with those two inspirations, justice and benevolence,--never in
any barbarism, though affecting the semblance of sensibility and
refinement. But this standard, while governing the relations of the
individual, must be recognized by nations also. Alas! alas! how long?
We still wait that happy day, now beginning to dawn, harbinger of
infinite happiness beyond, when nations, like men, shall confess that
it is better to receive a wrong than do a wrong.
5. There is still another influence stimulating War, and interfering
with the natural attractions of Peace: I refer to a selfish and
exaggerated _prejudice of country_, leading to physical aggrandizement
and political exaltation at the expense of other countries, and in
disregard of justice. Nursed by the literature of antiquity, we imbibe
the sentiment of heathen patriotism. Exclusive love for the land of
birth belonged to the religion of Greece and Rome. This sentiment was
material as well as exclusive. The Oracle directed the returning Roman
to kiss his mother, and he kissed Mother Earth. Agamemnon, according
to Æschylus, on regaining his home, after perilous separation for more
than ten years at the siege of Troy, before addressing family, friend,
or countryman, salutes Argos:--
"By your leave, lords, first Argos I salute."
The schoolboy does not forget the victim of Verres, with the memorable
cry which was to stay the descending fasces of the lictor, "I am a
Roman citizen,"--nor those other words echoing through the dark Past,
"How sweet and becoming to die for country!" Of little avail the
nobler cry, "I am a man," or the Christian ejaculation, swelling the
soul, "How sweet and becoming to die for duty!" The beautiful genius
of Cicero, instinct at times with truth almost divine, did not ascend
to that heaven where it is taught that all mankind are neighbors and
kindred. To the love of universal man may be applied those words by
which the great Roman elevated his selfish patriotism to virtue, when
he said that _country alone embraced all the charities of all_.[75]
Attach this admired phrase to the single idea of country, and you see
how contracted are its charities, compared with that world-wide circle
where our neighbor is the suffering man, though at the farthest pole.
Such a sentiment would dry up those precious fountains now diffusing
themselves in distant unenlightened lands, from the icy mountains of
Greenland to the coral islands of the Pacific Sea.
[75] "Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, familiares; sed
_omnes omnium caritates patria una complexa est_." (De Offic., Lib.
I. cap. 17.) It is curious to observe how Cicero puts aside that
expression of true humanity which fell from Terence, "_Humani nihil
a me alienum puto._" He says, "_Est enim difficilis cura rerum
alienarum._" Ibid., Lib. I. cap. 9.
It is the policy of rulers to encourage this exclusive patriotism, and
here they are aided by the examples of antiquity. I do not know that
any one nation is permitted to reproach another with this selfishness.
All are selfish. Men are taught to live, not for mankind, but only for
a small portion of mankind. The pride, vanity, ambition, brutality
even, which all rebuke in the individual, are accounted virtues, if
displayed in the name of country. Among us the sentiment is active,
while it derives new force from the point with which it has been
expressed. An officer of our navy, one of the heroes nurtured by War,
whose name has been praised in churches, going beyond all Greek,
all Roman example, exclaimed, "Our country, _right or wrong_,"--a
sentiment dethroning God and enthroning the Devil, whose flagitious
character must be rebuked by every honest heart. How different was
virtuous Andrew Fletcher, whose heroical uprightness, amidst the
trials of his time, has become immortal in the saying, that he "would
readily lose his life to _serve_ his country, but would not do a base
thing to _save_ it."[76] Better words, or more truly patriotic, were
never uttered. "Our country, our whole country, and _nothing but our
country_," are other delusive sounds, which, first falling from the
lips of an eminent American orator, are often painted on banners,
and echoed by innumerable multitudes. Cold and dreary, narrow and
selfish would be this life, if _nothing but our country_ occupied the
soul,--if the thoughts that wander through eternity, if the infinite
affections of our nature, were restrained to that place where we find
ourselves by the accident of birth.
[76] Character, prefixed to Political Works, p. viii.
