Our English word _war_ is of Saxon origin, (Sax. _waer_,) and from
whence has also been derived many of the corresponding terms in the
present European languages. Its primary sense implies the action of a
competent power in accomplishing something. But, like many other words,
its use has degenerated into various shades of meaning. The
corresponding Greek term, _palemos_, from _pallo_, or its cognate,
_ballo_, seems originally to have been illustrative of offensive and
coercive action, and hence implies all the agitative and repulsive
movement illustrated by our present word _battle_: whereas the Hebrew
term, _laham_, cognate with _Ham_, on whose descendants the curse of
slavery was pronounced by Noah, involves the idea of _destruction_, as a
thing _burned_, _consumed_, _devoured_, and _destroyed_; hence the
Hebrews would say, the sword devoured, that is, eats up, &c.; yet their
term _gerav_, or _kerab_, boldly implied offensive and opposing force;
hence, to advance upon, or, to approach unto, in which sense it was
often used, as well as to imply conflict and war. We wish to illustrate
the fact that, when the mind of a Hebrew was in exercise with the
complex idea which we express by the term _war_, the conception embraced
a larger portion of the simple elements which enter into the complex
ideas of destruction, annihilation, and death, than is now found
associated in the mind of the more highly cultivated descendants of the
Caucasian races. In the idea _war_, with him, the leading sentiment was
the extinction of those against whom the _war_ was waged. Their
_doctrine_, that God governed the world; that the Hebrews were his
chosen people; that no war was justifiable unless authorized by Jehovah;
that the object of war was to destroy from the earth those who were too
wicked to live, or to place in subjection and servitude, those who
manifested a less degree of stubbornness, but whose sins made them a
nauseant, a nuisance, in the world; that God always governed a war in
such a manner as rendered it a punishment for sins. Hence the law of
_Deut._ xx. 13, 14, before quoted. Hence the wars of the Israelites are
named as “the wars of the Lord,” _Numb._ xxi. 14. Hence, we find in
_Ex._ xvii. 16, “The Lord hath sworn that the Lord _will have_ war with
Amalek from generation to generation,” and in the preceding verse, that
“Moses built an altar and called it _Jehovah-nissi_.” The word _nissi_
means the flag, standard, or banner of an army, indicating the centre of
command, or the location and movement of the commander, and is sometimes
used in the sense of _example_, or model of action, and by figure is
also used to mean the commander or leader himself. And Joshua said unto
them, “Fear not nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus
shall the Lord do to all your enemies whom ye fight.” _Josh._ x. 25. “He
teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine
arms.” 2 _Sam._ xxii. 35. Also the same, _Ps._ xviii. 34. “With good
advice make war.” _Prov._ xxiv. 6. _Ps._ xviii. 37: “I have pursued mine
enemies and overtaken them; neither did I turn again until they were
consumed.” 38. “I have wounded them that they were not able to rise.
They are fallen under my feet.” 39. “For thou hast girded me with
strength unto the battle. Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up
against me.” 40. “Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies;
that I might destroy them that hate me.” 41. “They cried, but there was
none to save them: even unto the Lord, but he answered them not.” 42.
“Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them
out as the dirt in the streets.” 43. “Thou hast delivered me from the
strivings of the people: and thou hast made me the head of the heathen:
a people whom I have not known _shall serve me_,” (_abedini_, _shall be
slaves to me_.) 44. “As soon as they shall hear of me, they shall obey
me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.”
“O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head
in the day of battle.” cxiv. 7.
“Blessed be the Lord God of my strength, which teacheth my hands to war
_and_ my fingers to fight.” cxliv. 1.
So the prophets: “A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth, for
the Lord hath a controversy with the nations; he will plead with all
flesh: he will give them that are wicked to the sword.” _Jer._ xxv. 31.
“And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thy
arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
“Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,
and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous
birds of every sort, and unto the beasts of the field, to be devoured.
Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the
Lord God.” _Ezek._ xxxix. 3–5.
“At the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amos, saying, Go,
and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from
thy foot: and he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
“And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and
barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;
“So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the
Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their
buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.” _Isa._ xx. 2, 3, 4.
And again, “The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Son of man,
prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Howl ye, Wo worth the day!
“For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day: it
shall be the time of the heathen.
“And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in
Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away
her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.
“Ethiopia (_Cush_) and Libya (_Put_) and Lydia (_Ludim_) and all the
mingled (_ereb_, _mixed-blooded_) people, and _Chub_, (the Arabians read
_Nub_, Nubia,) and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall
with them by the sword.
