II.

I come now to the means by which the War System can be overthrown. Here

I shall unfold the tendencies and examples of nations, and the sacred

efforts of individuals, constituting the Peace Movement, now ready to

triumph,--with practical suggestions on our duties to this cause, and a

concluding glance at the barbarism of Military Glory. In this review I

cannot avoid details incident to a fruitfulness of topics; but I shall

try to introduce nothing not bearing directly on the subject.

Civilization now writhes in travail and torment, and asks for

liberation from oppressive sway. Like the slave under a weary weight

of chains, it raises its exhausted arms, and pleads for the angel

Deliverer. And, lo! the beneficent angel comes,--not like the Grecian

God of Day, with vengeful arrows to slay the destructive Python,--not

like the Archangel Michael, with potent spear to transfix Satan,--but

with words of gentleness and cheer, saying to all nations, and to all

children of men, "Ye are all brothers, of _one_ flesh, _one_ fold,

_one_ shepherd, children of _one_ Father, heirs to _one_ happiness. By

your own energies, through united fraternal endeavor, will the tyranny

of War be overthrown, and its Juggernaut in turn be crushed to earth."

In this spirit, and with this encouragement, we must labor for that

grand and final object, watchword of all ages, the Unity of the Human

Family. Not in benevolence, but in selfishness, has Unity been sought

in times past,--not to promote the happiness of all, but to establish

the dominion of one. It was the mad lust of power which carried

Alexander from conquest to conquest, till he boasted that the whole

world was one empire, with the Macedonian phalanx as citadel. The same

passion animated Rome, till, at last, while Christ lay in a manger,

this single city swayed a broader empire than that of Alexander. The

Gospel, in its simple narrative, says, "And it came to pass in those

days that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus that _all the

world_ should be taxed." History recalls the exile of Ovid, who,

falling under the displeasure of the same emperor, was condemned to

close his life in melancholy longings for Rome, far away in Pontus, on

the Euxine Sea. With singular significance, these two contemporaneous

incidents reveal the universality of Roman dominion, stretching from

Britain to Parthia. The mighty empire crumbled, to be reconstructed for

a brief moment, in part by Charlemagne, in part by Tamerlane. In our

own age, Napoleon made a last effort for Unity founded on Force. And

now, from his utterances at St. Helena, the expressed wisdom of his

unparalleled experience, comes the remarkable confession, worthy of

constant memory: "The more I study the world, the more am I convinced

of the inability of brute force to create anything durable." From

the sepulchre of Napoleon, now sleeping on the banks of the Seine,

surrounded by the trophies of battle, nay, more, from the sepulchres of

all these departed empires, may be heard the words, "They that take the

sword shall perish by the sword."

* * * * *

Unity is the longing and tendency of Humanity: not the enforced Unity

of military power; not the Unity of might triumphant over right; not

the Unity of Inequality; not the Unity which occupied the soul of

Dante, when, in his treatise _De Monarchia_, the earliest political

work of modern times, he strove to show that all the world belonged

to a single ruler, the successor of the Roman Emperor: not these; but

the voluntary Unity of nations in fraternal labor; the Unity promised,

when it was said, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither

bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one

in Christ Jesus"; the Unity which has filled the delighted vision of

good men, prophets, sages, and poets, in times past; the Unity which,

in our own age, prompted Béranger, the incomparable lyric of France,

in an immortal ode, to salute the Holy Alliance of the Peoples,[318]

summoning them in all lands, and by whatever names they may be called,

French, English, Belgian, German, Russian, to give each other the hand,

that the useless thunderbolts of War may all be quenched, and Peace

sow the earth with gold, with flowers, and with corn; the Unity which

prompted an early American diplomatist and poet to anticipate the time

when nations shall meet in Congress,--

"To give each realm its limit and its laws,

Bid the last breath of dire contention cease,

And bind all regions in the leagues of Peace;

Bid one great empire, with extensive sway,

Spread with the sun, and bound the walks of day,

One centred system, one all-ruling soul,

Live through the parts, and regulate the whole";[319]

the Unity which inspired our contemporary British poet of exquisite

genius, Alfred Tennyson, to hail the certain day,--

"When the war-drum throb no longer, and the battle-flags be furled,

In the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World."[320]

[318]

"Peuples, formez une sainte alliance,

Et donnez-vous la main."

_La Sainte Alliance des Peuples._

[319] Barlow, Vision of Columbus, Book IX. 432-438.

[320] Locksley Hall.

Such is Unity in the bond of Peace. The common good and mutual consent

are its enduring base, Justice and Love its animating soul. These

alone can give permanence to combinations of men, whether in states

or confederacies. Here is the vital elixir of nations, the true

philosopher's stone of divine efficacy to enrich the civilization of

mankind. So far as these are neglected or forgotten, will the people,

though under one apparent head, fail to be really united. So far

as these are regarded, will the people, within the sphere of their

influence, constitute one body, and be inspired by one spirit. And

just in proportion as these find recognition from individuals and from

nations will War be impossible.

* * * * *

Not in vision, nor in promise only, is this Unity discerned. Voluntary

associations, confederacies, leagues, coalitions, and congresses of

nations, though fugitive and limited in influence, all attest the

unsatisfied desires of men solicitous for union, while they foreshadow

the means by which it may be permanently accomplished. Of these I will

enumerate a few. 1. The _Amphictyonic Council_, embracing at first

twelve, and finally thirty-one communities, was established about the

year 1100 before Christ. Each sent two deputies, and had two votes in

the Council, which was empowered to restrain the violence of hostility

among the associates. 2. Next comes the _Achæan League_, founded

at a very early period, and renewed in the year 281 before Christ.

Each member was independent, and yet all together constituted one

inseparable body. So great was the fame of their justice and probity,

that the Greek cities of Italy were glad to invite their peaceful

arbitration. 3. Passing over other confederacies of Antiquity, I

mention next the _Hanseatic League_, begun in the twelfth century,

completed in the middle of the thirteenth, and comprising at one time

no less than eighty-five cities. A system of International Law was

adopted in their general assemblies, and also _courts of arbitration,

to determine controversies among the cities_. The decrees of these

courts were enforced by placing the condemned city under the ban, a

sentence equivalent to excommunication. 4. At a later period, other

cities and nobles of Germany entered into alliance and association

for mutual protection, under various names, as _the League of the

Rhine_, and _the League of Suabia_. 5. To these I add the combination

of _Armed Neutrality_ in 1780, uniting, in declared support of certain

principles, a large cluster of nations,--Russia, France, Spain,

Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, and the United States. 6. And still

further, I refer to Congresses at Westphalia, Utrecht, Aix-la-Chapelle,

and Vienna, after the wasteful struggles of War, to arrange terms of

Peace and to arbitrate between nations.

These examples, belonging to the Past, reveal tendencies and

capacities. Other instances, having the effect of living authority,

show practically how the War System may be set aside. There is,

_first_, the Swiss Republic, or _Helvetic Union_, which, beginning so

long ago as 1308, has preserved Peace among its members during the

greater part of five centuries. Speaking of this Union, Vattel said,

in the middle of the last century, "The Swiss have had the precaution,

in all their alliances among themselves, and even in those they have

contracted with the neighboring powers, _to agree beforehand on the

manner in which their disputes were to be_ _submitted to arbitrators,

in case they could not adjust them in an amicable manner_." And

this publicist proceeds to testify that "this wise precaution has

not a little contributed to maintain the Helvetic Republic in that

flourishing condition which secures its liberty, and renders it

respectable throughout Europe."[321] Since these words were written,

there have been many changes in the Swiss Constitution; but its present

Federal System, established on the downfall of Napoleon, confirmed

in 1830, and now embracing twenty-five different States, provides

that differences among the States shall be referred to "special

arbitration." This is an instructive example. But, _secondly_, our own

happy country furnishes one yet more so. The United States of America

are a National Union of thirty different States,--each having peculiar

interests,--in pursuance of a Constitution, established in 1788, which

not only provides a high tribunal for the adjudication of controversies

between the States, but expressly _disarms_ the individual States,

declaring that "_no State shall, without the consent of Congress, keep

troops or ships of war in time of peace, or engage in war, unless

actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of

delay_." A _third_ example, not unlike that of our own country, is the

_Confederation of Germany_, composed of thirty-eight sovereignties,

who, by reciprocal stipulation in their Act of Union, on the 8th of

June, 1815, deprived each sovereignty of the _right of war_ with its

confederates. The words of this stipulation, which, like those of

the Constitution of the United States, might furnish a model to the

Commonwealth of Nations, are as follows: "_The Confederate States

likewise engage under no pretext to make war upon_ _one another, nor

to pursue their differences by force of arms, but to submit them to

the Diet_. The latter shall endeavor to mediate between the parties by

means of a commission. Should this not prove successful, and a judicial

decision become necessary, provision shall be made therefor through

a well-organized Court of Arbitration, to which the litigants shall

submit themselves without appeal."[322]

[321] Law of Nations, Book II. ch. 18, § 329.

[322] Acte pour la Constitution Fédérative de l'Allemagne du 8

Juin, 1815, Art. XI. par. 4: Archives Diplomatiques, Vol. IV. p. 15.

Such are authentic, well-defined examples. This is not all. It is

in the order of Providence, that individuals, families, tribes, and

nations should tend, by means of association, to a final Unity. A law

of mutual attraction, or affinity, first exerting its influence upon

smaller bodies, draws them by degrees into well-established fellowship,

and then, continuing its power, fuses the larger bodies into nations;

and nations themselves, stirred by this same sleepless energy, are now

moving towards that grand system of combined order which will complete

the general harmony:--

"Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus

Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet."[323]

History bears ample testimony to the potency of this attraction. Modern

Europe, in its early periods, was filled with petty lordships, or

communities constituting so many distinct units, acknowledging only

a vague nationality, and maintaining, as we have already seen, the

"liberty" to fight with each other. The great nations of our day have

grown and matured into their present form by the gradual absorption of

these political bodies.

[323] Æneid, Lib. VI. 726, 727.

