory is located be requested to withdraw its jurisdiction over this area and cede it to The Federation of the World for its Capital, with all the prerogatives and attributes of sovereignty, in order that there might be built in this area a City symbolic of world unity, adequate for the needs of the nations and worthy of the aspirations and destiny of mankind.

Sec. 3. That a copy of this Resolution be sent out each of the Senators and Members of the House of Representatives in Congress from the State of North Carolina.

Sec. 4 That this Resolution shall be in full force and effect from and after its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this 13th day of March, 1941.

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