By a natural sentiment we incline to the spot where we were born, to
the fields that witnessed the sports of childhood, to the seat of
youthful studies, and to the institutions under which we have been
trained. The finger of God writes all these things indelibly upon the
heart of man, so that even in death he reverts with fondness to early
associations, and longs for a draught of cold water from the bucket in
his father's well. This sentiment is independent of reflection: for it
begins before reflection, grows with our growth, and strengthens with
our strength. It is the same in all countries having the same degree
of enlightenment, differing only according to enlightenment, under
whose genial influence it softens and refines. It is the strongest with
those least enlightened. The wretched Hottentot never travels away
from his melting sun; the wretched Esquimau never travels away from
his freezing cold; nor does either know or care for other lands. This
is his patriotism. The same instinct belongs to animals. There is no
beast not instinctively a patriot, cherishing his own country with all
its traditions, which he guards instinctively against all comers. Thus
again, in considering the origin of War, do we encounter the animal
in man. But as human nature is elevated, as the animal is subdued,
that patriotism which is without reason shares the generous change and
gradually loses its barbarous egotism. To the enlarged vision a new
world is disclosed, and we begin to discern the distant mountain-peaks,
all gilded by the beams of morning, revealing that God has not placed
us alone on this earth, but that others, equally with ourselves, are
children of his care.
The curious spirit goes further, and, while recognizing an inborn
attachment to the place of birth, searches into the nature of the
allegiance required. According to the old idea, still too prevalent,
man is made for the State, not the State for man. Far otherwise is
the truth. The State is an artificial body, for the security of the
people. How constantly do we find in human history that the people
are sacrificed for the State,--to build the Roman name, to secure for
England the trident of the sea, to carry abroad the conquering eagles
of France! This is to barter the greater for the less,--to sacrifice
humanity, embracing more even than country _all the charities of all_,
for the sake of a mistaken grandeur.
Not that I love country less, but Humanity more, do I now and here
plead the cause of a higher and truer patriotism. I cannot forget that
we are men by a more sacred bond than we are citizens,--that we are
children of a common Father more than we are Americans.
Thus do seeming diversities of nations--separated by accident of
language, mountain, river, or sea--all disappear, and the multitudinous
tribes of the globe stand forth as members of one vast Human Family,
where strife is treason to Heaven, and all war is nothing else than
_civil_ war. In vain restrict this odious term, importing so much of
horror, to the dissensions of a single community. It belongs also to
feuds between nations. The soul trembles aghast in the contemplation of
fields drenched with fraternal gore, where the happiness of homes is
shivered by neighbors, and kinsman sinks beneath the steel nerved by a
kinsman's hand. This is civil war, accursed forever in the calendar
of Time. In the faithful record of the future, recognizing the True
Grandeur of Nations, the Muse of History, inspired by a loftier justice
and touched to finer sensibilities, will extend to Universal Man the
sympathy now confined to country, and no war will be waged without
arousing everlasting judgment.
* * * * *
6. I might here pause, feeling that those who have accompanied me to
this stage will be ready to join in condemnation of War, and to hail
Peace as the only condition becoming the dignity of human nature,
while it opens vistas of all kinds abundant with the most fruitful
promises. But there is one other consideration, yielding to none in
importance,--perhaps more important than all, being at once cause and
effect,--the cause of strong prejudice in favor of War, and the effect
of this prejudice. I refer to _Preparations for War_ in time of Peace.
Here is an immense practical evil, requiring remedy. In exposing its
character too much care cannot be taken.
* * * * *
I shall not dwell upon the fearful cost of War itself. That is present
in the mountainous accumulations of debt, piled like Ossa upon Pelion,
with which civilization is pressed to earth. According to the most
recent tables, the public debt of European nations, so far as known,
amounts to the terrific sum of $7,777,521,840,--all the growth of War!
It is said that there are throughout these nations 17,000,000 paupers,
or persons subsisting at the public expense, without contributing to
its resources. If these millions of public debt, forming only a part of
what has been wasted in War, could be apportioned among these poor, it
would give to each $450,--a sum placing all above want, and about equal
to the average wealth of an inhabitant of Massachusetts.