Territories, once possessing an equivocal and turbulent independence,

feel new power and happiness in peaceful association. Spain,

composed of races dissimilar in origin, religion, and government,

slowly ascended by progressive combinations among principalities and

provinces, till at last, in the fifteenth century, by the crowning

union of Castile and Aragon, the whole country, with its various

sovereignties, was united under one common rule. Germany once consisted

of more than three hundred different principalities, each with the

_right of war_. These slowly coalesced, forming larger principalities;

till at last the whole complex aggregation of states, embracing abbeys,

bishoprics, archbishoprics, bailiwicks, counties, duchies, electorates,

margraviates, and free imperial cities, was gradually resolved into

the present Confederation, where each state expressly renounces the

_right of war_ with its associates. France has passed through similar

changes. By a power of assimilation, in no nation so strongly marked,

she has absorbed the various races and sovereignties once filling

her territory with violence and conflict, and has converted them all

to herself. The Roman or Iberian of Provence, the indomitable Celtic

race, the German of Alsace, have all become Frenchmen,--while the

various provinces, once inspired by such hostile passions, Brittany and

Normandy, Franche-Comté and Burgundy, Gascony and Languedoc, Provence

and Dauphiné, are now blended in one powerful, united nation. Great

Britain, too, shows the influence of the same law. The many hostile

principalities of England were first merged in the Heptarchy; and these

seven kingdoms became _one_ under the Saxon Egbert. Wales, forcibly

attached to England under Edward the First, at last assimilated

with her conqueror; Ireland, after a protracted resistance, was

absorbed under Edward the Third, and at a later day, after a series

of bitter struggles, was united, I do not say how successfully, under

the Imperial Parliament; Scotland was connected with England by the

accession of James the First to the throne of the Tudors, and these

two countries, which had so often encountered in battle, were joined

together under Queen Anne, by an act of peaceful legislation.

Thus has the tendency to Unity predominated over independent

sovereignties and states, slowly conducting the constant process of

crystallization. This cannot be arrested. The next stage must be the

peaceful association of the Christian nations. In this anticipation

we but follow analogies of the material creation, as seen in the

light of chemical or geological science. Everywhere Nature is busy

with combinations, exerting an occult incalculable power, drawing

elements into new relations of harmony, uniting molecule with molecule,

atom with atom, and, by progressive change, in the lapse of time,

producing new structural arrangements. Look still closer, and the

analogy continues. At first we detect the operation of cohesion,

rudely acting upon particles near together,--then subtler influences,

slowly imparting regularity of form,--while heat, electricity, and

potent chemical affinities conspire in the work. As yet there is only

an incomplete body. _Light_ now exerts its mysterious powers, and

all assumes an organized form. So it is with mankind. First appears

the rude cohesion of early ages, acting only upon individuals near

together. Slowly the work proceeds. But time and space, the great

obstructions, if not annihilated, are now subdued, giving free scope to

the powerful affinities of civilization. At last, light, thrice holy

light, in whose glad beams are knowledge, justice, and beneficence,

with empyrean sway will combine those separate and distracted elements

into one organized system.

* * * * *

Thus much for examples and tendencies. In harmony with these are

_efforts of individuals_, extending through ages, and strengthening

with time, till now at last they swell into a voice that must be

heard. A rapid glance will show the growth of the cause we have met

to welcome. Far off in the writings of the early Fathers we learn

the duty and importance of Universal Peace. Here I might accumulate

texts, each an authority, while you listened to Justin Martyr, Irenæus,

Tertullian, Origen, Augustine, Aquinas. How beautiful it appears in the

teachings of St. Augustine! How comprehensive the rules of Aquinas,

who spoke with the authority of Philosophy and the Church, when he

said, in phrase worthy of constant repetition, that the perfection

of joy is Peace![324] But the rude hoof of War trampled down these

sparks of generous truth, destined to flame forth at a later day. In

the fifteenth century, _The good Man of Peace_ was described in that

work of unexampled circulation, translated into all modern tongues, and

republished more than a thousand times, "The Imitation of Christ," by

Thomas-à-Kempis.[325] A little later the cause found important support

from the pen of a great scholar, the gentle and learned Erasmus. At

last it obtained a specious advocacy from the throne. Henry the Fourth,

of France, with the coöperation of his eminent minister, Sully,

conceived the beautiful scheme of blending the Christian nations in one

confederacy, with a high tribunal for the decision of controversies

between them, and had drawn into his plan Queen Elizabeth, of England.

All was arrested by the dagger of Ravaillac. This gay and gallant

monarch was little penetrated by the divine sentiment of Peace; for

at his death he was gathering materials for fresh War; and it is too

evident that the scheme of a European Congress was prompted less by

comprehensive humanity than by a selfish ambition to humble the House

of Austria. Even with this drawback it did great good, by holding aloft

before Christendom the exalted idea of a tribunal for the Commonwealth

of Nations.

[324] "_Perfectio gaudii est pax._"--Aquinas, Summa Theologica,

Prima Secundæ, Quæst. LXX., Art. III. Concl.

[325] De Imitatione Christi, Lib. II. cap. 3.

Universal Peace was not to receive thus early the countenance of

Government. Meanwhile private efforts began to multiply. Grotius, in

his wonderful work on "The Rights of War and Peace," while lavishing

learning and genius on the Arbitrament of War, bears testimony in

favor of a more rational tribunal. His virtuous nature, wishing to

save mankind from the scourge of War, foreshadowed an Amphictyonic

Council. "It would be useful, and in some sort necessary," he says,--in

language which, if carried out practically, would sweep away the War

System and all the _Laws of War_,--"to have Congresses of the Christian

Powers, where differences might be determined by the judgment of those

not interested in them, and means found to constrain parties into

acceptance of peace on just conditions."[326] To the discredit of his

age, these moderate words, so much in harmony with his other effort for

the union of Christian sects, were derided, and the eminent expounder

was denounced as rash, visionary, and impracticable. The sentiment in

which they had their origin found other forms of utterance. Before

the close of the seventeenth century, Nicole, the friend of Pascal,

belonging to the fellowship of Port-Royal, and one of the highest

names in the Church of France, gave to the world a brief "Treatise on

the Means of preserving Peace among Men,"[327] which Voltaire, with

exaggerated praise, terms "a masterpiece, to which nothing equal has

been left to us by Antiquity." Next appeared a little book, which is

now a bibliographical curiosity, entitled "The New Cineas,"[328]--after

the pacific adviser of Pyrrhus, the warrior king of Epirus,--where

the humane author counsels sovereigns to govern in Peace, submitting

their differences to an established tribunal. In Germany, at the close

of the seventeenth century, as we learn from Leibnitz, who mentions

the preceding authority also, a retired general, who had commanded

armies, the Land-grave Ernest of Hesse Rhinfels, in a work entitled

"The Discreet Catholic," suggested a plan for Perpetual Peace by

means of a tribunal established by associate sovereigns.[329] England

testified also by William Penn, who adopted and enforced what he

called the "great design" of Henry the Fourth. In a work entitled "An

Essay towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe," the enlightened

Quaker proposed a Diet, or Sovereign Assembly, into which the princes

of Europe should enter, as men enter into society, for the love of

peace and order,--that its object should be justice, and that all

differences not terminated by embassies should be brought before this

tribunal, whose judgment should be so far binding, that, in the event

of contumacy, it should be enforced by the united powers.[330] Thus, by

writings, as also by illustrious example in Pennsylvania, did Penn show

himself the friend of Peace.

[326] De Jure Belli ac Pacis, Lib. II. cap. 28, § 8.

[327] Traité des Moyens de conserver la Paix avec les Hommes:

Essais de Morale, Tom. I. pp. 192-318. This little treatise has

been printed in a recent edition of the _Pensées_ of Pascal.

Notwithstanding this great company, and the praise of Voltaire in

his _Écrivains du Siècle de Louis XIV._, the reader of our day will

be disappointed. See Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of

Europe, Part IV. ch. 4, Vol. III. p. 393.

[328] Le Nouveau Cynée, ou Discours des Occasions et Moyens

d'establir une Paix générale et la Liberté du Commerce par tout le

Monde: Paris, 1623. A copy, found in one of the stalls of Paris, is

now before me.

[329] Leibnitz. Observations sur le Projet d'une Paix Perpétuelle

de l'Abbé de S. Pierre: Opera (ed. Dutens), Tom. V. pp. 56, 57.

[330] Clarkson, Life of William Penn, Ch. VI. Vol. II. pp. 82-85.

* * * * *

These were soon followed in France by the untiring labors of the good

Abbé Saint-Pierre,--the most devoted among the apostles of Peace,

and not to be confounded with the eloquent and eccentric Bernardin

de Saint-Pierre, author of "Paul and Virginia," who, at a later

day, beautifully painted the true Fraternity of Nations.[331] Of a

genius less artistic and literary, the Abbé consecrated a whole life,

crowned with venerable years, to the improvement of mankind. There

was no humane cause he did not espouse: now it was the poor; now it

was education; and now it was to exhibit the grandeur and sacredness

of human nature; but he was especially filled with the idea of

Universal Peace, and the importance of teaching nations, not less than

individuals, the duty of doing as they would be done by. This was his

passion, and it was elaborately presented in a work of three volumes,

entitled "The Project of Perpetual Peace,"[332] where he proposes a

Diet or Congress of Sovereigns, for the adjudication of international

controversies without resort to War. Throughout his voluminous writings

he constantly returns to this project, which was a perpetual vision,

and records his regret that Newton and Descartes had not devoted their

exalted genius to the study and exposition of the laws determining the

welfare of men and nations, believing that they might have succeeded in

organizing Peace. He dwells often on the beauty of Christian precepts

in government, and the true glory of beneficence, while he exposes the

vanity of military renown, and does not hesitate to question that false

glory which procured for Louis the Fourteenth the undeserved title of

Great, echoed by flattering courtiers and a barbarous world. The French

language owes to him the word _Bienfaisance_; and D'Alembert said "it

was right he should have invented the word who practised so largely the

virtue it expresses."[333]

[331] Harmonies de la Nature: OEuvres, Tom. X. p. 138. Voeux

d'un Solitaire: Ibid., Tom. XI. p. 168.

