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DELIVERED BEFORE THE
AT ITS
BY
HON. GERRITT SMITH.
BOSTON:
AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY,
21 Cornhill.
1858.
[Page Blank]
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
AT ITS
BY
HON. GERRITT SMITH.
BOSTON:
AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY,
21 Cornhill.
1858.
[Page Blank]
ADDRESS.
MR. PRESIDENT,
AND GENTLEMEN OF THE AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY
A speech of rare beauty and power, such as few but a Huntington or Sumner or Jay can make, has been the usual entertainment on this yearly-recurring occasion. Herein was one of the grounds of my reluctance to appear before you. For as mine has been a life of business instead of books, of labor instead of literature, I have but little command of rhetoric, and but little of the classical knowledge that serves to illustrate and enrich a discourse. Hence I cannot prove myself a fit successor of the orators who have graced your platform. The most I can hope for is to add something to the great amount of useful argument against war which has been called out at your anniversaries. This, however, is, I confess, a great deal to hope for. Such an addition, though ever so small, would save my speech from being a failure. Nay, it would make it a success, and this, too, however unadorned or unattractive its language.
I am not here to argue that war is an evil. If human life is precious, then must its greatest destroyer be an evil. If without the virtues human life is no blessing, then must its greatest destroyer be an evil. If to relax all the moral obligations, and absolutely to cancel many of them, if to throw wide open all the
4 Peace better than War.
flood-gates of vice, and to install the highest crimes in the place of the highest merits - if to do all this is an evil, then must war be the pre-eminent evil in these respects, since it does all this in an unequalled degree.
Again, if the wealth of the world is the hard earnings of the poor, and if it is all needed for the good of men and the glory of God, then is war a great evil, inasmuch as it is the great devourer of wealth as well as of life. As war, more than all other causes put together, diverts labor from the soil and the workshop, from the building of towns and roads and bridges, and from the building of ships for trade and travel, and from the multiplying and perfecting of the useful arts, so does it surpass all other causes put together in hindering the creation and accumulation of wealth.
In regard to the fine arts, also, a peace civilization has done immeasurably more than has a war civilization. To all who are in quest of the best conceptions of the beautiful and of the highest ideals of the sublime, peace opens a far wider and far more successful field than does war.
In a word, what a garden would not the whole habitable earth have been, had not war withheld the men and means and disposition to till and embellish it! Not only would the fields and cities which are now beautiful, have been made more so, but where as yet is only wilderness, or scattered and cheerless hovels, would have been countless abodes of comfort and opulence and elegance! Not less than the culture of the soil would have been the culture of the understanding and the heart. Nor less than the beautifying of the homes of men would have been the beautifying of their spirits. The intellectual and moral and spiritual world would have kept pace with the material; and the power of peace to benefit and bless the world, would have attested itself no less in the better affections and intellect than in better farms and dwellings; no less in the higher style of the whole man than in that of the fabrics which clothe him; no less in his own improvements than in that of his material comforts ; no less in himself than in his circumstances.
The yearly interest of the war-debt of Europe, added to her yearly expense in preparing for war, makes the well nigh inconceivably great sum of thousands of millions of dollars. All this has had to be ground out of her toiling masses year after year.
Peace better than War. 5
How infinitely superior to what she now is in the total of her mental and moral wealth, in the richness of her vine and grass and grain-covered acres, in the convenience of her private and the splendor of her public edifices, and in all the comforts and innocent luxuries, would not Europe now be, had those thousands of millions been expended every year upon the welfare, the elevation and refinement of those toiling masses? Oh when will those oppressed laborers have the discernment and the bravery to refuse to be put to such ignoble and ruinous uses? When will they come to learn that the chief instruments of their oppression are these very armies and navies which their muscles are so cruelly taxed to maintain? When will their eyes be open to the glaring fact that never until war shall cease, will the prostrate nations be free, and the crushed and despised masses rise into the dignity and development and enjoyment of manhood?
When, too, will they be persuaded that they are under no moral obligation to pay war-debts, especially if they were incurred by a former generation? The repudiation of any national debt is to most minds quickly suggestive of dishonor and meanness. But that in most instances it would be a high duty to God and man, I have no doubt. An ignorant and imbecile and miserable world will this be until it shall have outgrown the delusion that one generation has the right to create debts for another to pay. The will of the Great Father is that every generation shall enter upon and run the race of life free from the dead weights which a former one might have been tempted to hang upon it.
I said that I am not here to argue that war is an evil. What is obvious to all, need not be argued. I am here to offer some reasons for my belief that war can be avoided always and everywhere, and that no nation, known to refuse to engage in it, need fear it. She need not fear it at the hands of a heathen nation, nor at the hands of either a truly Christian nation or nominally Christian nation.
If by reason of its great ignorance or sinfulness, or both, a heathen nation were disposed to wage war upon an unresisting one, she would not fail to be deterred by the intervention, armed on unarmed, of the whole world; for the whole world would feel the appeal coming up from such a spectacle.
No less widely-extended and effectual intervention would be aroused, were it possible for a truly Christian nation to be guilty of such meanness and wickedness. This, however, would not be pos-
6 Peace better than War.
sible; for such a nation, being composed of Christians, would necessarily act upon the principles of Jesus Christ. Not acting upon them would prove that her subjects were not Christians. I do not forget how prevalent is the idea that a nation may be made up of Christians, and its action nevertheless be unchristian. But Christians know that the principles of Jesus Christ are as obligatory and influential upon their nation, or, in other words, upon themselves collectively, as upon themselves individually.
In passing, I would glance at the theory that the nation, rather than the individuals who compose it, is reponsible [sic] for what it does. But as those individuals are the nation, so when it is guilty of unrightousness, it is guilty of it. This theory that a nation is something else than the individuals who compose it, morally responsible and punishable, is not only purely fanciful but exceedingly pernicious. A nation thus substituted for its subjects is a pure fiction. It would, I admit, be comparatively harmless to attribute conscience and responsibility to this nonentity, were it not by so doing the subjects of the nation come to feel relieved of all responsibility in national affairs, and excused from having any conscience in regard to them. It is because they thus feel relieved and excused, that such vast multitudes can be at ease in regard to the greatest crimes of their nation, and can obey even without compunction its most unrighteous decrees and enactments. It is because of the delusion that what they do at the bidding of the nation, she and not they are responsible for, that no national command is too wicked for them to obey. The sin of the nation, though ever so cordially espoused and effectively sustained by themselves, they see not to be their own sin. In doing the wicked work which it enjoins, they see not that they are doing their own wicked work. Hence it is that they can fall in with the nefarious Mexican war, and even with the satanic Fugitive Slave statute, and yet call themselves Christians.
But I did not need to say all this in order to prove that a nation is identical in spirit and character with those who com pose it. It manifestly is ;and if theirs is a Christian spirit, so must its be. Their code must be its code; and the principles by which they govern their conduct and shape their character, must be its principles. The same meekness, gentleness, patience and long-suffering which characterize them, must characterize it. Do they bear instead of resenting an insult? So will it. Do they prefer losing their debts to killing their debtors? So will it. In
Peace better than War. 7
truly Christian nation will not, cannot go to war against an unresisting nation, not to say against any nation.