The public debt of Great Britain in 1842 reached to $3,827,833,102, the
growth of War since 1688. This amount is equal to two thirds of all
the harvest of gold and silver yielded by Spanish America, including
Mexico and Peru, from the discovery of our hemisphere by Christopher
Columbus to the beginning of the present century, as calculated by
Humboldt.[77] It is much larger than the mass of all the precious
metals constituting at this moment the circulating medium of the
world. Sometimes it is rashly said, by those who have given little
attention to the subject, that all this expenditure has been widely
distributed, and therefore beneficial to the people; but this apology
forgets that it has not been bestowed on any productive industry or
useful object. The magnitude of this waste appears by contrast. For
instance, the aggregate capital of all the joint-stock companies in
England of which there was any known record in 1842, embracing canals,
docks, bridges, insurance, banks, gas-lights, water, mines, railways,
and other miscellaneous objects, was about $800,000,000,--all devoted
to the welfare of the people, but how much less in amount than the
War Debt! For the six years preceding 1842, the average payment for
interest on this debt was $141,645,157 annually. If we add to this
sum the further annual outlay of $66,780,817 for the army, navy, and
ordnance, we shall have $208,425,974 as the annual tax of the English
people, to pay for former wars and prepare for new. During this same
period, an annual appropriation of $24,858,442 was sufficient for the
entire civil service. Thus War consumed ninety cents of every dollar
pressed by heavy taxation from the English people. What fabulous
monster, what chimæra dire, ever raged with a maw so ravenous? The
remaining ten cents sufficed to maintain the splendor of the throne,
the administration of justice, and diplomatic relations with foreign
powers,--in short, all the more legitimate objects of a nation.[78]
[77] New Spain, Vol. III. p. 431.
[78] Here and in subsequent pages I have relied upon the Encyclopædia
Britannica, the Annual Register, McCulloch's Commercial Dictionary,
Laurie's Universal Geography, founded on the works of Malte-Brun and
Balbi, and the calculations of Hon. William Jay, in War and Peace, p.
16, and in his Address before the Peace Society, pp. 28, 29.
* * * * *
Thus much for the general cost of War. Let us now look exclusively at
the _Preparations for War in time of Peace_. It is one of the miseries
of War, that even in Peace its evils continue to be felt beyond any
other by which suffering humanity is oppressed. If Bellona withdraws
from the field, we only lose sight of her flaming torches; the baying
of her dogs is heard on the mountains, and civilized man thinks to
find protection from their sudden fury only by inclosing himself in
the barbarous armor of battle. At this moment, the Christian nations,
worshipping a symbol of common brotherhood, occupy intrenched camps,
with armed watch, to prevent surprise from each other. Recognizing War
as Arbiter of Justice, they hold themselves perpetually ready for the
bloody umpirage.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to arrive at any exact estimate of
these Preparations, ranging under four different heads,--Standing Army,
Navy, Fortifications, and Militia, or irregular troops.
The number of soldiers now affecting to keep the peace of European
Christendom, as a _Standing Army_, without counting the Navy, is
upwards of two millions: some estimates place it as high as three
millions. The army of Great Britain, including the forces in India,
exceeds 300,000 men; that of France, 350,000; that of Russia, 730,000,
and is reckoned by some as high as 1,000,000; that of Austria, 275,000;
that of Prussia, 150,000. Taking the smaller number, and supposing
these two millions to require for their support an average annual sum
of only $150 each, the result would be $300,000,000 for sustenance
alone; and reckoning one officer to ten soldiers, and allowing to each
of the latter an English shilling a day, or $88.33 a year, for wages,
and to the former an average annual salary of $500, we have for the
pay of the whole no less than $258,994,000, or an appalling sum-total,
for both sustenance and pay, of $558,994,000 a year. If the same
calculation be made, supposing the force three millions, the sum-total
will be $838,491,000! But to this enormous sum must be added another
still more enormous, on account of loss sustained by the withdrawal
of these hardy, healthy millions, in the bloom of life, from useful,
productive labor. It is supposed that it costs an average sum of $500
to rear a soldier, and that the value of his labor, if devoted to
useful objects, would be $150 a year. Therefore, in setting apart two
millions of men as soldiers, the Christian powers sustain a loss of
$1,000,000,000 on account of training, and $300,000,000 on account of
labor, in addition to the millions annually expended for sustenance
and pay. So much for the Standing Army of Christian Europe in time of
Peace.