[332] Le Projet de Paix Perpétuelle.--A collection of the works

of Saint-Pierre, in fourteen volumes, entitled _OEuvres de

Politique_, appeared at Amsterdam in the middle of the last

century. But this collection is not complete; I have several other

volumes. Brunet introduces him into his Bibliographical Pantheon

among "Modern Reformers"; but the space allowed is very scanty by

the side of his namesake. His works are sympathetically described

and analyzed in a volume published since this Address, entitled

_L'Abbé de Saint-Pierre, sa Vie et ses OEuvres_, par G. de

Molinari.

[333] Éloge de Saint-Pierre: OEuvres, Tom. XI. p. 113. See, also,

Bescherelle, Dictionnaire National, under _Bienfaisance_.

Though thus of benevolence all compact, Saint-Pierre was not the

favorite of his age. A profligate minister, Cardinal Dubois,

ecclesiastical companion of a vicious regent in the worst excesses,

condemned his efforts in a phrase of satire, as "the dreams of a good

man." The pen of La Bruyère wantoned in a petty portrait of personal

peculiarities.[334] Many turned the cold shoulder. The French Academy,

of which he was a member, took from him his chair, and on the occasion

of his death forbore the eulogy which is its customary tribute to

a departed academician. But an incomparable genius in Germany,--an

authority not to be questioned on any subject upon which he spoke,--the

great and universal Leibnitz, bears his testimony to the "Project of

Perpetual Peace," and, so doing, enrolls his own prodigious name in the

catalogue of our cause. In observations on this Project, communicated

to its author, under date of February 7, 1715, while declaring that

it is supported by the practical authority of Henry the Fourth, that

it justly interests the whole human race, and is not foreign to his

own studies, as from youth he had occupied himself with law, and

particularly with the Law of Nations, Leibnitz says: "_I have read it

with attention, and am persuaded that such a project, on the whole, is

feasible, and that its execution would be one of the most useful things

in the world._ Although my suffrage cannot be of any weight, I have

nevertheless thought that gratitude obliged me not to withhold it, and

to join some remarks for the satisfaction of a meritorious author, who

ought to have much reputation and firmness, to have dared and been able

to oppose with success the prejudiced crowd, and the unbridled tongue

of mockers."[335] Such testimony from Leibnitz must have been grateful

to Saint-Pierre.

[334] Les Caractères, _Du Mérite Personnel_, Tom. I. p. 93.

[335] Observations sur le Projet d'une Paix Perpétuelle; Lettre à

l'Abbé de S. Pierre: Opera (ed. Dutens), Tom. V. pp. 56-62.

I cannot close this brief record of a philanthropist, constant in an

age when War was more regarded than Humanity, without offering him an

unaffected homage. To this faithful man may be addressed the sublime

salutation which hymned from the soul of Milton:--

"Servant of God, well done! well hast thou fought

The better fight, who single hast maintained

Against revolted multitudes the cause

Of Truth, in word mightier than they in arms,

And for the testimony of truth hast borne

... reproach, far worse to bear

Than violence: for this was all thy care,

To stand approved in sight of God, though worlds

Judged thee perverse."[336]

Waking hereafter from its martial trance, the world will rejoice to

salute the greatness of his career.[337] It may well measure advance in

civilization by the appreciation of his character.

[336] Paradise Lost, Book VI. 29-37.

[337] The _Nouvelle Biographie Générale_ concludes its notice of

him thus:--"Après avoir mérité le beau surnom de _Solliciteur pour

le bien public_, l'Abbé de Saint-Pierre mourut, en 1743, à l'âge de

quatre-vingt-cinq ans."

Contemporary with Saint-Pierre was another Frenchman, to whom I have

already referred, who flashed his genius upon the game of War. La

Bruyère exhibits men, for the sake of a piece of land more or less,

_agreeing among themselves_ to despoil, burn, and kill each other,

even to cutting throats, and, for the doing of this more ingeniously

and safely, inventing a beautiful system, known as the Art of War, to

the practice of which is attached what is called _Glory_. The same

satirist, who lived in an age of War, likens men to animals, even to

dogs barking at each other, and then again to cats; and he furnishes a

picture of the latter, counted by the thousand, and marshalled on an

extended plain, where, after mewing their best, they throw themselves

upon each other, tooth and nail, until nine or ten thousand of them

are left dead on the field, infecting the air for ten leagues with

an intolerable stench,--and all this for the love of Glory. But how,

says the satirist, can we distinguish between those who use only tooth

and nail and those others, who, first substituting lances, darts, and

swords, now employ destructive balls, small and large, killing at

once, while, penetrating a roof, they crash from garret to cellar,

sacrificing even women and children? Wherein is the Glory?[338]

[338] Caractères, _Du Souverain_, Tom. I. p. 332; _Des Jugements_,

Tom. II. pp. 57-59.

Saint-Pierre was followed by that remarkable genius, Jean Jacques

Rousseau, in a small work with the modest title, "Extract from the

Project of Perpetual Peace by the Abbé Saint-Pierre."[339] Without

referring to those higher motives supplied by humanity, conscience,

and religion, for addressing which to sovereigns Saint-Pierre incurred

the ridicule of what are called practical statesmen, Rousseau

appeals to common sense, and shows how much mere worldly interests

would be promoted by submission to the arbitration of an impartial

tribunal, rather than to the uncertain issue of arms, with no adequate

compensation, even to the victor, for blood and treasure sacrificed. If

this project fails, it is not, according to him, because chimerical,

but because men have lost their wits, and it is a sort of madness to be

wise in the midst of fools. As no scheme more grand, more beautiful, or

more useful ever occupied the human mind, so, says Rousseau, no author

ever deserved attention more than one proposing the means for its

practical adoption; nor can any humane and virtuous man fail to regard

it with enthusiasm.

[339] Extrait du Projet de Paix Perpétuelle de M. l'Abbé de

Saint-Pierre.

The recommendations of Rousseau, reaching Germany, were encountered by

a writer now remembered chiefly by this hardihood. I allude to Embser,

who treats of Perpetual Peace in a work first published in 1779, under

the title of "The Idolatry of our Philosophical Century,"[340] and at

a later day with a new title, under the _alias_ of the "Refutation

of the Project of Perpetual Peace."[341] Objections common with the

superficial or prejudiced are vehemently urged; the imputation upon

Grotius is reproduced; and the project is pronounced visionary and

impracticable, while War is exalted as an instrument more beneficent

than Peace in advancing the civilization of mankind. At a later day

Hegel gave the same testimony, thus contributing his considerable name

to vindicate War.[342]

[340] Die Abgötterei unsers Philosophischen Jahrhunderts.

[341] Widerlegung des Projects von Ewigen Frieden.

[342] Philosophie des Rechts, §§ 321-340: Werke, Band VIII. pp.

408-423.

The cause of Saint-Pierre and Rousseau was not without champions in

Germany. In 1763 we meet at Göttingen the work of Totze, entitled

"Permanent and Universal Peace, according to the Plan of Henry the

Fourth";[343] and in 1767, at Leipsic, an ample and mature treatise by

Lilienfeld, under the name of "New Constitution for States."[344] Truth

often appears contemporaneously to different minds having no concert

with each other; and the latter work, though in remarkable harmony with

Saint-Pierre and Rousseau, is said to have been composed without any

knowledge of their labors. Lilienfeld exposes the causes and calamities

of War, the waste of armaments in time of Peace, and the miserable

chances of the battle-field, where, in defiance of all justice,

controversies are determined as by the throw of dice; and he urges

submission to Arbitrators, unless, in their wisdom, nations establish a

Supreme Tribunal with the combined power of the Confederacy to enforce

its decrees.

[343] Ewiger und Allgemeiner Friede nach der Entwurf Heinrichs IV.

[344] Neues Staatsgebäude.

It was the glory of another German, in intellectual preëminence

the successor of Leibnitz, to illustrate this cause by special and

repeated labors. At Königsberg, in a retired corner of Prussia, away

from the great lines of travel, Immanuel Kant consecrated his days

to the pursuit of truth. During a long, virtuous, and disinterested

life, stretching beyond the period appointed for man,--from 1724 to

1804,--in retirement, undisturbed by shock of revolution or war, never

drawn by temptation of travel more than seven German miles from the

place of his birth, he assiduously studied books, men, and things.

Among the fruits of his ripened powers was that system of philosophy

known as the "Critique of Pure Reason," by which he was at once

established as a master-mind of his country. His words became the text

for writers without number, who vied with each other in expounding,

illustrating, or opposing his principles. At this period, after an

unprecedented triumph in philosophy, when his name had become familiar

wherever his mother-tongue was spoken, and while his rare faculties

were yet untouched by decay, in the Indian Summer of life, the great

thinker published a work "On Perpetual Peace."[345] Interest in the

author, or in the cause, was attested by prompt translations into the

French, Danish, and Dutch languages. In an earlier work, entitled

"Idea for a General History in a Cosmopolitan View,"[346] he espoused

the same cause, and at a later day, in his "Metaphysical Elements of

Jurisprudence,"[347] he renewed his testimony. In the lapse of time

the speculations of the philosopher have lost much of their original

attraction; other systems, with other names, have taken their place.

But these early and faithful labors for Perpetual Peace cannot be

forgotten. Perhaps through these the fame of the applauded philosopher

of Königsberg may yet be preserved.

[345] Zum Ewigen Frieden, 1795; Verkündigung des nahen Abschlusses

eines Tractats zum Ewigen Frieden in der Philosophie, 1796:

Sämmtliche Werke, Band VI. pp. 405-454, 487-498.

[346] Idee zu einer Allgemeinen Geschichte in Weltbürgerlicher

Absicht: Sämmtliche Werke, Band IV. pp. 141-157.

[347] Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Rechtslehre, §§ 53-61, _Das

Völkerrecht_: Sämmtliche Werke, Band VII. pp. 141-157.