I have now argued that war is not to be apprehended by an unresisting nation, from either a heathen one, or a truly Christian one. But the people of this country are much more interested to know whether it is to be apprehended from a nominally Christian one, since it is mainly with nations of this description that their own has to do.
My first reason for saying that there need be no such apprehension is, that in this case, as in former cases, a declaration of war would be promptly and effectually met by the armed or unarmed opposition of other nations. They would hasten to protect their harmless and confiding sister from any people who should be so depraved, and base, and bloody as to make war upon her. For to the honor of human nature is it, that the mass of men, though unwilling to copy the forbearance of those who, rather than harm their assailants, would be harmed themselves, are nevertheless ever ready to rush to the rescue of the forbearing ones.
My other reason for saying that war upon an unresisting nation is not to be apprehended from a nominally Christian one is, that it is not in the heart of a people whose passions are softened, and manners refined, and magnanimity cultivated, and whole character modified by even no purer and stronger religious influences than obtain in Christendom, to go to war against an unresisting people.
I do not forget that a philosopher had said that war is the natural state of man. In reply to him it has been said that it is nevertheless not his Christian state. But the reply is unsatisfactory, inasmuch as it implies that his Christian is not his natural state. The sole office, however, of Christianity is to recall men from their mad desertions of their own nature and to keep them natural. Hence, to call war the natural state of man is all one with calling it his Christian state; and hence to believe that it is either, is in effect to believe that the cause of peace, ay, the whole cause of man, is hopeless. Deeply depraved men may be in favor of war. But whether their deep depravity is mainly their own guilty work, or, like a consumptive constitution, is mainly their. unhappy inheritance, it is a wrong against human nature, for which that nature is never to be held responsible.
8 Peace better than War.
But we shall be told that in all ages the nations have been addicted to war; and we shall be referred especially to ancient Rome for proof that war is the natural state of man. Would even Rome, however, have made war upon a people too conscientious and too merciful to defend themselves? And if she would, does it follow that a nation dwelling in the light of Christendom would? Look at only one difference between them. The religion, theoretic, however imperfectly practiced, of such a nation is against war; but the religion of Rome, in purpose as well as practice, was wholly for it. And bear in mind that the religion of a nation is her mightiest educator. Rome believed that nations had each their peculiar guardian deities, that one set was jealous of another, and that the different sets took part against each other in the battles between their respective favorites. How then could Rome be friendly to other nations? By the irresistible force of her education she must hate them. Her religion made them strangers. The religion of Christendom, to the extent it is practiced, makes all men brothers. Her plurality of deities - of antagonistic deities - is enough to explain why in Rome there was no conscience against even the cruelest type of slavery. On the other hand, the doctrines of the common fatherhood of God and the common brotherhood of man, grow directly out of the Christian religion; and therefore is Slavery passing rapidly away from Christendom; and therefore will it pass away from even our own guiltiest country as soon as a little more extended play is given to the religion which we profess, but so imperfectly practice. In a word, the whole tendency of paganism was to make the Romans unnatural, and therefore warlike, while the whole tendency of Christianity is to make her disciples natural, and therefore peaceable. A civilization, though but semi-Christian, is bloodless compared with one that is pagan. Estrangement characterizes the latter-fraternity the former.
But we did not need to contrast them with the ancient Romans in order to assure ourselves that the people of Christendom will not make war upon the unresisting. The neighbors of each of us are parts of this people, and we know them too well to believe that they would engage in such a war. The fact that we go among them daily, unarmed and without fear, proves that we regard the mass of them as ready to protect rather than to harm their fellow men. Where there is one to seek life, there are a hundred, yes, five hundred, to snield [sic] it. Admit we may, that here
Peace better than War. 9
and there is one depraved enough to be guilty of murder - of the murder even of the harmless. But to argue from this that a whole nation would embark in the slaughter of an unresisting sister nation, is to be guilty of the folly of taking the rare and exceptional case for the general rule. Could the people of France, though knowing that the people of America would not defend themselves, be nevertheless wrought up to the wicked infatuation of falling upon them? They could not. But the Government of France, it will be said, could declare war against us. No, not in such circumstances. If, however, it could, and actually should, it nevertheless would not fail of having its own sternly remonstrating people to contend with and conquer ere it could reach America
The truth is, that it is only at the expense of defaming and libeling mankind that we can reason ourselves into the conclusion that nations are ready to butcher unresisting nations. To reach this conclusion we are obliged to assume as truth the flagrant falsehood, that the mass of men are malignant and murderous.
The nation which I have been arguing does not need to fear war, is not the one that is too feeble to defend herself, and that shrinks from war only because incompetent to carry it on; but it is the one that refuses to engage in it. I add that such a refusal must be open and unambiguous. Fully and unquivocally [sic] must she express her confidence that war will not be made upon her. To this end she must disband her armies, and dismantle her forts and vessels of war. Thus will she give ample proof of her sincerity, and such ample proof of her trust in the power of her professed principles to protect her, as shall lead other nations to study and respect the principles which have accomplished in her effects so great and so novel. If men are slow to be moved by an abstract moral truth, they are nevertheless quick to be attracted and impressed by striking and beautiful illustrations of it. Then is it that we give power to such a truth, when we suffer it to live in our life, and become a part of ourselves. Then is it that we clothe with might both ourselves and our cause. Little would Penn and his companions have accomplished either for the cause of Peace or for themselves, had they gone out armed to meet the Indians. It was the novel spectacle of a band of unarmed men that astonished the Indians, and subdued there, and shamed them into the throwing down of their own weapons. Little success, too, would await a nation in all her pratings for Peace, and in all
10 Peace better than War.
her published resolutions not to be involved in war, if nevertheless she should still continue, by building ships and forts, or otherwise, to prepare for war. Such an advocate of Peace, such an opponent of war, would be as ineffectual as would be a temperance lecturer who should persist in carrying a bottle in his pocket for the occasional gratification of his yet unconquered appetite.
It needs no more to show that no nation is disposed, or if disposed, would be permitted, to make war upon an unresisting nation. We know, says the objector, that this will be so in the millennium. We know, is our answer, that it is so now. Nothing stands more in the way of the cause of Peace than this fallacy that it is only under the reign of millennial knowledge and good ness that war can cease. War is a crime that is as stupid and untempting as it is great; and there is already knowledge enough and goodness enough among men to put an end to it. All that is lacking is to assume that there is enough. All that is lacking is to assume that war is avoidable, and it will be avoided. - Just here let me say, that the chief point which I aimed to establish in my speech, and which I trust I have established, is that the friends of Peace are not to feel that they must wait for the diffusion of more wisdom and virtue among men before war can be brought to an end. It can be brought to an end, even as men now are, and without waiting for them to become any wiser or better. Let but one nation be found that will dare to recognize and act upon the possibility of war's ceasing now, and it will cease now. Such a beginning would be the beginning of the end-of a certain and speedy end. But this waiting for the millennium before war can cease, is the sure way to kill the cause of Peace, and perpetuate the cause of war. Moreover, the millennium cannot be until war has ceased. It is wisdom to hasten the millennium by abolishing war; but there is no greater folly than to wait for the millennium to abolish it. Quite common is it to look forward to the mellennium [sic] as the producing cause of those greatest changes which are yet to bless the world. But it is simply an effect; and among the numerous causes by which it will be reached, none will be found more efficient than the abolition of war.