“Thus saith the Lord: They also that behold Egypt (_Mitsraim_) shall
fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of
Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord God.
“And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries _that are_
desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities _that are_
wasted.
“And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have set a fire in
Egypt, (_Mitsraim_,) and when all her helpers shall be destroyed.
“In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships to make the
careless (_betahh_, _confident of one’s own security_, _thoughtless_,
_unconcerned_, _trusting in themselves_) Ethiopians afraid, and great
pain shall come upon them: as in the day of Egypt, (_Mitsraim_:) for lo
it cometh!
“Thus saith the Lord God, I will make the multitude of Egypt to cease by
the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
“He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be
brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their swords against
Egypt, and fill the land with the slain.
“And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the
wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the
hand of strangers. I the Lord have spoken it.
“Thus saith the Lord God: I will also destroy the idols, and I will
cause their images to cease out of Noph: and there shall be no more a
prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.
“And I will make Pathros (a Coptic word signifying _south land_, _&c._)
desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan, (both _Isoan_ and _Isaan_; _it_
means _a wanderer_, &c. and was the name of a city at the mouth of the
Nile,) and will execute judgments in _No_.
“And I will pour my fury on Sin, the strength of Egypt; and I will cut
off the multitude of No.
“And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall have great pain, and No shall
be rent asunder, and Noph shall have distresses daily.
“The young men of Aven and Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword: and these
cities shall go into captivity.
“At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there
the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength _shall cease in her_: a
cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity. Thus
will I execute judgments in Egypt, (_Mithraim_, the same as _Misraim,
the son of Ham_:) and they shall know that I am the Lord.” _Ezek._ xxx.
1–19.
And so _Zeph._ ii. 12: “Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my
sword.” We shall take occasion to notice this passage elsewhere. And
_Joel_ iii. 8: “And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the
hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans,
to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken it.” _Zephaniah_ iii. 8–10
may be said to develop the ultimate providence of God touching this
matter:
“Therefore, wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise
up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I
may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, _even_
all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire
of my jealousy.
“For then I will turn to the people a pure language, that they may all
call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.
“From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my suppliants, _even_ the daughter
of my _dispersed_ (_Putsi, the daughters of Put_; the word means
_dispersed_, because they were scattered and lost as to name) shall
bring mine offering.” They were evidently the most deteriorated of all
the descendants of Ham.
When a people or nation give evidence that they are insensible to all
rules of right, either divine or human, it necessarily follows that
their hand will be found against every man, and every man’s hand against
them. The subjugation of such a people, so regardless of all law, can
only end in their being put to death, or, in the more merciful provision
of the divine law, by reducing them to a state of absolute slavery.
The experience of mankind proves that such heathen, so reduced to a
state of bondage, have always given evidence that their moral and even
physical condition has been ameliorated by it, and in proportion to the
scrupulous particularity by which they to whom they were enslaved
successfully compelled and forced them to walk in the paths of
rectitude.
Ever since the world has been peopled by nations, none have ever
hesitated to make war a protection to themselves against those who thus
had become a nuisance in it. To such men, either individually or
collectively, reason, justice, law are without effect or influence:
nothing short of absolute compulsive force can avail them beneficially.
And, indeed, it is upon this principle that civilized communities do
essentially, in their prisons and by other mode of restraint, enslave,
for life or a term of years, those who have proved themselves too
reckless to be otherwise continued among them.
In the year 1437, the Christian right or duty of declaring, or rather of
making war against infidels, was proposed to the church for the pope’s
decision and counsel. Duarte, king of Portugal, was importuned by his
brother Ferdinand, to make war on the Moors with a view to the conquest
of Tangier. Duarte entertained scruples about his moral and Christian
right to do so; and therefore proposed the subject to the theologians
and to the pope. Eugenius IV., who then filled the papal chair, decided
that there were but two cases in which an offensive war could be
justifiably undertaken against unbelievers, &c.: 1st. “When they were in
possession of territory which had belonged to Christians, and which the
latter sought to recover. 2d. When, by piracy or war, or any other
means, they injured or insulted the true believers.” In all other cases,
proceeded his holiness, hostilities are unjust. The elements, earth,
air, fire, and water, were created for all; and to deprive any creature,
without just cause, of these necessary things, was a violation of
natural right. See _Lardner_, Hist. Portugal, vol. iii. p. 204. We
proceed to instances wherein the records show the church to have
declared offensive war.