By Perpetual Peace Kant understood a condition of nations where there

could be no fear of War; and this condition, he said, was demanded

by reason, which, abhorring all War, as little adapted to establish

right, must regard this final development of the Law of Nations as

a consummation worthy of every effort. The philosopher was right in

proposing nothing less than a reform of International Law. To this,

according to him, all persons, and particularly all rulers, should bend

their energies. A special league or treaty should be formed, which may

be truly called a _Treaty of Peace_, having this peculiarity, that,

whereas other treaties terminate a single existing War only, this

should terminate forever all War between the parties to it. A Treaty of

Peace, tacitly acknowledging _the right to wage War_, as all treaties

now do, is nothing more than a _Truce_, not Peace. By these treaties an

individual War is ended, but not the _state of War_. There may not be

constant hostilities; but there will be constant fear of hostilities,

with constant threat of aggression and attack. Soldiers and armaments,

now nursed as a Peace establishment, become the fruitful parent of new

wars. With real Peace, these would be abandoned. Nor should nations

hesitate to bow before the _law_, like individuals. They must form one

comprehensive federation, which, by the aggregation of other nations,

would at last embrace the whole earth. And this, according to Kant,

in the succession of years, by a sure progress, is the irresistible

tendency of nations. To this end nations must be truly independent; nor

is it possible for one nation to acquire another independent nation,

whether by inheritance, exchange, purchase, or gift. A nation is not

property. The philosophy of Kant, therefore, contemplated not only

Universal Peace, but Universal Liberty. The first article of the great

treaty would be, that every nation is free.

These important conclusions found immediate support from another German

philosopher, Fichte, of remarkable acuteness and perfect devotion to

truth, whose name, in his own day, awakened an echo inferior only to

that of Kant. In his "Groundwork of the Law of Nature,"[348] published

in 1796, he urges a Federation of Nations, with a Supreme Tribunal,

as the best way of securing the triumph of justice, and of subduing

the power of the unjust. To the suggestion, that by this Federation

injustice might be done, he replied, that it would not be easy to find

any common advantage tempting the confederate nations to do this wrong.

[348] Grundlage des Naturrechts: _Ueber das Völkerrecht_:

Sämmtliche Werke, Band III. pp. 369-382.

The subject was again treated in 1804, by a learned German, Karl

Schwab, whose work, entitled "Of Unavoidable Injustice,"[349] deserves

notice for practical clearness and directness. Nothing could be better

than his idea of the Universal State, where nations will be united, as

citizens in the Municipal State; nor have the promises of the Future

been more carefully presented. He sees clearly, that, even when this

triumph of civilization is won, justice between nations will not be

always inviolate,--for, unhappily, between citizens it is not always

so; but, whatever may be the exceptions, it will become the general

rule. As in the Municipal State War no longer prevails, but offences,

wrongs, and sallies of vengeance often proceed from individual

citizens, with insubordination and anarchy sometimes,--so in the

Universal State War will no longer prevail; but here also, between the

different nations, who will be as citizens in the Federation, there may

be wrongs and aggressions, with resistance even to the common power. In

short, the Universal State will be subject to the same accidents as the

Municipal State.

[349] Ueber das Unvermeidliche Unrecht.

The cause of Permanent Peace became a thesis for Universities. At

Stuttgart, in 1796, there was an oration by J.H. La Motte, entitled

_Utrum Pax Perpetua pangi possit, nec ne?_ And at Leyden, in 1808,

there was a Dissertation by Gabinus de Wal, on taking his degree

as Doctor of Laws, entitled _Disputatio Philosophico-Juridica, de

Conjunctione Populorum ad Pacem Perpetuam_.[350] This learned and

elaborate performance, after reviewing previous efforts in the cause,

accords a preëminence to Kant. Such a voice from the University is the

token of a growing sentiment, and an example for the youth of our own

day.

[350] At the Paris Peace Congress of 1849, since the delivery of

this Address, with Victor Hugo as President, and Richard Cobden

as an active member, Mr. Suringar, of Amsterdam, referred to this

Dissertation, and announced a copy of it which had been given him

for presentation to the Congress by the son of the author, John de

Wal, Professor of Jurisprudence at Leyden. My own copy is a valued

present from Elihu Burritt.

* * * * *

Meanwhile in England the cause was espoused by that indefatigable

jurist and reformer, Jeremy Bentham, who embraced it in his

comprehensive labors. In an Essay on International Law, bearing

date 1786-89, and first published in 1839, by his executor, Dr.

Bowring,[351] he develops a plan for Universal and Perpetual Peace in

the spirit of Saint-Pierre. Such, according to him, is the extreme

folly, the madness, of War, that on no supposition can it be otherwise

than mischievous. All Trade, in essence, is advantageous, even to the

party who profits by it the least; all War, in essence, is ruinous: and

yet the great employments of Government are to treasure up occasions

of War, and to put fetters upon Trade. To remedy this evil, Bentham

proposes, first, "The reduction and fixation of the forces of the

several nations that compose the European system"; and in enforcing

this proposition, he says: "Whatsoever nation should get the start

of the other in making the proposal to reduce and fix the amount of

its armed force would crown itself with everlasting honor. The risk

would be nothing, the gain certain. This gain would be the giving an

incontrovertible demonstration of its own disposition to peace, and of

the opposite disposition in the other nation, in case of its rejecting

the proposal." He next proposes an International Court of Judicature,

with power to report its opinion, and to circulate it in each nation,

and, after a certain delay, to put a contumacious nation under the ban.

He denies that this system can be styled visionary in any respect:

for it is proved, _first_, that it is the interest of the parties

concerned; _secondly_, that the parties are already sensible of this

interest; and, _thirdly_, that, enlightened by diplomatic experience in

difficult and complicated conventions, they are prepared for the new

situation. All this is sober and practical.

[351] Bentham's Works, Part VIII. pp. 537-554.

* * * * *

Coming to our own country, I find many names for commemoration. No

person, in all history, has borne his testimony in phrases of greater

pungency or more convincing truth than Benjamin Franklin. "In my

opinion," he says, "there never was a good War or a bad Peace"; and he

asks, "When will mankind be convinced that all Wars are follies, very

expensive, and very mischievous, and agree to settle their differences

by arbitration? Were they to do it even by the cast of a die, it would

be better than by fighting and destroying each other." Then again he

says: "We make daily great improvements in natural, there is one I wish

to see in moral philosophy,--the discovery of a plan that would induce

and oblige nations to settle their disputes without first cutting one

another's throats. When will human reason be sufficiently improved to

see the advantage of this?"[352] As diplomatist, Franklin strove to

limit the evils of War. To him, while Minister at Paris, belongs the

honor of those instructions, more glorious for the American name than

any battle, where our naval cruisers, among whom was the redoubtable

Paul Jones, were directed, in the interest of universal science,

to allow a free and undisturbed passage to the returning expedition

of Captain Cook, the great circumnavigator, who "steered Britain's

oak into a world unknown."[353] To him also belongs the honor of

introducing into a treaty with Prussia a provision for the abolition

of that special scandal, Private War on the Ocean.[354] In similar

strain with Franklin, Jefferson says: "Will nations never devise a more

rational umpire of differences than Force?... War is an instrument

entirely inefficient towards redressing wrong; it multiplies, instead

of indemnifying losses."[355] And he proceeds to exhibit the waste of

War, and the beneficent consequences, if its expenditures could be

diverted to purposes of practical utility.

[352] Letter to Josiah Quincy, Sept. 11, 1783; to Mrs. Mary Hewson,

Jan. 27, 1783; to Richard Price, Feb. 6, 1780: Works, ed. Sparks,

Vol. X. p. 11; IX. p. 476; VIII. p. 417.

[353] Franklin's Works, ed. Sparks, Vol. V. pp. 122-124.

Collections of Mass. Hist. Soc., Vol. IV. pp. 79-85.

[354] Franklin's Works, ed. Sparks, Vol. II. pp. 485, 486. Lyman's

Diplomacy of the United States. Vol. I. pp. 143-148.

[355] Letter to Sir John Sinclair, March 23, 1798: Transactions of

the American Philosophical Society, Vol. IV. pp. 320, 321.

To Franklin especially must thanks be rendered for authoritative words

and a precious example. But there are three names, fit successors of

Saint-Pierre,--I speak only of those on whose career is the seal of

death,--which even more than his deserve affectionate regard. I refer

to Noah Worcester, William Ellery Channing, and William Ladd. To dwell

on the services of these our virtuous champions would be a grateful

task. The occasion allows a passing notice only.

In Worcester we behold the single-minded country clergyman, little

gifted as preacher, with narrow means,--and his example teaches what

such a character may accomplish,--in humble retirement, pained by

the reports of War, and at last, as the protracted drama of battles

was about to close at Waterloo, publishing that appeal, entitled "A

Solemn Review of the _Custom_ of War," which has been so extensively

circulated at home and abroad, and has done so much to correct the

inveterate prejudices which surround the cause. He was the founder, and

for some time the indefatigable agent, of the earliest Peace Society in

the country.

The eloquence of Channing was often, both with tongue and pen, directed

against War. He was heart-struck by the awful degradation it caused,

rudely blotting out in men the image of God their Father; and his words

of flame have lighted in many souls those exterminating fires that can

never die, until this evil is swept from the earth.

William Ladd, after completing his education at Harvard University,

engaged in commercial pursuits. Early, through his own exertions,

blessed with competency, he could not be idle. He was childless; and

his affections embraced all the children of the human family. Like

Worcester and Channing, his attention was arrested by the portentous

crime of War, and he was moved to dedicate the remainder of his days

to earnest, untiring effort for its abolition,--going about from place

to place inculcating the lesson of Peace, with simple, cheerful manner

winning the hearts of good men, and dropping in many youthful souls

precious seeds to ripen in more precious fruit. He was the founder of

the American Peace Society, in which was finally merged the earlier

association established by Worcester. By a long series of practical

labors, and especially by developing, maturing, and publishing the plan

of an International Congress, has William Ladd enrolled himself among

the benefactors of mankind.

Such are some of the names which hereafter, when the warrior no longer

usurps the blessings promised to the peacemaker, will be inscribed on

immortal tablets.

Now, at last, in the fulness of time, in our own day, by the labors

of men of Peace, by the irresistible cooperating affinities of

mankind, nations seem to be visibly approaching--even amidst tumult

and discord--that Unity so long hoped for, prayed for. By steamboat,

railroad, and telegraph, outstripping the traditional movements of

government, men of all countries daily commingle, ancient prejudices

fast dissolve, while ancient sympathies strengthen, and new sympathies

come into being. The chief commercial cities of England send addresses

of friendship to the chief commercial cities of France; and the latter

delight to return the salutation. Similar cords of amity are twined

between cities in England and cities in our own country. The visit to

London of a band of French National Guards is reciprocated by the visit

to Paris of a large company of Englishmen. Thus are achieved pacific

conquests, where formerly all the force of arms could not prevail.