By the way, how much are the people wronged by this distrust of them on the part of the leaders in our great and good causes, and how much too are those causes thereby held back? These
Peace better than liar. 11
leaders doubt and temporize, and fear to take the sense of the people on anything better than halfway measures. The people are ready to vote down Slavery. Ready are they to vote on the naked question of Abolition. But their leaders dare not submit to the ballot-box anything more decisive or comprehensive than the petty and cowardly and ever and anon compromised or retracted issues of the Republican party. Yes, the people would rejoice in the opportunity of voting on the proposition to abolish Slavery throughout the land. But their leaders resist them with the nonsense that Slavery is in the Constitution. As if Slavery, or even the less crime of murder, can be enshrined in sacred law! As if any paper can afford any protection to any
piracy, least of all to the superlative piracy! The people are ready to vote down land monopoly. But their leaders cannot believe they are. The people are ready to vote down the dram shop. All ready are they to welcome the proposition that there is no more right of property in intoxicating liquors when offered for sale as a drink, than there is in a rattlesnake which is running through the streets. But at a proposition so bold, though withal so reasonable, these leaders would be the very first to take fright.
In passing, let me gratefully acknowledge the good service which your Chief Justice Shaw has recently done at this point. His opinion is all the more cheering because its scope is so much wider than at first sight it appears to be. For if intoxicating liquors, when offered for sale as a drink, are a nuisance in one State, so are they in another. If a nuisance where the Legislature declares them such, equally are they where it does not. For whether a thing is, or is not a nuisance, is determined judicially, and not legislatively. Nevertheless we are to welcome every legislative declaration that such liquors in such circumstances are a nuisance, because the declaration is an influential endorsement of what is so true in itself, and so susceptible of judicial proof. Again let me thank your Chief Justice for his virtual decision that intoxicating liquors offered for sale as a drink, may with entire impunity be destroyed anywhere and by anybody. For judicial decisions to this end I have labored and longed these many years. Thus have I referred to several evils which, but for the characteristic distrust and timidity of their leaders, the people would terminate, and by the same cause are they hindered from terminating war also.
12 Peace better than War.
Before this digression, I had been explaining by what means a nation can save herself from war. It will, however, be said, that although she may put herself in such an attitude of disarmment [sic] and of trust in God and man, as shall effectually forbid any other nation from making war upon her, there nevertheless will remain within her borders those rare individuals whose depravity I have admitted-those few beings here and there whose demonism distinguishes them so widely from the kindly masses of the human brotherhood. This is true; and these hostes humani generis, combining to kill whenever and wherever, at home and abroad, the temptation meets them, and without any respect for the nationality of their victims, will pirate upon property and life. What, then, in the light of these facts, shall a nation do? She has disarmed herself to avoid war. Must she now arm herself to encounter piracies, and to quell and prevent domestic disturbances? At first sight, the American Peace Society is under no obligation to answer this question, since it is only with war, technical war, that it has to do. Nevertheless it must answer the question, and answer it affirmatively. For the nations will never consent to give up their armies until a force shall be provided to take their place, and perform their office in respect to those local outbreaks and multiform demonstrations of violence which, though falling below the magnitude of war, they have nevertheless relied on the machinery of war to overcome. But to hope that war will cease while its machinery is kept up, even though for purposes altogether justifiable and laudable-to hope, in other words, that the means for carrying on war may be kept at hand without also keeping alive its spirit, and tempting irresistibly to its gratification, is indeed among the vainest of all vain hopes. I repeat, then, that, the American Peace Society must take the ground that, although no nation needs an army to protect itself from war, every one needs an armed police to protect the persons and property of her subjects, both on sea and land, and to uphold civil government and the social fabric. I said a little while ago, that war could be ended by assuming that it would be. I did not, however, mean that it could unless a rightly composed and efficient police were provided to take the place of an army.
That there are occasions when the presence of an armed police is justifiable, nay indispensable, should not be doubted. For instance, there are men so wicked as to seize a fugitive slave for
Peace better than War. 13
the purpose of re-plunging him into the hell from which he has escaped. Now, in such a case, where by the way wickedness reaches its culminating point, there is need of an armed force to rescue the victim and punish the kidnappers. Moreover, if government has become too corrupt to summon such a force, then the brave and the just must extemporize a government for this purpose. The Jerrys and the Burnses must be delivered, if not at the command of the regular, then at the command of an irregular government. Delivered, too, they must be at whatever cost of life; for in the long run there will be a saving of life by the deliverance. Again, Border Ruffians make forays into Kansas, and government needs an armed force to drive them back. Here, too, a government must be extemporized in case the existing one fails of its duty, and is even base enough to shelter and join the villains whom it should expel. I add that the irregular but righteous government which such an emergency calls into being is worthy to be sustained by good men the earth over - by their prayers, their contributions of food, clothing, money, and; if need be, of "Sharp's rifles" also.
The most important question in connection with this armed police is what kind of persons should compose it? Preliminary to answering it, is the remark that men are to be made better alone by the exertion of moral influence. Hence brute force is never to be called for save in aid of it. Now, if it can possibly be conceived that a war may be so conducted as to give out a healthful influence, and that it has been entered upon with this meritorious purpose, nevertheless how vain to entertain such an opinion, or expect such an influence, if its regiments are filled up with men of the description and character of those who compose armies. As a general thing, soldiers are ignorant, vicious, base. In the phrase so generally applied to them, 'they are fit food for powder.' They are the wicked men who, in the judgment of both Napoleon and Wellington, are eminently suited to make soldiers. They are the "machines" that, upon the authority of our own immortal Hamilton, compose the most effective army. They are adapted to the ignominious discipline and horrible uses to which soldiers are subjected. In a word, their character corresponds with the character of their employment. The warriors are fitted to the war, bad men to a bad profession, evil-doers to their evil deeds. How manifest is it that such men, in whatever ways employed, can be doing nothing to reform and
14 Peace better than War.
bless the world - nothing but to deprave and curse it. Perhaps one of the worst effects of their serving in war is that their vile and infamous character brings reproach against all use of arms against our fellow-men, and leads multitudes of the wise and good to regard with abhorrence the taking of human life in any circumstances. But the principle on which it is sometimes taken, deserves to be honored and not disparaged. The tendency of the sacrifice is in some circumstances to exalt human -nature. Moreover, because of this tendency, crimes will become fewer, and will be reduced in degree as well as in number. Quite unlike this is the effect of taking life in war. The cheap men who fight its battles cheapen human nature, sink the estimate of human life, thereby invite aggression upon it, and encourage crimes of every degree against all the rights of manhood.