In 1375, “the Florentines, entering into an alliance with the Visconti
of Milan, broke unexpectedly into the territory of the Church, made
themselves masters of several cities, demolished the strongholds, drove
everywhere out the officers of the pope, and setting up a standard, with
the word ‘Libertas’ in capital letters, encouraged the people to shake
off the yoke and resume their liberty: at their instigation, Bologna,
Perugia, and most of the chief cities in the pope’s dominions openly
revolted, and, joining the Florentines, either imprisoned, or
barbarously murdered those whom the pope had set over them. Gregory
(XI.) was no sooner informed of that general revolt, and the unheard of
barbarities committed by the Florentines, and those who had joined them,
than he wrote to the people and magistrates of Florence, exhorting them
to withdraw their troops forthwith out of the dominions of the Church,
to forbear all further hostilities, to satisfy those whom they had
injured, and revoke the many decrees they had issued absolutely
inconsistent with the ecclesiastical immunity as established by the
canons. As they paid no regard to the pope’s exhortations, he summoned
the magistrates to appear in person, and the people by their
representatives, at the tribunal of the apostolic see, by the last day
of March, 1376, to answer for their conduct. The Florentines, far from
complying with that summons, insulted the pope’s messengers in the
grossest manner, and, continuing their hostilities, laid waste the
greater part of the patrimony, destroying all before them with fire and
sword.
“Gregory, therefore, provoked beyond all measure, issued the most
terrible bull against them that had ever yet been issued by any pope.
For, by that bull, the magistrates were all excommunicated; the whole
people and every place and person under their jurisdiction were laid
under an interdict. All traffic, commerce, and intercourse with any of
that state, in any place whatever, were forbidden on pain of
excommunication. Their subjects were absolved from their allegiance; all
their rights, privileges, and immunities were declared forfeited; their
estates, real and personal, in what part soever of the world, were given
away, and declared to be the property of the first who should seize
them, _prima occupantis_; all were allowed, and even exhorted and
encouraged, to seize their persons, wherever found, as well as their
estates, and reduce them to slavery. Their magistrates were declared
intestable, and their sons and grandsons incapable of succeeding to
their paternal estates, or to any inheritance whatever; their
descendants, to the third generation, were excluded from all honours,
dignities, and preferments, both civil and ecclesiastic. All princes,
prelates, governors of cities, and magistrates were forbidden, on pain
of excommunication, to harbour any Florentine, or suffer any in the
places under their jurisdiction in any other state or condition than
that of a slave.” This bull is dated in the palace of Avignon, in some
copies the 30th of March, and in some the 20th of April, in the sixth
year of Gregory’s pontificate, that is, in 1376, (_apud Raynald. ad hunt
ann. num._ i. _et seq._, _et Bzovium, num._ xv.) Walsingham writes, that
upon the publication of this bull the Florentine traders who had settled
in England, delivered up all their effects to the king, and themselves
with them, for his slaves. One of the authors of Gregory’s life (_auctor
primæ vit. Gregor._) tells us, that in all other countries, especially
at Avignon, they abandoned their effects, and returned, being no where
else safe, to their own country. (See Bower, vol. vii. p. 23.)
Again, in 1508 was concluded the famous treaty or league of Cambray,
against the republic of Venice: that state had been long aspiring at the
government of all Italy. The contracting parties were the pope, the
emperor, the king of France, and the king of Spain; and it was agreed
that they should enter the state of Venice on all sides; that each of
them should recover what that republic had taken from them; that they
should therein assist one another: and that it should not be lawful for
any of the confederates to enter into an agreement with the republic but
by common consent. The duke of Ferrara, the marquis of Mantua, and
whoever else had any claims upon the Venetians, were to be admitted into
this treaty. The Venetians had some suspicion of what was contriving
against them at Cambray, but they had no certain knowledge of it, till
the pope informed them of the whole. For Julius II., (then pope,) no
less apprehensive of the emperor’s power in Italy than the French
king’s, acquainted the Venetian ambassador at Rome, before he signed the
treaty, with all the articles it contained, represented to him the
danger that his republic was threatened with, and offered not to confirm
the league, but to start difficulties and raise obstacles against it,
provided they only restored to him the cities of _Rimini_ and _Faenza_.