Glance now at the _Navy_. The Royal Navy of Great Britain consists
at present of 557 ships; but deducting such as are used for convict
ships, floating chapels, and coal depots, the efficient Navy comprises
88 ships of the line, 109 frigates, 190 small frigates, corvettes,
brigs, and cutters, including packets, 65 steamers of various sizes, 3
troop-ships and yachts: in all, 455 ships. Of these, in 1839, 190 were
in commission, carrying in all 4,202 guns, with crews numbering 34,465
men. The Navy of France, though not comparable with that of England, is
of vast force. By royal ordinance of 1st January, 1837, it was fixed
in time of peace at 40 ships of the line, 50 frigates, 40 steamers,
and 19 smaller vessels, with crews numbering, in 1839, 20,317 men.
The Russian Navy is composed of two large fleets,--one in the Gulf of
Finland, and the other in the Black Sea; but the exact amount of their
force is a subject of dispute among naval men and publicists. Some idea
of the Navy may be derived from the number of hands. The crews of the
Baltic amounted, in 1837, to not less than 30,800 men, and those of
the Black Sea to 19,800, or altogether 50,600,--being nearly equal to
those of England and France combined. The Austrian Navy comprised, in
1837, 8 ships of the line, 8 frigates, 4 sloops, 6 brigs, 7 schooners
or galleys, and smaller vessels: the number of men in its service, in
1839, was 4,547. The Navy of Denmark comprised, at the close of 1837,
7 ships of the line, 7 frigates, 5 sloops, 6 brigs, 3 schooners, 5
cutters, 58 gunboats, 6 gun-rafts, and 3 bomb-vessels, requiring about
6,500 men. The Navy of Sweden and Norway consisted recently of 238
gunboats, 11 ships of the line, 8 frigates, 4 corvettes, and 6 brigs,
with several smaller vessels. The Navy of Greece has 32 ships of
war, carrying 190 guns, with 2,400 men. The Navy of Holland, in 1839,
had 8 ships of the line, 21 frigates, 15 corvettes, 21 brigs, and 95
gunboats. Of the untold cost absorbed in these mighty Preparations it
is impossible to form an accurate idea. But we may lament that means
so gigantic are applied by Christian Europe, in time of Peace, to the
construction and maintenance of such superfluous wooden walls.
In the _Fortifications and Arsenals_ of Europe, crowning every height,
commanding every valley, frowning over every plain and every sea,
wealth beyond calculation has been sunk. Who can tell the immense
sums expended in hollowing out the living rock of Gibraltar? Who can
calculate the cost of all the Preparations at Woolwich, its 27,000
cannon, and its small arms counted by hundreds of thousands? France
alone contains more than one hundred and twenty fortified places; and
it is supposed that the yet unfinished fortifications of Paris have
cost upward of _fifty millions of dollars_.
The cost of the _Militia_, or irregular troops, the Yeomanry of
England, the National Guard of Paris, and the _Landwehr_ and
_Landsturm_ of Prussia, must add other incalculable sums to these
enormous amounts.
Turn now to the United States, separated by a broad ocean from
immediate contact with the Great Powers of Christendom, bound by
treaties of amity and commerce with all the nations of the earth,
connected with all by strong ties of mutual interest, and professing a
devotion to the principles of Peace. Are Treaties of Amity mere words?
Are relations of Commerce and mutual interest mere things of a day? Are
professions of Peace vain? Else why not repose in quiet, unvexed by
Preparations for War?
Colossal as are European expenditures for these purposes, they are
still greater among us in proportion to other expenses of the National
Government.
It appears that the average _annual_ expenses of the National
Government, for the six years ending 1840, exclusive of payments
on account of debt, were $26,474,892. Of this sum, the average
appropriation each year for military and naval purposes amounted
to $21,328,903, being eighty per cent. Yes,--of all the annual
appropriations by the National Government, eighty cents in every
dollar were applied in this unproductive manner. The remaining twenty
cents sufficed to maintain the Government in all its branches,
Executive, Legislative, and Judicial,--the administration of justice,
our relations with foreign nations, the post-office, and all the
light-houses, which, in happy, useful contrast with the forts, shed
their cheerful signals over the rough waves beating upon our long and
indented coast, from the Bay of Fundy to the mouth of the Mississippi.