Lest it may be thought that my ascription of this bad character to soldiers is in conflict with my doctrine, that the demoniacal members of the human family are comparatively few, I would not only say that it is war which makes soldiers so bad, but I would also disclaim the imputation to any large share of them of murderous or in any wise malignant dispositions. I am free to admit that amiable and beautiful traits of character are to be found in many men connected with the army and navy. Free too I am to admit that a few of them are the subjects of strong religious sentiments. Such were Colonel Gardiner, Captain Vicars, and General Havelock. But that even Havelock, "whose praise is in all the churches," was a Christian, I am compelled to doubt. I will not doubt that he deeply loved and devoutly worshipped his own ideal of Jesus Christ, that his orthodoxy was valiant for "the doctrine," that he was full of zeal for his Baptist Church, and that he abounded in prayers for all men. But in that enlightened and better day when the true religion shall be seen to be, not a sentiment to weep and joy over, nor a doctrine to quarrel for, but a principle to be governed by in all our relations, and a life to be lived out everywhere and always; not the fervors which are kindled by fancies of God, but that acknowledgment of Him which is made practical, and is proved by justice to man; then the Havelock type of piety, which is so bewitching in an age of war-religion, will be reckoned of little worth. Havelock was an unjust man, as is every one who identifies himself with war, and holds himself to do the devilism it bids. This unreserved submission to human authority is of itself
Peace better than War. 15
sufficient to prove that the warrior cannot be a just man, and that war and Christianity are incompatible with each other. Havelock was amongst the foremost murderers of the Affghans -the poor Affghans against whom the British waged a war as surpassingly cruel as it it was utterly causeless. His own pen describes its revolting horrors.
Havelock was self-deceived. His religion was a superstition; for it was the current misrepresentation of Christianity. When he says that in a certain battle he "felt that the Lord Jesus Christ was at his (my) side," he was misled by a fancy scarcely less wild and wicked than slave-holding piety; and, instead of sharing in his delusion, we are deeply to pity and as deeply to loathe it. That Havelock was more an ambitious soldier than a follower of Christ, is told out of his own heart when he says in a letter,"One of the prayers, oft repeated throughout my life since my school days, has been answered, and I have lived to command in a successful action."
Now we are prepared to answer the question, the important question, what kind of men are fit to be enrolled in the proposed armed police - this police for a City, this police for a State, this police for a Nation? These men must be taken, not like the mass of soldiers from the low and despised, but from the worthy and respectable classes. Their character must be elevated and pure, that so it may serve to dignify and ennoble their employment, and exert such a commanding reformatory influence as shall leave but few occasions for their use of deadly weapons. Such a police would, it is true, be still a brute force; but it would be a moral force also. It would, it is true, be still a power to take life; but it would also be a power to save it by saving from the crimes which call for the taking of it.
There is not a more important nor a more responsible, nor in fact a more honorable employment, than is theirs who have arms put into their hands with which to defend persons and property, and to maintain peace and good government. If any man need to be free from the filthiness of tobacco, the madness of rum, and the bestiality of licentiousness, it is these defenders. None more than they need to be persons of culture and refinement. None more than they need be gentlemen, aye, Christian gentlemen. Let the nations of the earth each have its police, and let it be composed of persons such as I have described, instead of persons who are too like the lawless and wicked ones they are ap-
16 Peace better than War.
pointed to look after; and the mighty moral influence flowing from it would make piracy on the sea, bloody assault and dangerous disturbance on the land, comparatively rare. And here let me say that such a police would be called to no evil work, or that, if it possibly were, it would not obey the call. Even the Havelocks obey such a call; for the-war system requires the obedience, and would perish without it.
In the presence of a police, thus combining the moral with the physical, and making each of these elements of power all the greater by the combination, guilt would tremble as it never before had trembled, penitence and reformation among criminals would become common, and seductions from the paths of innocence to a life of crime comparatively uncommon. We send a lawless, drunken and profane soldiery to Kansas to maintain the supremacy of the laws. Against the Mormons, we send men far more licentious and unprincipled than the Mormons themselves. How much better would it have been to send those who by the virtues in their hearts, more than by the arms in their hands, would compel the respect, not to say the submission also of their foes!
The world is yet to make trial of the invincible might of armed bands that are also virtuous bands. Cromwell's armies were an experiment in this direction, full of encouragement to a more thorough one. Mere brute force but excites the anger, and frequently also the contempt and derision of those against whom it is employed. But let it be wielded by men of high moral character, and it will be more likely to reach the reason than to provoke the rage of the enemy; instead of being despised, it will always command respect; and often, as has already been intimated, it will be submitted to, when, but for their character, it would be resisted. How comparatively feeble and unfeared must be those base armed men, to whom grog is dealt out, as swill is to swine, and who bear, or rather do not feel, the degradation of submitting their backs to the lash!
The court-room, and man on trial for a capital offence! How solemn the judges, jurors, counsel, witnesses, spectators! And still greater the solemnity when the man is executed! But no such solemn scenes as these would there be if, instead of choosing men of intelligence, integrity and respectablity [sic] to dispose of the culprit, his fate had been put into the hands of such wicked and worthless creatures as make up the mass of an
Peace better than War. 17
army. Who does not see how dishonored would be the majesty of the laws, and how wasted their moral influence, were the execution of the decree of the court in this case to be intrusted to drunken or otherwise debased persons? But, in point of fact, unspeakably greater is such dishonor, and unspeakably sadder is such waste, when persons of this description are intrusted with the high duty of quelling some fearful disturbance on land, or driving some pirate-ship from the sea. As in effect I have already said, the taking of human life, when necessary to take it, is to be classed not with the most degraded, but with the most honored callings. It is a work fit for the hand, not of the ignorant, and vicious, and base, but alone for the hands of the intelligent, and virtuous, and esteemed. The day will surely come when the breaking up of a nest of pirates will be regarded as a no less solemn work than that in the court-room and at the gallows, to which I have adverted; and when as intelligent, upright and respectable men will be required to do the other. Progress is making in these things. Time was, and not long ago, when a vile person was thought fit, and most fit, to be the executioner of his brother. An infamous character was then thought to be the appropriate one for the hangman. But a happy change has taken place in this respect. The solemn duty is now committed to the hands of a high executive officer, and is stamped with all his private and official respectability.
Often spoken of is the intelligent and gentlemanly bearing of the policemen of London, where, by the way, person and property are made safer than in probably any other part of the world. But if uncommon men are required for the police of a city, so and most emphatically are they required for the police of a nation. The bands of men charged with the protection of the lives and possessions of a nation should be pre-eminently characterized with virtue, highmindedness and polite deportment. How effectual the protection which such would afford, and at how little expense of life to either friend or foe!
What should be the wages of such defenders of their fellowmen? Surely not the small pay of the soldier; enough, considering his character and responsible and perilous services are entitled to. Happy for our nation, in an economical as well as in every other point of view, if our standing army could be displaced by a police half as numerous, provided this police were such an one as
2
18 Peace better than War.
I have described. Happy, even though the wages of the privates in such police were not less, than fifty dollars a month; for the police I commend would be an institution for preserving the peace of the world. Armies put it to continual hazard.