Mr. Vattemare perambulates Europe and the United States to establish

a system of literary international exchanges. By the daily agency of

the press we are sharers in the trials and triumphs of brethren in

all lands, and, renouncing the solitude of insulated nationalities,

learn to live in the communion of associated states. By multitudinous

reciprocities of commerce are developed relations of mutual dependence,

stronger than treaties or alliances engrossed on parchment,--while,

from a truer appreciation of the ethics of government, we arrive at the

conviction, that the divine injunction, "Do unto others as you would

have them do unto you," was spoken to nations as well as to individuals.

From increasing knowledge of each other, and from a higher sense

of duty as brethren of the Human Family, arises among mankind an

increasing interest in each other; and charity, once, like patriotism,

exclusively national, is beginning to clasp the world in its embrace.

Every discovery of science, every aspiration of philanthropy, no

matter what the country of its origin, is now poured into the common

stock. Assemblies, whether of science or philanthropy, are no longer

municipal merely, but welcome delegates from all the nations. Science

has convened Congresses in Italy, Germany, and England. Great causes,

grander even than Science,--like Temperance, Freedom, Peace,--have

drawn to London large bodies of men from different countries, under

the title of _World Conventions_, in whose very name and spirit of

fraternity we discern the prevailing tendency. Such a convention,

dedicated to Universal Peace, held at London in 1843, was graced by

many well known for labors of humanity. At Frankfort, in 1846, was

assembled a large Congress from all parts of Europe, to consider what

could be done for those in prison. The succeeding year witnessed, at

Brussels, a similar Congress, convened in the same charity. At last,

in August, 1848, we hail, at Brussels, another Congress, inspired by

the presence of a generous American, Elihu Burritt,--who has left his

anvil at home to teach the nations how to change their swords into

ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks,--presided over by

an eminent Belgian magistrate, and composed of numerous individuals,

speaking various languages, living under diverse forms of government,

various in political opinions, differing in religious convictions, but

all moved by a common sentiment to seek the abolition of War, and the

Disarming of the Nations.

The Peace Congress at Brussels constitutes an epoch. It is a palpable

development of those international attractions and affinities which

now await their final organization. The resolutions it adopted are so

important that I cannot hesitate to introduce them.

"1. That, in the judgment of this Congress, an appeal to arms

for the purpose of deciding disputes among nations is a custom

condemned alike by religion, reason, justice, humanity, and the

best interests of the people,--and that, therefore, it considers it

to be the duty of the civilized world to adopt measures calculated

to effect its entire abolition.

"2. That it is of the highest importance to urge on the several

governments of Europe and America the necessity of introducing

a clause into all International Treaties, providing for the

settlement of all disputes by Arbitration, in an amicable manner,

and according to the rules of justice and equity, by special

Arbitrators, or a Supreme International Court, to be invested with

power to decide in cases of necessity, as a last resort.

"3. That the speedy convocation of a Congress of Nations, composed

of duly appointed representatives, for the purpose of framing a

well-digested and authoritative International Code, is of the

greatest importance, inasmuch as the organization of such a body,

and the unanimous adoption of such a Code, would be an effectual

means of promoting Universal Peace.

"4. That this Congress respectfully calls the attention of

civilized governments to the necessity of a general and

simultaneous disarmament, as a means whereby they may greatly

diminish the financial burdens which press upon them, remove

a fertile cause of irritation and inquietude, inspire mutual

confidence, and promote the interchange of good offices, which,

while they advance the interests of each state in particular,

contribute largely to the maintenance of general Peace, and the

lasting prosperity of nations."

In France these resolutions received the adhesion of Lamartine,--in

England, of Richard Cobden. They have been welcomed throughout Great

Britain, by large and enthusiastic popular assemblies, hanging with

delight upon the practical lessons of peace on earth and good-will to

men. At the suggestion of the Congress at Brussels, and in harmony

with the demands of an increasing public sentiment, another Congress

is called at Paris, in the approaching month of August. The place of

meeting is auspicious. There, as in the very cave of Æolus, whence have

so often raged forth conflicting winds and resounding tempests, are to

gather delegates from various nations, including a large number from

our own country, whose glad work will be to hush and imprison these

winds and tempests, and to bind them in the chains of everlasting Peace.

Not in voluntary assemblies only has our cause found welcome. Into

_legislative halls_ it has made its way. A document now before me, in

the handwriting of Samuel Adams, an approved patriot of the Revolution,

bears witness to his desire for action on this subject in the Congress

of the United States. It is in the form of a Letter of Instructions

from the Legislature of Massachusetts to the delegates in Congress

of this State, and, though without date, seems to have been prepared

some time between the Treaty of Peace in 1783 and the adoption of the

National Constitution in 1789. It is as follows.

"GENTLEMEN,--Although the General Court have lately

instructed you concerning various matters of very great importance

to this Commonwealth, they cannot finish the business of the

year until they have transmitted to you a further instruction,

which they have long had in contemplation, and which, if their

most ardent wish could be obtained, might in its consequences

extensively promote the happiness of man.

"You are, therefore, hereby instructed and urged to move the

United States in Congress assembled to take into their deep and

most serious consideration, whether any measures can by them be

used, through their influence with such of the nations in Europe

with whom they are united by Treaties of Amity or Commerce, that

National Differences may be settled and determined without the

necessity of WAR, in which the world has too long been

deluged, to the destruction of human happiness and the disgrace of

human reason and government.

"If, after the most mature deliberation, it shall appear that

no measures can be taken _at present_ on this very interesting

subject, it is conceived it would redound much to the honor of the

United States that it was attended to by their great Representative

in Congress, and be accepted as a testimony of gratitude for most

signal favors granted to the said States by Him who is the almighty

and most gracious Father and Friend of mankind.

"And you are further instructed to move that the foregoing Letter

of Instructions be entered on the Journals of Congress, if it may

be thought proper, that so it may remain for the inspection of the

delegates from this Commonwealth, if necessary, in any _future_

time."[356]

[356] MSS. of Samuel Adams, belonging to the historian, George

Bancroft.

I am not able to ascertain whether this document ever became a

legislative act; but unquestionably it attests, in authentic form,

that a great leader in Massachusetts, after the establishment of that

Independence for which he had so assiduously labored, hoped to enlist

not only the Legislature of his State, but the Congress of the United

States, in efforts for the emancipation of nations from the tyranny of

War. For this early effort, when the cause of Permanent Peace had never

been introduced to any legislative body, Samuel Adams deserves grateful

mention.

Many years later the subject reached Congress, where, in 1838, it was

considered in an elaborate report by the late Mr. Legaré, in behalf

of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives,

prompted by memorials from the friends of Peace. While injudiciously

discountenancing an Association of Nations, as not yet sanctioned

by public opinion, the Committee acknowledge "that the union of all

nations in a state of Peace, under the restraints and the protection of

law, is the ideal perfection of civil society"; that they "concur fully

in the benevolent object of the memorialists, and believe that there is

a visible tendency in the spirit and institutions of the age towards

the practical accomplishment of it at some future period"; that they

"heartily concur with the memorialists in recommending a reference to

a Third Power of all such controversies as can safely be confided to

any tribunal unknown to the Constitution of our own country"; and that

"such a practice will be followed by other powers, and will soon grow

up into the customary law of civilized nations."[357]

[357] Reports of Committees, 25th Cong. 2d Sess., No. 979.

The Legislature of Massachusetts, by a series of resolutions, in

harmony with the early sentiments of Samuel Adams, adopted, in 1844,

with exceeding unanimity, declare, that they "regard Arbitration as

a practical and desirable substitute for War, in the adjustment of

international differences"; and still further declare their "earnest

desire that the government of the United States would, at the earliest

opportunity, take measures for obtaining the consent of the powers of

Christendom to the establishment of a general Convention or Congress of

Nations, for the purpose of settling the principles of International

Law, and of organizing a High Court of Nations to adjudge all cases

of difficulty which may be brought before them by the mutual consent

of two or more nations."[358] During the winter of 1849 the subject

was again presented to the American Congress by Mr. Tuck, who asked

the unanimous consent of the House of Representatives to offer the

following preamble and resolution:--

"Whereas the evils of War are acknowledged by all civilized

nations, and the calamities, individual and general, which are

inseparably connected with it, have attracted the attention of many

humane and enlightened citizens of this and other countries; and

whereas it is the disposition of the people of the United States to

coöperate with others in all appropriate and judicious exertions to

prevent a recurrence of national conflicts; therefore,

"_Resolved_, That the Committee on Foreign Affairs be directed to

inquire into the expediency of authorizing a correspondence to

be opened by the Secretary of State with Foreign Governments, on

the subject of procuring Treaty stipulations for the reference

of all future disputes to a friendly Arbitration, or for the

establishment, instead thereof, of a Congress of Nations, to

determine International Law and settle international disputes."[359]

[358] Mass. House Documents, Sess. 1844, No. 18.

[359] Congressional Globe, 30th Cong. 2d Sess., Jan. 16, 1849, p.

267. See also House Journal, Feb. 5, p. 372.

Though for the present unsuccessful, this excellent effort prepares the

way for another trial.

Nor does it stand alone. Almost contemporaneously, M. Bouvet, in the

National Assembly of France, submitted a proposition of a similar

character, as follows:--

"Seeing that War between nations is contrary to religion, humanity,

and the public well-being, the French National Assembly decrees:--

"The French Republic proposes to the Governments and Representative

Assemblies of the different States of Europe, America, and other

civilized countries, to unite, by their representation, in a

Congress which shall have for its object a proportional disarmament

among the Powers, the abolition of War, and a substitution for that

barbarous usage of an Arbitral jurisdiction, of which the said

Congress shall immediately fulfil the functions."

In an elaborate report, the French Committee on Foreign Affairs, while

declining at present to recommend this proposition, distinctly sanction

its object.