The relative expenditures of nations for Military Preparations in time
of Peace, exclusive of payments on account of debts, when accurately
understood, must surprise the advocates of economy in our country.
In proportion to the whole expenditure of Government, they are, in
Austria, as 33 per cent; in France, as 38 per cent; in Prussia, as 44
per cent; in Great Britain, as 74 per cent; in the UNITED STATES, as 80
per cent![79]
[79] I have verified these results, but do little more than follow
Judge Jay, who has illustrated this important point with his accustomed
accuracy.--_Address before the American Peace Society_, p. 30.
To this stupendous waste may be added the still larger and equally
superfluous expenses of the Militia throughout the country, placed
recently by a candid and able writer at $50,000,000 a year![80]
[80] Jay, War and Peace, p. 13.
By a table of the National expenditures,[81] exclusive of payments on
account of the Public Debt, it appears, that, _in fifty-four years
from the formation of our present Government_, that is, from 1789 down
to 1843, $155,282,217 were expended for civil purposes, comprehending
the executive, the legislative, the judiciary, the post-office,
light-houses, and intercourse with foreign governments. During this
same period, $370,981,521 were devoted to the Military establishment,
and $169,707,214 to the Naval establishment,--the two forming an
aggregate of $540,688,735. Deducting from this amount appropriations
during three years of War, and we find that more than _four hundred
and sixty millions_ were absorbed by vain Preparations for War in time
of Peace. Add to this amount a moderate sum for the expenses of the
Militia during the same period, which, as we have seen, are placed
at $50,000,000 a year,--for the past years we may take an average of
$25,000,000,--and we have the enormous sum-total of $1,350,000,000
piled upon the $460,000,000, the whole amounting to _eighteen hundred
and ten millions_ of dollars, a sum not easily conceived by the human
faculties, sunk, under the sanction of the National Government, in mere
_peaceful Preparations for War_: almost _twelve times_ as much as was
dedicated by the National Government, during the same period, to all
other purposes whatsoever.
[81] Executive Document No. 15, Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session,
pp. 1018-19.
From this serried array of figures the mind instinctively recoils.
If we examine them from a nearer point of view, and, selecting some
particular item, compare it with the figures representing other
interests in the community, they will present a front still more dread.
Within cannon-range of this city stands an institution of
learning which was one of the earliest cares of our forefathers,
the conscientious Puritans. Favored child in an age of trial
and struggle,--carefully nursed through a period of hardship
and anxiety,--endowed at that time by the oblations of men like
Harvard,--sustained from its first foundation by the parental arm of
the Commonwealth, by a constant succession of munificent bequests,
and by the prayers of good men,--the University at Cambridge now
invites our homage, as the most ancient, most interesting, and most
important seat of learning in the land,--possessing the oldest and
most valuable library,--one of the largest museums of mineralogy and
natural history,--with a School of Law which annually receives into its
bosom more than one hundred and fifty sons from all parts of the Union,
where they listen to instruction from professors whose names are among
the most valuable possessions of the land,--also a School of Divinity,
fount of true learning and piety,--also one of the largest and most
flourishing Schools of Medicine in the country,--and besides these,
a general body of teachers, twenty-seven in number, many of whose
names help to keep the name of the country respectable in every part
of the globe, where science, learning, and taste are cherished,--the
whole presided over at this moment by a gentleman early distinguished
in public life by unconquerable energy and masculine eloquence, at a
later period by the unsurpassed ability with which he administered
the affairs of our city, and now, in a green old age, full of years
and honors, preparing to lay down his present high trust.[82] Such is
Harvard University; and as one of the humblest of her children, happy
in the memories of a youth nurtured in her classic retreats, I cannot
allude to her without an expression of filial affection and respect.
[82] Hon. Josiah Quincy.
It appears from the last Report of the Treasurer, that the whole
available property of the University, the various accumulation of more
than two centuries of generosity, amounts to $703,175.