Should our military and naval schools be abolished? So far from it, they should be more numerously attended. But, as in the proposed change from an army to a police, these schools would no longer be an appendage to the war-system, and would no longer train their pupils for war, they would need to be greatly modified. So should they be modified as to meet the new demand upon them - the new demand to educate men for their places in an armed police, which should exert an influence as moral as that of an army and navy is immoral, and, as preservative of peace and property and life as an army and navy are destructive of them.
I will say no more of the proposed police. I have already said too much of it to please those who do not see with me that such a police in prospect will do more than aught else, to reconcile the nations to the giving up of armies, and that its actual operations will do more than aught else to generate antiwar influences, and to increase the blessings and the love of Peace.
I must not, however, leave this subject of a police without distinctly confessing that my position - that, indeed, any position - in behalf of whatever armed force is repugnant to the doctrine of non-resistance. `What if it is?' you are prepared to exclaim.`The American Peace Society is neither a. Non-Resistance nor an Anti-Non-Resistance Society; it is simply an Anti-War Society.' I grant it; but although it is only an Anti-War Society, that is no reason why it should not keep itself awake to the fact that non-resistance makes for war. What, non-resistance make for war!' Even so, paradoxical, nay, ludicrous, as may be the idea.'But how is this possible?' First, because it withholds from co-operating with our and other Peace Societies, many of the best of earth. Secondly, because its tendency is to relieve many of their objections to war.
That the doctrine of non-resistance, instead of helping, greatly hinders the efforts to suppress war, is the necessary effect of its making human life absolutely inviolable in all circums-
Peace better than War.
ces. It places on the same level the taking of life in the unnecessary and wicked strife of war, and the taking of it in the necessary and righteous work of breaking up a nest of pirates. But nine-tenths of those who oppose all war, still believe that there are instances in which the taking of life is justifiable. If, therefore, they can be persuaded by the non-resistants that it is no worse to kill on the battle-fields of war than in these instances, or, to say the least, that life is equally inviolable in the one case, and in the other then is there great danger that they will yield their objections to war, and be reconciled to the taking of life in war also.
I am slow to speak against non-resistance; for in the first place I love the pure-minded men and women who have embraced the doctrine; and in the second place I have often been deeply impressed by the ingenious and strong arguments made in its favor. Nevertheless I am compelled to think the doctrine false, and not only false, but pernicious.
But it is said that Jesus Christ was a non-resistant. I admit that he practiced non-resistance during his ministry; I admit, that he discountenanced resistance when offered for his protection; but it does not follow that in all circumstances he would himself, or would have his followers, refuse to resist. Indeed, it may be strongly argued that he resolved resistance into a question of expediency, instead of bringing it under the invariable interdict of absolute principle. Matthew, xxvi: 53, 54, is often quoted to prove his disapprobation of resistance. It rather proves the contrary, since it is in the circumstances of the case that he finds reason for the disapprobation. But does he ever rest on circumstances his condemnation of theft, adultery, murder? No; nor his condemnation of anything else which is absolutely and invariably wrong. The advocates for non-resistance,
are wont to speak of it as if it were the principle. But resistance is the principle. It belongs to our nature. It is as instinctive as our appetites; and no more than they, is it to be extirpated. Our reason is to determine how far they are to be gratified; and to our reason is it also left to decide when and, how far we are to resist. But Jesus bids us, when smitten on one cheek, to offer the other. Yes, and he also bids us give to. every man who asks of us, and take no thought for the morrow - not even for our food or clothing. Now, who believes that in these injunctions to give indiscriminately,, and to be improvident
20 Peace better than War.
to the last degree, the Saviour is to be taken literally? No one. Nor is he in the injunction to offer the other cheek for another blow. All he means in it, is to enjoin patience under wrongs. In this as well as in the former cases, he leaves every man to qualify, as circumstances shall call for, and under his own responsibility, directions which he delivered, not in the language of philosophical precision, but of oriental hyperbole.
The inviolability of human life! Much is said in favor of it, and not a little very beautifully and strongly said; but after all the doctrine seems not to be reasonable. I readily admit that the life of our brother is not to be taken, unless there be the utmost necessity for it. Even he who is convicted of murder should be led to prison rather than to the gallows, if thereby society shall be equally safe from him, and others shall be no less deterred from committing the crime. But that he who has murdered has forfeited his life, and placed it at the absolute disposal of the brotherhood, I cannot doubt. One of the principal arguments against taking life for life is that the spectacle goes to dishonor and degrade human nature. But is it not more true, as implied by some of my former words, that human nature is honored and elevated when for its sake-for the safety of the living -so great a sacrifice is made? Another of these arguments against the death penalty is that it sends men into eternity unprepared. But often is it that they who are murdered are thus unprepared. Hence, on this score there is a balance of argument on the side of the death penalty, provided that be the most effective measure for deterring from murder. For not only was time to prepare to die needful to many a murdered man as well as it is to his murderer, but infinitely more entitled to it was the murdered than is the murderer. I have not spoken here in behalf of vengeance, but simply to magnify the crime of murder, and to enforce the duty of preventing it by whatever penalty is most effectual.
To say the least, is there not a very disproportionate concern for the welfare of the murderer? His fellow-men, into whose hands his crime has put him, have their own welfare to see to; and this they must do most thoroughly, be it at whatever expense it may to him who has been guilty of invading it. The rights of the innocent must be maintained, cost what it will to the guilty. The slave must be delivered at whatever harm to the slaveholder. Men must be held back from enslaving their
Peace better than War. 21
fellow men by whatever terrors it is necessary to hold over them. So, too, the common thief must be visited with a punishment adequate to restrain his further violations of the sacredness of property. And so, too, must life ;o for life, if in that wise murder can be most effectually prevented. I close under this head with the remark, that the conscientious and faithful maintenance of rights is at once the highest duty of this life, and the best preparation for the neat. It is just herein that the current religion fails so signally. IT DOES NOT STAND FOR RIGHTS. It leaves the landless plundered of theirs. It leaves the rumseller to multiply his victims. It leaves the slave in his chains. At all these, as well as at other vital and test points, it is found wanting.
I pass on to the remaining branch of my discourse. As I have already said, the chief point which I am seeking to establish on this occasion is that, even as men now are, and without waiting for them to become wiser or better, it is safe to assume that they can be brought to fall in with the policy of no more war, and to welcome the inauguration of universal Peace. Let it not, however, be supposed that I would have nothing done to increase the opposition of the people to war. Such opposition will surely and rapidly diminish, if nothing is done to increase it. I would have the people not merely willing that war shall cease, but so enlightened that they cannot be dragged into it; nay, so thoroughly persuaded of its madness and abominableness, that they shall frown witheringly upon every initiatory step to it on the part of the ambitious and designing.