At a still earlier date, some time in the summer of 1848, Arnold Ruge

brought the same measure before the German Parliament at Frankfort,

by moving the following amendment to the Report of the Committee on

Foreign Affairs:--

"That, as Armed Peace, by its standing armies, imposes an

intolerable burden upon the people of Europe, and endangers civil

freedom, we therefore recognize the necessity of calling into

existence a _Congress of Nations_, for the purpose of effecting a

general disarmament of Europe."

Though this proposition failed, yet the mover is reported to have

sustained it by a speech which was received with applause, both in

the assembly and gallery. Among other things, he used these important

words:--

"There is no necessity for feeding an army of military idlers and

eaters. There is nothing to fear from our neighbor barbarians, as

they are called. You must give up the idea that the French _will_

eat us up, and that the Prussians _can_ eat us up. Soldiers must

cease to exist; then shall no more cities be bombarded. These

opinions must be kept up and propagated by a Congress of Nations. I

vote that the nations of Europe disarm at once."

In the British Parliament the cause has found an able representative

in Mr. Cobden, whose name is an omen of success. He has addressed many

large popular meetings in its behalf, and already, by speech and motion

in the House of Commons, has striven for a reduction in the armaments

of Great Britain. Only lately he gave notice of the following motion,

which he intends to call up in that assembly at the earliest moment:--

"That an humble address be presented to her Majesty, praying that

she will be graciously pleased to direct her Principal Secretary of

State for Foreign Affairs to enter into communication with Foreign

Powers, inviting them to concur in treaties binding the respective

parties, in the event of any future misunderstanding which cannot

be arranged by amicable negotiation, to refer the matter in dispute

to the decision of Arbitrators."

Such is the Peace Movement.[360] With the ever-flowing current of time

it has gained ever-increasing strength, and it has now become like a

mighty river. At first but a slender fountain, sparkling on some lofty

summit, it has swollen with every tributary rill, with the friendly

rains and dews of heaven, and at last with the associate waters

of various nations, until it washes the feet of populous cities,

rejoicing on its peaceful banks. By the voices of poets,--by the

aspirations and labors of statesmen, philosophers, and good men,--by

the experience of history,--by the peaceful union into nations of

families, tribes, and provinces, divesting themselves of "liberty"

to wage War,--by the example of leagues, alliances, confederacies,

and congresses,--by the kindred movements of our age, all tending to

Unity,--by an awakened public sentiment, and a growing recognition of

Human Brotherhood,--by the sympathies of large popular assemblies,--by

the formal action of legislative bodies,--by the promises of

Christianity, are we encouraged to persevere. So doing, we act not

_against_ Nature, but _with_ Nature, making ourselves, according to

the injunction of Lord Bacon, its ministers and interpreters. From no

single man, from no body of men, does this cause proceed. Not from

Saint-Pierre or Leibnitz, from Rousseau or Kant, in other days,--not

from Jay or Burritt, from Cobden or Lamartine, in our own. It is

the irrepressible utterance of the longing with which the heart of

Humanity labors; it is the universal expression of the Spirit of

the Age, thirsting after Harmony; it is the heaven-born whisper of

Truth, immortal and omnipotent; it is the word of God, published in

commands as from the burning bush; it is the voice of Christ, declaring

to all mankind that they are brothers, and saying to the turbulent

nationalities of the earth, as to the raging sea, "Peace, be still!"

[360] It will be remarked that this history stops with the date of

this Address.

* * * * *

GENTLEMEN OF THE PEACE SOCIETY,--Such is the War System of

the Commonwealth of Nations; and such are the means and auguries of

its overthrow. To aid and direct public sentiment so as to hasten the

coming of this day is the chosen object of this Society. All who have

candidly attended me in this exposition will bear witness that our

attempt is in no way inconsistent with the human character,--that we do

not seek to suspend or hold in check any general laws of Nature, but

simply to overthrow a barbarous Institution, having the sanction of

International Law, and to bring nations within that system of social

order which has already secured such inestimable good to civil society,

and is as applicable to nations in their relations with each other as

to individuals.

Tendencies of nations, as revealed in history, teach that our aims are

in harmony with prevailing laws, which God, in his benevolence, has

ordained for mankind.

Examples teach also that we attempt nothing that is not directly

practicable. If the several States of the Helvetic Republic, if

the thirty independent States of the North American Union, if the

thirty-eight independent sovereignties of the German Confederation,

can, by formal stipulation, divest themselves of the _right of war

with each other_, and consent to submit all mutual controversies

to Arbitration, or to a High Court of Judicature, then can the

Commonwealth of Nations do the same. Nor should they hesitate, while,

in the language of William Penn, such surpassing instances show that

_it may be done_, and Europe, by her incomparable miseries, that _it

ought to be done_. Nay, more,--if it would be criminal in these several

clusters of States to reëstablish the Institution of War as Arbiter of

Justice, then is it criminal in the Commonwealth of Nations to continue

it.

Changes already wrought in the Laws of War teach that the whole System

may be abolished. The existence of laws implies authority that

sanctions or enacts, which, in the present case, is the Commonwealth

of Nations. This authority can, of course, modify or abrogate what

it originally sanctioned or enacted. In the exercise of this power,

the Laws of War have been modified, from time to time, in important

particulars. Prisoners taken in battle cannot now be killed; nor can

they be reduced to slavery. Poison and assassination can no longer be

employed against an enemy. Private property on land cannot be seized.

Persons occupied on land exclusively with the arts of Peace cannot be

molested. It remains that the authority by which the Laws of War have

been thus modified should entirely abrogate them. Their existence is

a disgrace to civilization; for it implies the _common consent_ of

nations to the Arbitrament of War, as regulated by these laws. Like

the Laws of the Duel, they should yield to some arbitrament of reason.

If the former, once so firmly imbedded in Municipal Law, could be

abolished by individual nations, so also can the Laws of War, which

are a part of International Law, be abolished by the Commonwealth of

Nations. In the light of reason and religion there can be but one Law

of War,--the great law which pronounces it unwise, unchristian, and

unjust, and forbids it forever, as a crime.

Thus distinctly alleging the practicability of our aims, I may properly

introduce an incontrovertible authority. Listen to the words of an

American statesman, whose long life was spent, at home or abroad, in

the service of his country, and whose undoubted familiarity with the

Law of Nations was never surpassed,--John Quincy Adams. "War," he says,

in one of the legacies of his venerable experience, "by the common

consent and mere will of civilized man, has not only been divested of

its most atrocious cruelties, but for multitudes, growing multitudes

of individuals, has already been and is abolished. _Why should it not

be abolished for all?_ Let it be impressed upon the heart of every one

of you, impress it upon the minds of your children, _that this total

abolition of War upon earth_ is an improvement in the condition of man

entirely dependent on his own will. He cannot repeal or change the

laws of physical Nature. He cannot redeem himself from the ills that

flesh is heir to. But the ills of War and Slavery are all of his own

creation; he has but to will, and he effects the cessation of them

altogether."[361]

[361] Oration at Newburyport, July 4, 1837, pp. 56, 57.

Well does John Quincy Adams say that mankind have but to _will_ it, and

War is abolished. Will it, and War disappears like the Duel. Will it,

and War skulks like the Torture. Will it, and War fades away like the

fires of religious persecution. Will it, and War passes among profane

follies, like the ordeal of burning ploughshares. Will it, and War

hurries to join the earlier institution of Cannibalism. Will it, and

War is chastised from the Commonwealth of Nations, as Slavery has been

chastised from municipal jurisdictions by England and France, by Tunis

and Tripoli.

* * * * *

To arouse this _public will_, which, like a giant, yet sleeps, but

whose awakened voice nothing can withstand, should be our endeavor.

The true character of the War System must be exposed. To be hated, it

needs only to be comprehended; and it will surely be abolished as soon

as this is accomplished. See, then, that it is comprehended. Exhibit

its manifold atrocities. Strip away all its presumptuous pretences,

its specious apologies, its hideous sorceries. Above all, men must no

longer deceive themselves by the shallow thought that this System is

the necessary incident of imperfect human nature, and thus cast upon

God the responsibility for their crimes. They must see clearly that

it is a monster of their own creation, born with their consent, whose

vital spark is fed by their breath, and without their breath must

necessarily die. They must see distinctly, what I have so carefully

presented to-night, that War, under the Law of Nations, is nothing but

an Institution, and the whole War System nothing but an Establishment

for the administration of _international justice_, for which the

Commonwealth of Nations is directly responsible, and which that

Commonwealth can at any time remove.

Recognizing these things, men must cease to cherish War, and will

renounce all appeal to its Arbitrament. They will forego rights, rather

than wage an irreligious battle. But, criminal and irrational as is

War, unhappily, in the present state of human error, we cannot expect

large numbers to appreciate its true character, and to hate it with

that perfect hatred making them renounce its agency, unless we offer an

approved and practical mode of determining international controversies,

as a _substitute_ for the imagined necessity of the barbarous ordeal.

This we are able to do; and so doing, we reflect new light upon the

atrocity of a system which not only tramples upon all the precepts of

the Christian faith, but defies justice and discards reason.

* * * * *

1. The most complete and permanent substitute would be a Congress

of Nations, with a High Court of Judicature. Such a system, while

admitted on all sides to promise excellent results, is opposed on two

grounds. _First_, because, as regards the smaller states, it would

be a tremendous engine of oppression, subversive of their political

independence. Surely, it could not be so oppressive as the War System.

But the experience of the smaller States in the German Confederation

and in the American Union, nay, the experience of Belgium and Holland

by the side of the overtopping power of France, and the experience of

Denmark and Sweden in the very night-shade of Russia, all show the

futility of this objection. _Secondly_, because the decrees of such

a court could not be carried into effect. Even if they were enforced

by the combined power of the associate nations, the sword, as the

executive arm of the high tribunal, would be only the melancholy

instrument of Justice, not the Arbiter of Justice, and therefore not

condemned by the conclusive reasons against international appeals

to the sword. From the experience of history, and particularly from

the experience of the thirty States of our Union, we learn that the

occasion for any executive arm will be rare. The State of Rhode Island,

in its recent controversy with Massachusetts, submitted with much

indifference to the adverse decree of the Supreme Court; and I doubt

not that Missouri and Iowa will submit with equal contentment to any

determination of their present controversy by the same tribunal. The

same submission would attend the decrees of any Court of Judicature

established by the Commonwealth of Nations. There is a growing sense of

justice, combined with a growing might of public opinion, too little

known to the soldier, that would maintain the judgments of the august

tribunal assembled in the face of the Nations, better than the swords

of all the marshals of France, better than the bloody terrors of

Austerlitz or Waterloo.

