Property is what a great proportion of mankind are struggling to obtain,
and many at the hazard of their lives. Though in some instances they may
misuse it, yet it is the gift of God, and when made subservient to more
important things, it may be a blessing to individuals and communities.
It has in it, therefore, a real value, and ought not to be wantonly
destroyed while it may be used as an instrument for benefiting mankind.
It is a notorious fact that war does make a great destruction of
property. Thousands of individuals on sea and on land lose their all,
for the acquisition of which they may have spent the prime of their
lives. Ships on the high seas are taken, often burnt or scuttled, and
valuable cargoes sent to the bottom of the deep, some possibly laden
with the necessaries of life and bound to ports where the innocent
inhabitants were in a state of famine. Whole countries are laid waste by
only the passing of an immense army: houses are defaced, furniture
broken to pieces, the stores of families eaten up, cornfields trodden
down, fences torn away and used for fuel, and everything swept in its
train as with the besom of destruction more terrible to the inhabitants
than the storms of heaven when sent in judgment. Beautiful towns are
often literally torn to pieces with shot and shells. Venerable cities,
the labor and pride of ages, are buried in ashes amid devouring flames,
while in melancholy grandeur the fire and smoke rise to heaven and seem
to cry for vengeance on the destroyers.
Notwithstanding an avaricious individual or nation may occasionally in
war acquire by plunder from their brethren a little wealth, yet they
usually lose on the whole more than they gain. On the general scale the
loss is incalculable. It is not my object to examine the subject in
relation to any particular nation or war, but upon the general scale in
application to all warlike nations and all wars under the light of the
gospel.
If war does destroy property, reduce individuals to beggary, and
impoverish nations, then it is unwise to engage in it.