What, then, shall be done to spread wider and sink deeper the opposition to war, and to hasten the glad day when nations shall no longer rush to the slaughter of each other? Nothing is more important to this end than to inspire a juster sense of human dignity. When the earth over man shall be recognized as made but little lower than the angels, and even in the image of his Maker, then the earth over there will be no more war. A declaration of war against Jehovah himself will then seem but little less insane than such a declaration against a nation. But so long as the governments, and the churches, too, shall regard him as fit to be a slave, and to be bought and sold, and whipped and worked like the brute; so long as in tolerating the dram-shop they shall prove that they think him fit to be a maniac and a
22 Peace better than War.
monster; and so long as they can have so little respect for the most sacred rights of this exalted being as to let land monopoly rob him of his home-so long will there be war. For it is no truer that war begets low views of man, than that low views of men beget war. Quite a venial offense will it be held to be to harrass and plunder, and murder a nation so long as the mass of its citizens are looked upon as only a few removes above the brute. But the greatest of crimes will that venial offense be seen to be in the day when the high birth and sure immortality of man shall all through the world be ever-present and ever-felt truths.
Growing out of this juster sense of human dignity will be innumerable new and better views of human relations, and they will all make against war. Then will the rational religion of Jesus Christ come to take the place of shams and superstitions; the rational religion which confines not its sympathy to one's country-men and color, but extends its impartiality to men of
every clime and every complexion. Then "lands intersected by a narrow frith "will no longer" abhor each other." Then "mountains interposed " will no longer "make enemies of nations." Then it will be seen that whoever loves a man because he is an American, cherishes in his heart the partiality and prejudice which are the germs of war. Then it will be seen that whoever allows himself to be the subject of that vulgar compound of felfish [sic] affections called patriotism, is, however unconsciously, feeding the spirit of war. Then it will be seen that whoever has shriveled his soul by suffering it to fall under the influence of caste, has in this wise prepared himself to go to the ide of war. Then, too, it will be seen that whoever is in favor of building up the barriers of a taxed trade between the nations, is contributing in effect to make war between them less difficult. Tariffs promote wars not only by alienating nations from each other, but by furnishing governments with the means to carry them on. Do away with customs and excises, and governments would be left too poor for it. Reduce governments to a dependence on direct taxes for means to prosecute wars, and the people would soon refuse to bear a taxation so oppresive, or to permit the wars that called for it.
To increase the influences against war, commercial reciprocities should be multiplied, enlarged, perfected. The provisions of the good treaty under which our country enjoys a free exchange of
Peace better than War. 23
natural productions with the British North American Provinces, should be made to include merchandise and manufactures. The like provisions thus extended should come to exist between all the nations of the earth, binding them fast together, and blessing them in each other. Furious indeed would the spirit of war have then to become, in order to break through such mighty influences on the side of peace. Another way to increase these influences is to cheapen international postage. The adoption all the world over of our excellent Elibu Burritt's plan of "ocean penny postage," would make him all the world's precious benefactor
I have expressed my large reliance on a juster sense of human dignity to promote the abolition of war. What so mighty to inspire it as the gospel of Christ? And when, too, I said that one of the results of this better conception of our exalted nature would be the prevalence of the rational religion of Christ, I virtually said it would be one of the results of the faithful preaching of His gospel. Whoever then would do most to raise man above the temptations and the love of war, and to bring the nations not to "learn war any more," must preach this gospel. He must preach it not with his lips only, but with his life also; not the diluted, corrupted, spurious gospel, which gives shelter to rum and slavery and war, but that pure and genuine one of which temperance and freedom and peace are essential parts. It is "another gospel," and not that of Jesus Christ, which pleads or apologizes for war, or is in the least sympathy with it.
I referred a little while ago to the duty of recognizing the high being and relations of man. Reformers, many of whom are unlearned in the gospel of Christ, harp much upon the brother- hood. But it is this gospel alone which can give us the needful conceptions of its claims. It is this alone which can bring us into such identity with our fellow-men that we shall see in the brotherhood our own self-hood; not only in every man a brother, but in every brother another self. Then there will be no more war when to murder our brother will be to murder ourself. Moreover, in that stage of our celestial progress, no form of wrong will be meditated against another any sooner than against ourself. Then not only all war but also all sin will die out of the world, because then will all selfishness be extirpated.
There are many delusions to be dispelled ere war will have lost all its hold on the admiration of men, and be universally viewed
24 Peace better than year.
in its true character. I will glance at a few of them, and then relieve your patience, which, I fear, has been greatly taxed, not only in respect to time but topics also. In the wide scope of my illustrations and incidental remarks, I have touched upon temperance, freedom, and other subjects, and perhaps not always in a manner agreeable to all my hearers. Nevertheless I must think that the cause of peace would suffer no damage from being even frequently coupled with other and dear causes. Nay, might it not be warmed and vitalized by the contact? Might not the bringing it out of a conservative and cold isolation into sympathy with the other reforms, gain for it something of the popularity and prosperity which it lacks? True, it might lose somewhat of its dignity by such sympathy, and be more vulgarized by such communion than its respectability could afford; but, on the whole, would it not gain more than it would lose? There is no good reason why our people should not be as widely and deeply moved by the question of peace as by that of freedom or temperance.
Let me say here that I am not unmindful that the introduction of so many topics into a speech often seems to violate its unity, even when it does not. And let me add, if I can do so without offensive egotism, that I trust I have not, in my eagerness to strick [sic] at certain evils both in season and out season, forgotten that Peace is the subject of the present occasion, and been guilty of breaches upon that logical continuity which should characterize every speech.
But I must return from this digression to glance, as I promised, at a .few war delusions. The very common attribution of disinterested and even sublime motives to the warrior accounts in some degree for the bestowal of such high and abundant praises on war. But rare indeed is the soldier, titled or untitled, who is prompted in his horrible calling by any such motives. War makes its appeal to the passions. Its feathers, finery, music, in short, its whole study, is intended to this end. All its strength and all its success lie in such appeal. It is neither the effect nor the purpose of war to call out and cultivate the thoughtful, the pure, the noble in the soul of him who pursues it. On the contrary, it is sought - and, alas, but too successfully! - to drown the richest treasures of that soul in those deep floods of passion which, the frenzy of war is so able to produce.
Peace better than War. 25
Another of the delusions which favor war is, that nations are provoked to embark in it by deep and unendurable wrongs. Now, that a nation is very rarely impelled to war by a sense of great actual loss or injury, is a fact too obvious to be disputed. Her pride aroused by an insult to her flag, or irritated at some far weaker point of honor, is a much more common cause of her going to war.
Again, people kindle in their hearts the love and admiration of war by reading what poets, historians and biographers say in favor of it. But here also they are deluded. It is not war, but the glory of war, that these writers celebrate; and this glory is in fact no part of war. It is only the glittering and false covering which is thrown over the horrid reality. War itself is to be seen in blasphemy, drunkenness and pollution; in plunder and destruction; in ghastly wounds, and dying agonies, and broken hearts; in all those wide sweeps of death and vast desolations which war alone is capable of achieving.