The idea of a Congress of Nations with a High Court of Judicature is

as practicable as its consummation is confessedly dear to the friends

of Universal Peace. Whenever this Congress is convened, as surely it

will be, I know not all the names that will deserve commemoration

in its earliest proceedings; but there are two, whose particular

and long-continued advocacy of this Institution will connect them

indissolubly with its fame,--the Abbé Saint-Pierre, of France, and

William Ladd, of the United States.

* * * * *

2. There is still another substitute for War, which is not exposed

even to the shallow objections launched against a Congress of Nations.

By formal treaties between two or more nations, Arbitration may be

established as the mode of determining controversies between them. In

every respect this is a contrast to War. It is rational, humane, and

cheap. Above all, it is consistent with the teachings of Christianity.

As I mention this substitute, I should do injustice to the cause and to

my own feelings, if I did not express our obligations to its efficient

proposer and advocate, our fellow-citizen, and the President of this

Society, the honored son of an illustrious father, whose absence

to-night enables me, without offending his known modesty, to introduce

this tribute: I mean William Jay.

* * * * *

The complete overthrow of the War System, involving the disarming of

the Nations, would follow the establishment of a Congress of Nations,

or any general system of Arbitration. Then at last our aims would be

accomplished; then at last Peace would be organized among the Nations.

Then might Christians repeat the fitful boast of the generous Mohawk:

"We have thrown the hatchet so high into the air, and beyond the skies,

that no arm on earth can reach to bring it down." Incalculable sums,

now devoted to armaments and the destructive industry of War, would be

turned to the productive industry of Art and to offices of Beneficence.

As in the dead and rotten carcass of the lion which roared against the

strong man of Israel, after a time, were a swarm of bees and honey,

so would the enormous carcass of War, dead and rotten, be filled with

crowds of useful laborers and all good works, and the riddle of Samson

be once more interpreted: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of

the strong came forth sweetness."

Put together the products of all the mines in the world,--the

glistening ore of California, the accumulated treasures of Mexico

and Peru, with the diamonds of Golconda,--and the whole shining heap

will be less than the means thus diverted from War to Peace. Under

the influence of such a change, civilization will be quickened anew.

Then will happy Labor find its reward, and the whole land be filled

with its increase. There is no aspiration of Knowledge, no vision of

Charity, no venture of Enterprise, no fancy of Art, which may not then

be fulfilled. The great unsolved problem of Pauperism will be solved at

last. There will be no paupers, when there are no soldiers. The social

struggles, so fearfully disturbing European nations, will die away in

the happiness of unarmed Peace, no longer incumbered by the oppressive

system of War; nor can there be well-founded hope that these struggles

will permanently cease, so long as this system endures. The people

ought not to rest, they cannot rest, while this system endures. As King

Arthur, prostrate on the earth, with bloody streams pouring from his

veins, could not be at ease, until his sword, the terrific Excalibar,

was thrown into the flood, so the Nations, now prostrate on the earth,

with bloody streams pouring from their veins, cannot be at ease, until

they fling far away the wicked sword of War. King Arthur said to his

attending knight, "As thou love me, spare not to throw it in"; and this

is the voice of the Nations also.

Lop off the unchristian armaments of the Christian Nations, extirpate

these martial cancers, that they may feed no longer upon the life-blood

of the people, and society itself, now weary and sick, will become

fresh and young,--not by opening its veins, as under the incantation of

Medea, in the wild hope of infusing new strength, but by the amputation

and complete removal of a deadly excrescence, with all its unutterable

debility and exhaustion. Energies hitherto withdrawn from proper

healthful action will then replenish it with unwonted life and vigor,

giving new expansion to every human capacity, and new elevation to

every human aim. And society at last shall rejoice, like a strong man,

to run its race.

Imagination toils to picture the boundless good that will be achieved.

As War with its deeds is infinitely evil and accursed, so will this

triumph of Permanent Peace be infinitely beneficent and blessed.

Something of its consequences were seen, in prophetic vision, even

by that incarnate Spirit of War, Napoleon Bonaparte, when, from his

island-prison of St. Helena, looking back upon his mistaken career,

he was led to confess the True Grandeur of Peace. Out of his mouth

let its praise be spoken. "I had the project," he said, mournfully

regretting the opportunity he had lost, "at the general peace of

Amiens, of bringing each Power to an immense reduction of its standing

armies. I wished a European Institute, with European prizes, to

direct, associate, and bring together all the learned societies of

Europe. Then, perhaps, through the universal spread of light, it

might be permitted to anticipate for the great European Family the

establishment of an American Congress, or an Amphictyonic Council; and

what a perspective then of strength, of greatness, of happiness, of

prosperity! What a sublime and magnificent spectacle!"[362]

[362] Las Cases, Memorial de Sainte-Hélène, November, 1816.

* * * * *

Such is our cause. In transcendent influence, it embraces human

beneficence in all its forms. It is the comprehensive charity,

enfolding all the charities of all. None so vast as to be above its

protection, none so lowly as not to feel its care. Religion, Knowledge,

Freedom, Virtue, Happiness, in all their manifold forms, depend upon

Peace. Sustained by Peace, they lean upon the Everlasting Arm. And this

is not all. Law, Order, Government, derive from Peace new sanctions.

Nor can they attain to that complete dominion which is our truest

safeguard, until, by the overthrow of the War System, they comprehend

the Commonwealth of Nations,--

"And Sovereign LAW, _the WORLD'S collected will_,

O'er thrones and globes elate,

Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill."[363]

[363] Sir William Jones, Ode in Imitation of Alcæus.

In the name of Religion profaned, of Knowledge misapplied and

perverted, of Freedom crushed to earth, of Virtue dethroned, of human

Happiness violated, in the name of Law, Order, and Government, I call

upon you for union to establish the supremacy of Peace. There must be

no hesitation. With the lips you confess the infinite evil of War. Are

you in earnest? Action must follow confession. All must unite to render

the recurrence of this evil impossible. Science and Humanity everywhere

put forth all possible energy against cholera and pestilence. Why not

equal energy against an evil more fearful than cholera or pestilence?

Each man must consider the cause his own. Let him animate his

neighbors. Let him seek, in every proper way, to influence the rulers

of the Nations, and, above all, the rulers of this happy land.

The old, the middle-aged, and the young must combine in a common cause.

The pulpit, the school, the college, and the public street must speak

for it. Preach it, minister of the Prince of Peace! let it never be

forgotten in conversation, sermon, or prayer; nor any longer seek,

by specious theory, to reconcile the monstrous War System with the

precepts of Christ! Instil it, teacher of childhood and youth! in the

early thoughts of your precious charge; exhibit the wickedness of

War and the beauty of Peace; let your warnings sink deep among those

purifying and strengthening influences which ripen into true manhood.

Scholar! write it in your books, so that all shall read it. Poet!

sing it, so that all shall love it. Let the interests of commerce,

whose threads of golden tissue interknit the Nations, enlist the

traffickers of the earth in its behalf. And you, servant of the law!

sharer of my own peculiar toils, mindful that the law is silent in

the midst of arms, join to preserve, uphold, and extend its sway.

Remember, politician! that our cause is too universal to become the

exclusive possession of any political party, or to be confined within

any geographical limits. See to it, statesman and ruler! that the

principles of Peace are as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by

night. Let the Abolition of War, and the Overthrow of the War System,

with the Disarming of the Nations, be your guiding star. Be this your

pious diplomacy! Be this your lofty Christian statesmanship!

As a measure simple and practical, obnoxious to no objection, promising

incalculable good, and presenting an immediate opportunity for labor,

I would invite your coöperation in the effort now making at home and

abroad to establish Arbitration Treaties. If in this scheme there is a

tendency to avert War,--if, through its agency, we may hope to prevent

a single war,--and who can doubt that such may be its result?--we ought

to adopt it. Take the initiative. Try it, and nations will never return

to the barbarous system. They will begin to learn War no more. Let it

be our privilege to volunteer the proposal. Thus shall we inaugurate

Permanent Peace in the diplomacy of the world. Nor should we wait for

other governments. In a cause so holy, no government should wait for

another. Let us take the lead. Let our republic, powerful child of

Freedom, go forth, the Evangelist of Peace. Let her offer to the world

a Magna Charta of International Law, by which the crime of War shall be

forever abolished.

* * * * *

While thus encouraging you in behalf of Universal Peace, the odious

din of War, mingled with pathetic appeals for Freedom, reaches us

from struggling Italy, from convulsed Germany, from aroused and

triumphant Hungary. At bidding of the Russian Autocrat, the populous

North threatens to pour its multitudes upon the scene; and a portentous

cloud, charged with "red lightning and impetuous rage," hangs over the

whole continent of Europe, which echoes again to the tread of mustering

squadrons. Alas! must this dismal work be renewed? Can Freedom be

born, can nations be regenerated, only through baptism of blood? In

our aspirations, I would not be blind to the teachings of History, or

to the actual condition of men, so long accustomed to brute force,

that, to their imperfect natures, it seems the only means by which

injustice can be crushed. With sadness I confess that we cannot expect

the _domestic_ repose of nations, until tyranny is overthrown, and

the principles of _self-government_ are established; especially do I

not expect imperturbable peace in Italy, so long as foreign Austria,

with insolent iron heel, continues to tread any part of that beautiful

land. But whatever may be the fate of the present crisis, whether it be

doomed to the horrors of prolonged strife, or shall soon brighten into

the radiance of enduring concord, I cannot doubt that the Nations are

gravitating, with resistless might, even through fire and blood, into

peaceful forms of social order, where the War System will cease to be

known.

Nay, from the experience of this hour I draw the auguries of Permanent

Peace. Not in any international strife, not in duel between nation and

nation, not in selfish conflict of ruler with ruler, not in the unwise

"game" of War, as played by king with king, do we find the origin of

present commotions, "with fear of change perplexing monarchs." It is

to overturn the enforced rule of military power, to crush the tyranny

of armies, and to supplant unjust government,--whose only stay is

physical force, and not the consent of the governed,--that the people

have risen in mighty madness. So doing, they wage a battle where all

our sympathies must be with Freedom, while, in sorrow at the unwelcome

combat, we confess that victory is only less mournful than defeat.