This demand appeared to be very reasonable to the pope, but it was
rejected by a great majority of the senate, when communicated to them by
their ambassador; and the pope thereupon confirmed the league by a bull,
dated at Rome, the 22d of March, 1508. The Venetians, hearing of the
mighty preparations that were carrying on all over Christendom against
them, began to repent their not having complied with the pope’s request
and by that means broken the confederacy. They therefore renewed their
negotiations with his holiness, and offered to restore to him the city
of _Faenza_. But Julius, instead of accepting their offer, published, by
way of monitory, a thundering bull against the republic, summoning them
to restore, in the term of twenty-four days, all the places they had
usurped, belonging to the apostolic see, as well as the profits they had
reaped from them since the time they first usurped them. If they obeyed
not this summons, within the limited time, not only the city of
_Venice_, but all places within their dominions, were, _ipso facto_, to
incur a general interdict; nay, all places that should receive or
harbour a Venetian. They were, besides, declared guilty of high treason,
worthy to be treated as enemies to the Christian name, and all were
empowered “to seize on their effects, wherever found, and to enslave
their persons.” (See _Guicand, et Onuphrius in vita Julii II., et
Raymund ad ann. 1509_, and _Bower_, vol. vii. p. 379.)
In 1538 was published the bull of excommunication against Henry VIII. It
had been drawn up in 1535, on the occasion of the execution of Cardinal
Fisher, bishop of Rochester; had been submitted to the judgment of the
cardinals, and approved by most of them in a full consistory. However,
the pope, flattering himself that an accommodation with England might
still be brought about, delayed the publication of it till then, when,
finding an agreement with the king quite desperate, he published it with
the usual solemnity, and caused it to be set up on the doors of all the
chief churches of Rome. By that bull the king was deprived of his
kingdom, his subjects were not only absolved from their oaths of
allegiance, but commanded to take arms against him and drive him from
the throne; the whole kingdom was laid under interdict; all treaties of
friendship or commerce with him and his subjects were declared null, his
kingdom was granted to any who should invade it, and all were allowed
“to seize the effects of such of his subjects as adhered to him, and
enslave their persons.” See _Burnet’s Hist. of the Reform._ 1. 3.
_Pallavicino_, 1. 4. _Saudeos de Schis._ b. i., and _Bower_, vol. vii.
p. 447.
We ask permission to introduce a case on the North American soil, of
somewhat later date. We allude to an act, or law, passed by the “United
English Colonies, at New Haven,” in the year 1646, and approved and
adopted by a general court or convention of the inhabitants of Windsor,
Hartford, and Wethersfield, in the year 1650. We copy from the “Code of
1650,” as published by Andrus, and with him retain the orthography of
that day:
“This courte having duly weighed the joint determination and agreement
of the commissioners of the United English Colonyes, at New Haven, of
anno 1646, in reference to the indians, and judging it to bee both
according to rules of prudence and righteousness, doe fully assent
thereunto, and order that it bee recorded amongst the acts of this
courte, and attended in future practice, as occasions present and
require; the said conclusion is as follows:
“The commissioners seriously considering the many willful wrongs and
hostile practices of the indians against the English, together with
their interteining, protecting, and rescuing of offenders, as late our
experience sheweth, which if suffered, the peace of the colonyes cannot
bee secured: It is therefore concluded, that in such case the
magistrates of any of the jurisdictions, may, at the charge of the
plaintiff, send some convenient strength, and according to the nature
and value of the offence and damage, seize and bring away any of that
plantation of indians that shall intertein, protect, or rescue the
offender, though hee should bee in another jurisdiction, when through
distance of place, commission or direction cannott be had, after notice
and due warning given them, as actors, or at least accessary to the
injurye and damage done to the English: onely women and children to be
sparingly seized, unless known to bee someway guilty: and because it
will bee chargeable keeping indians in prison, and if they should
escape, they are like to prove more insolent and dangerous after, it was
thought fitt, that uppon such seizure, the delinquent, or satisfaction
bee again demanded of the sagamore, or plantation of indians guilty or
accessary, as before; and if it bee denyed, that then the magistrate of
this jurisdiction, deliver up the indian seized by the partye or partyes
indammaged, either to serve or to bee shipped out and exchanged for
neagers, as the case will justly beare; and though the commissioners
foresee that said severe, though just proceeding may provoke the indians
to an unjust seizing of some of ours, yet they could not at present find
no better means to preserve the peace of the colonyes; all the
aforementioned outrages and insolensies tending to an open warr; onely
they thought fitt, that before any such seizure bee made in any
plantation of indians, the ensuing declaration bee published, and a
copye given to the particular sagamores.”
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