Another and the last of these delusions to which I will refer, is that, although all other controversies ought confessedly to be submitted to peaceful arbitrament or patient adjudication, there, are nevertheless controversies between nations which never can be. Civilization has advanced so far as to give to the world, village, city, county, state, national courts; but it has not yet reached the point of blessing the world with an international court. The omission is barbarous, wicked, absurd. I close with saying that the learning, eloquence, humanity and religion of Europe and America could in no other wise be so usefully and gloriously employed as in combining all their forces to bring the nations into this great measure. Such a court once established - a court for the trial of international causes - and war would soon die out of Christendom; and then Christendom being at last, what she had never been before, in circumstances to convert heathendom to justice and mercy, and to Christ, war would soon die out of the whole world. Such would be the effect of this court for the adjustment of differences between the nations. Such would be its power to hasten the coming of that blessed day when all tribes and tongues shall, though after so long, and sad, and guilty a delay, joyfully echo back that sublimest, sweetest and most welcome of all the messages of Heaven: "GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST; PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TO MEN."
26 REPORT.
REPORT
Every reform is necessarily a slow and a bard process ;but there is scarce one so difficult as that which seeks to abolish War. It is all uphill work, a constant rowing by main strength up the stream of past ages; a ceaseless struggle against a practice wide as the world, nearly as old as human depravity itself, and everywhere upheld by the strongest influences acting in its favor. Passion and prejudice, authority and power. education, religion and government, history, poetry and philosophy, the ignorant multitude, and the enlightened few, are nearly all enlisted more or less in its support. We can scarce find another evil so strongly entrenched ; and well might it seem utterly hopeless of cure, were not the promise and power of God so fully pledged for its ultimate banishment from the earth forever.
In such a, reform; then, every inch of progress must be won by the hardest; and for its steady, unfaltering prosecution, its friends need a very unusual share of courage, faith and patience. In no other cause are these qualities more, if so much, needed. Scores will labor for Temperance, or go on a mission among the heathen, where you will find one spontaneous, devoted, persistent co-worker in the cause of Peace. The fact is very strange, but as true as it is strange. Depravity and immemorial usage are everywhere against Peace; and upon the church herself it has as yet only
a feeble, precarious hold. Her heart is not in it, and most oŁ her habits are alien to it. Her members, trained from childhood in war-habits, have never been converted to any really new modes of thought or feeling on this subject. Even they still float down the old current, the gulf stream of depravity for more than five thousand years. We have everywhere to beat continually against wind and wave. The whole earth, Christendom itself not excepted. is still rife with passions, prejudices, and modes of reasoning in favor of war. The church herself has hardly begun to open her eyes on this great theme. Not one of her members in ten, if one in a hundred, has examined it enough to learn or seriously suspect how wrong or deficient are his views on the subject.
Meanwhile the Cause of Peace has been obliged, especially for a few years past, to struggle against a host of adverse influences and events. There has been poured upon even the best portions of Christendom a kind of war vandalism. The war-spirit has for a time spread very like wild fire in the community. A species of ruffianism has ruled the hour; and before it almost everything has seemed to bow and give way. First came the two years of our own virtual fillibusterism in the form of our war against Mexico, next the war in the Crimea, and finally England's recent difficulties with Persia, China and India. During some forty years of general peace, we had come to regard the old war-demon as well nigh dead; but we now discover that he had been all this time only, basking in the sun, and find him at length waking in nearly, if not quite, all the ferocity of by-gone ages. There has been such a revival of the war-spirit as to make
Report. 27
some feel that little has been gained in the cause of Peace, that public opinion has in fact drifted back where it was before the wars of Napoleon, and that it is nearly impossible to produce such a change as shall prevent the recurrence of war in future.
We wonder not at this backward swing of the pendulum; but a little calm reflection must show such a conclusion to be quite at variance with a multitude of facts patent to every eye. Notwithstanding this temporary outburst of the war-spirit over nearly all Christendom, notwithstanding the suicidal plunge of Europe into the Crimean war, and in spite of what England has more recently done in the East, public opinion on the general question of - Peace is now far in advance of what it was before our cause began its labors in 1815. A vast deal has already been gained for the world's peace, a thousand times more than enough to compensate for what it has cost; and, had there been used means at all proportioned to its importance, we might, ere this, have secured with moral certainty the continuance of peace in Christendom for ages to come.
During the past year, our cause has met, on both sides of the Atlantic, some unusual. obstructions. In England our co-workers have been engaged in a constant, severe conflict with the war-spirit consequent on her troubles in India, as well as in Persia and China; and in our own country the financial revulsion has necessarily cut off no small part of our usual income, and the absorption of the public mind in the paramount, all pervading struggle between Freedom and Slavery, has forbidden the hope of bringing the general question of Peace with success before the Federal Government. Still has the cause held on its course with much better results than could have been expected, and such as ought to re-assure our hopes, and stimulate our zeal anew. In spite of all obstacles, we have continued during the year nearly our usual scale of operations.
OUR PUBLICATIONS - have consisted for the year in our periodical and our stereotyped tracts. Of the former we have issued the usual number most of the year, but of the latter not more than 20,000 copies of such as were most needed in our work; while of our volumes we have put to press no new edition, but have been using up such copies as we already had on hand. In this department we have been obliged to economize more than usual; and yet in comparison with what was published in the early years of our cause, our issues and circulation would be deemed quite large.
OUR AGENCIES - have for the most part been continued as heretofore. Our Secretary has performed in moderation all the labors of former years, except lecturing; and, besides the services at our depository, we have had during the year three Lecturing Agents under commission, two of whom have been all the time at work in the West. We have, also, appointed eight Local Agents to perform in their immediate vicinity such services as they can consistently with their duties as pastors. From some of these we have received encouraging reports, and hope we may in time extend such agencies with much success throughout the land. If the ambassadors of the Prince of Peace were all imbued fully with his spirit on this subject, we might by their spontaneous labors supersede ere long almost entirely the necessity of employ ing any other lecturers in this cause. May the God of Peace speed that day!
ACTION ON GOVERNMENT - We must of course reach rulers, sooner or later, because our object can be gained only through their agency; but for
28 Report.
the last few years they have been so engrossed in the all-absorbing issues between Freedom and Slavery, that we could not get their attention to the quiet claims of Peace, and have consequently been obliged to wait for calmer and more favorable times. We devoutly hope that such times may come soon; but till they do, it will be vain to expect any effective action from our Government in behalf of our object.
THE SOCIETY'S FINANCES - have been during the year better than our fears, though not at all adequate to our wishes or our wants. As this cause is usually served last of all, and with what can be conveniently spared from other objects of benevolence, it must of course have suffered from the financial pressure more than almost any other; but, having years ago adopted the maxim 'always to pay as we go,' we have attempted only such operations as we could sustain, and thus come to the close of this year, as for the ten years preceding, with a small balance on the right side of our ledger. Our receipts have been $2855 [?]6, and our expenditures $2,762 38, leaving in our treasury $93 18.