Through all these bloody mists the eye of Faith discerns the ascending

sun, struggling to shoot its life-giving beams upon the outspread

earth, teeming with the grander products of a new civilization.

Everywhere salute us the signs of Progress; and the Promised Land

smiles at the new epoch. His heart is cold, his eye is dull, who does

not perceive the change. Vainly has he read the history of the Past,

vainly does he feel the irrepressible movement of the Present. Man has

waded through a Red Sea of blood, and for forty centuries wandered

through a wilderness of wretchedness and error, but he stands at last

on Pisgah: like the adventurous Spaniard, he has wearily climbed the

mountain heights, whence he may descry the vast, unbroken Pacific Sea;

like the hardy Portuguese, he is sure to double this fearful Cape

of Storms, destined ever afterwards to be the Cape of Good Hope. I

would not seem too confident. I know not, that, in any brief period,

nations, like kindred drops, will commingle into one,--that, like the

banyan-trees of the East, they will interlace and interlock, until

there are no longer separate trees, but one united wood,

"a pillared shade

High overarched, and echoing walks between";

but I rest assured, that, without renouncing any essential qualities

of individuality or independence, they may yet, even in our own day,

arrange themselves in harmony; as magnetized iron rings,--from which

Plato once borrowed an image,--under the influence of potent unseen

attraction, while preserving each its own peculiar form, cohere in a

united chain of independent circles. From the birth of this new order

will spring not only international repose, but domestic quiet also; and

Peace will become the permanent rule of civilization. The stone will be

rolled away from the sepulchre in which men have laid their Lord, and

we shall hear the new-risen voice, saying, in words of blessed truth,

"Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

* * * * *

Here I might fitly close. Though admonished that I have already

occupied more of your time than I could venture to claim, except for

the cause, I cannot forbear to consider, for a brief moment, yet one

other topic, which I have left thus far untouched, partly because

it is not directly connected with the main argument, and therefore

seemed inappropriate to any earlier stage, and partly because I wished

to impress it with my last words. I refer to that greatest, most

preposterous, and most irreligious of earthly vanities, the monstrous

reflection of War,--_Military Glory_.

Let me not disguise the truth. Too true it is that this vanity is still

cherished by mankind,--that it is still an object of ambition,--that

men follow War, and count its pursuit "honorable,"--that feats of brute

force are heralded "brilliant,"--and that a yet prevailing public

opinion animates unreflecting mortals to "seek the bubble _reputation_

even in the cannon's mouth." Too true it is that nations persevere

in offering praise and thanksgiving--such as no labors of Beneficence

can achieve--to the chief whose hands are red with the blood of his

fellow-men.

Whatever the usage of the world, whether during the long and dreary

Past or in the yet barbarous Present, it must be clear to all who

confront this question with candor, and do not turn away from the

blaze of truth, that any glory from bloody strife among God's children

must be fugitive, evanescent, unreal. It is the offspring of a deluded

public sentiment, and will disappear, as we learn to analyze its

elements and appreciate its character. Too long has mankind worshipped

what St. Augustine called the _splendid vices_, neglecting the simple

virtues,--too long cultivated the flaunting and noxious weeds, careless

of the golden corn,--too long been insensible to that commanding law

and sacred example which rebuke all the pretensions of military glory.

Look face to face at this "glory." Study it in the growing illumination

of history. Regarding War as an established Arbitrament, for the

adjudication of controversies among nations,--like the Petty Wars

of an earlier period between cities, principalities, and provinces,

or like the Trial by Battle between individuals,--the conclusion is

irresistible, that an enlightened civilization, when the world has

reached that Unity to which it tends, must condemn the partakers in its

duels, and their vaunted achievements, precisely as we now condemn the

partakers in those wretched contests which disfigure the commencement

of modern history. The prowess of the individual is forgotten in

disgust at an inglorious barbarism.

Observe this "glory" in the broad sunshine of Christian truth. In

all ages, even in Heathen lands, there has been a peculiar reverence

for the relation of Brotherhood. Feuds among brothers, from that

earliest "mutual-murdering" conflict beneath the walls of Thebes, have

been accounted ghastly and abhorred, never to be mentioned without a

shudder. This sentiment was revived in modern times, and men sought

to extend the circle of its influence. Warriors, like Du Guesclin,

rejoiced to hail each other as brothers. Chivalry delighted in

fraternities of arms sealed by vow and solemnity. According to curious

and savage custom, valiant knights were bled together, that their

blood, as it spurted forth, might intermingle, and thus constitute them

of _one blood_, which was drunk by each. So did the powerful emperor

of Constantinople confirm an alliance of friendship with a neighbor

king. The two monarchs drank of each other's blood; and then their

attendants, following the princely example, caught their own flowing

life in a wine-cup, and quaffed a mutual pledge, saying, "We are

brothers, of _one blood_."[364]

[364] Du Cange, Dissertations sur l'Histoire de Saint Louys par

Jean Sire de Joinville, Diss. XXI. Ibid.: Petitot, Mémoires

relatifs à l'Histoire de France, 1^{re} Série, Tom. III. p. 349.

Sainte-Palaye, Mémoires sur l'Ancienne Chevalerie, Part, III.

Tom. I. p. 225. The same attempt at Brotherhood appears in the

"Loka-Lenna, or Strife of Loc," quoted by Sir Walter Scott in his

Notes to the Metrical Romance of "Sir Tristrem," p. 350:--

"Father of Slaughter, Odin, say,

Remember'st not the former day,

When in the ruddy goblet stood,

For mutual drink, our blended blood?"

By such profane devices men sought to establish that relation, whose

beauty they perceived, though they failed to discern, that, by the

ordinance of God, without any human stratagem, it justly comprehended

all their fellow-men. In the midst of Judaism, which hated Gentiles,

Christianity proclaimed love to all mankind, and distinctly declared

that God had made of _one blood_ all the nations of men. As if to keep

this sublime truth ever present, the disciples were taught, in the

simple prayer of the Saviour, to address God as Father in heaven,--not

in phrase of exclusive worship, "_my_ Father," but in those other words

of peculiar Christian import, "_our_ Father,"--with the petition, not

merely to "forgive _me my_ trespasses," but with the diviner prayer,

to "forgive _us our_ trespasses": thus, in the solitude of the closet,

recognizing all alike as children of God, and embracing all alike in

the petition for mercy.

Confessing the Fatherhood of God, and the consequent Brotherhood of

Man, we find a divine standard of unquestionable accuracy. No brother

can win "glory" from the death of a brother. Cain won no "glory," when

he slew Abel; nor would Abel have won "glory," had he, in strictest

self-defence, succeeded in slaying the wicked Cain. The soul recoils

from praise or honor, as the meed of any such melancholy triumph. And

what is true of a conflict between _two_ brothers is equally true of a

conflict between _many_. How can an army win "glory" by dealing death

or defeat to an army of its brothers?

The ancient Romans, not knowing this comprehensive relation, and

recognizing only the exclusive fellowship of a common country,

accounted _civil war fratricidal_, whose opposing forces, even under

well-loved names of the Republic, were _impious_; and then, by unerring

logic, these masters in War constantly refused "honor," "thanksgiving,"

or "triumph," to the conquering chief whose sword had been employed

against _fellow-citizens_, though traitors and rebels. As the

Brotherhood of Man is practically recognized, it becomes impossible

to restrict the feeling within any exclusive circle of country, and

to set up an unchristian distinction of honor between _civil war_ and

_international war_. _As all men are brothers, so, by irresistible

consequence_, ALL WAR MUST BE FRATRICIDAL. And can "glory"

come from fratricide? None can hesitate in answer, unless fatally

imbued with the Heathen rage of nationality, that made the Venetians

declare themselves Venetians first and Christians afterwards.

Tell me not of homage yet offered to the military chieftain. Tell

me not of "glory" from War. Tell me not of "honor" or "fame" on its

murderous fields. All is vanity. It is a blood-red phantom. They who

strive after it, Ixion-like, embrace a cloud. Though seeming to fill

the heavens, cloaking the stars, it must, like the vapors of earth,

pass away. Milton likens the contests of the Heptarchy to "the wars of

kites or crows flocking and fighting in the air."[365] But God, and the

exalted judgment of the Future, must regard all our bloody feuds in the

same likeness,--finding Napoleon and Alexander, so far as engaged in

War, only monster crows and kites. Thus must it be, as mankind ascend

from the thrall of brutish passion. Nobler aims, by nobler means, will

fill the soul. There will be a new standard of excellence; and honor,

divorced from blood, will become the inseparable attendant of good

works alone. Far better, then, even in the judgment of this world, to

have been a doorkeeper in the house of Peace than the proudest dweller

in the tents of War.

[365] History of England, Book IV.: Prose Works (ed. Symmons),

Vol. IV. p. 158.

There is a pious legend of the early Church, that the Saviour left

his image miraculously impressed upon a napkin which had touched his

countenance. The napkin was lost, and men attempted to supply the

divine lineaments from the Heathen models of Jupiter and Apollo. But

the true image of Christ is not lost. Clearer than in the venerated

napkin, better than in color or marble of choicest art, it appears in

each virtuous deed, in every act of self-sacrifice, in all magnanimous

toil, in any recognition of Human Brotherhood. It will be supremely

manifest, in unimagined loveliness and serenity, when the Commonwealth

of Nations, confessing the True Grandeur of Peace, renounces the

War System, and dedicates to Beneficence the comprehensive energies

so fatally absorbed in its support. Then, at last, will it be seen,

_there can be no Peace that is not honorable, and no War that is not

dishonorable_.

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes.

The punctuation and spelling are as in the original publication with

the exception of some minor errors and the following:

Line 1308 inhabiants is now inhabitants.

Line 5931 pen is now peu.

Line 11490 candidades is now candidates.

Line 14496 bibiographical is now bibliographical.

Line 15668 fufilled is now fulfilled.

Pages 154 and 324 were numbered blank pages.

The oe ligature has been expanded.