PERMANENT FUND. - It will be remembered that this fund was first mentioned in our last report, as aiming to secure a steady and perpetual presentation of this great Christian Reform before the public. Its design is by no means to supersede or check the usual contributions to our Society, but merely to provide a more reliable basis for the suport [sic] of these central, elementary instrumentalities which will be permanently requisite in our cause. It will always need a central Office, a Periodical devoted to its advocacy, and a man as its principal actuary, whether called Secretary or General Agent, who shall devote to it his whole time and energies. Something like this will be a perpetual necessity in our cause; and to secure a permanent fund for this object, a friend made, in January, 1857, a pledge of $5000 on the condition that $30,000 should be raised in five years from that date, and no subscription was to be binding unless at least $20,000 should, within that time, be secured by subscription, or otherwise. The times have of late been so unpropitious, that we have not deemed it wise to press the subscription at present ; but we have kept it incidentally before our friends, and find additional proof of its being regarded by them with favor. We think there is a fair prospect that the object will be accomplished within the prescribed time of five years. Already have more than ten thousand dollars been subscribed, and we have in other ways between four and five thousand dollars more secured, making in all about fifteen of the thirty thousand dollars. We deem this a very proper and worthy object of bequests from our more intelligent friends; and we are happy to observe among such persons a marked and growing inclination to remember our cause in the final disposition of their property. How easy for some of our wealthy friends to bequeath all we need for this and other subjects of permanent importance. In no other way could they more surely embalm their memory in the world's permanent progress and welfare.
DECEASED BENEFACTORS. - Death has been busy the past year among our prominent friends. Hon. STEPHEN C. PHILLIPS, of Salem, for some years a Vice-President of our Society, and well known for his interest and zeal in behalf of all the great reforms of the age, fell a victim of one of those terrible casualities [sic] of travel which have so lamentably signalized the past year. HENRY DWIGHT, of Geneva, N. Y., long a Vice-President of our Society, a man highly esteemed and deeply mourned by all who knew his worth; THOMAS W. WARD, of Boston, a Life-Director of our Society, one of our most distinguished and successful merchants ;and BAALIS BULLARD, of Uxbridge, Mass., whose intelligent, self-moved zeal for our cause preceded the rise of all modern peace societies, have likewise gone, since our last anniversary, to their reward. The latter three were all ripe in years, having past the age of seventy, and each in his will left a
Report. 29
kind remembrance of our cause. How much may come to us from these legacies, we know not, as none of them has yet been paid, and two of them are residuary legacies; but we are glad to record the hopeful fact that men of such character and standing are at length beginning in their last moments to remember a cause so important in itself, and so dear to Him who will at last judge the quick and the dead. May the God of Peace incline multitudes more to go and do likewise!
BEQUESTS TO THE CAUSE OF PEACE.
It is an omen of good to our cause, that its friends are remembering its claims more and more in the final disposition of their property. We have recorded several such instances of late, and know that others are purposed. We feel quite sure that many more would do the same, if they were to examine the matter with care; for there are very strong and peculiar reasons why its plighted friends should remember it in this way.
It relies, more than almost any other cause, upon a very few. It can never depend for support upon the multitude. There is only here and there one that fully appreciates its importance; and to these select few it must look for its present prosecution, and its ultimate triumph. It can succeed in no other way. Scarce one in a hundred of the contributors to the Bible, the Missionary and other popular enterprises, will do much for this ; and hence its few intelligent, plighted friends must hold themselves responsible to God and the world for the means of permanently sustaining its operations. How shall they do this? It may not be for us to say precisely how; but they surely ought to see that it is done in some way. The providence of God clearly devolves this responsibility on them; and they ought to meet it, even if it should withdraw their energies and contributions from every other cause. Such is our deliberate, settled conviction; and the sooner its leading friends come to the same conclusion, the better. The case seems to us clear. Somebody must care for Peace; and, if others will not, they must, until the followers of the Prince of Peace shall as a body begin to heed aright its long neglected claims.
It is obvious, also, that the cause needs a very large increase of funds. They are indispensable for the support of the various instrumentalitities [sic] that alone can insure its success. It cannot sustain an office and periodical, scatter publications all over the land, and keep the subject before rulers, ecclesiastical bodies, and our seminaries of learning, without a consider able amount of money. There ought to be steadily employed an average of not less than one efficient lecturer in every, State of our confederacy. We seek to do away a deep-rooted, most inveterate evil, the fruit of depravity and a wrong education in all ages and climes. Our whole race have been trained to wrong habits on this subject; these habits must be thoroughly and permanently changed; and for the production of such a change, we must everywhere set at work the great main-springs of influence on the popular mind-the press and pulpit, the school and fireside.
It is clear, likewise, that such means must be permanently used. A reform like this cannot be done up at once, but must be the work of ages.
30 Anniversary of the American Peace Society.
An evil so deeply rooted in the worst passions of our nature, in the habits of all society, in the structure of every government on earth, cannot by any possibility be eradicated except by strenuous efforts long continued. We must recast society in a new, a Christian mould of thought and feeling in regard to it. There must be an incessant, ubiquitous labor on the subject, and centuries may be requisite for its full completion. Such efforts will be needed, in some form, even down to the end of time. The cause of Peace will be a perpetual necessity.
We know not what better use can be made of property than in promoting such a cause as this. Its success involves that of every other beneficent enterprise, and must in many ways contribute largely to the welfare of our whole race. It is a very sure and most economical mode of usefulness. Such it has already been, and such it ever will be. The general peace of Europe, from the downfall of Napoleon in 1815 to the Crimean War in 1854, a period of nearly forty years, was as fairly attributable to special efforts in this cause, as the spread of Christianity among the heathen has been to the missionary enterprise, or the progress of temperance to labors in
that cause. Can any arithmetic ever compute the sum total of good secured from so long a continuance of general peace? Yet how little did it all cost! The merest pittance in contrast with the glorious result; for in all this time there was expended in the cause of peace an average of
not more than six or eight thousand dollars a year. Did any cause ever do more, if as much, good at so little cost?
We think this view deserves far more attention than it has yet received. We would disparage no benevolent enterprise; but can we find a single one accomplishing so much with so little means? To establish an asylum for the insane, or a hospital for the sick, you give perhaps more than half as much as the cause of peace has cost in fort years, and then spend for its support every year many times more than is devoted to this cause; but the prevention of one war might avert more suffering than all the asylums and hospitals of an empire or a continent would relieve in a century. It is a noble charity to feed the hungry, to reclaim the vicious, or provide for
sufferers from a deadly pestilence, or a destructive fire ;but a fraction of the money thus spent, would be likely, in the cause of peace, to save millions from poverty, and hundreds of thousands from widowhood and orphanage, from disease and death.
Such is the economy of Peace. It is a species of wholesale usefulness, the cheapest, surest and most comprehensive of all charities. In no way will money be likely to do more good, if so much; and we entreat every friend of God or man to ponder this subject well before he makes a final
disposition of his property. A hundred will bequeath to other objects where one will to Peace; and amidst the general neglect of its claims, its friends, who more fully appreciate its importance, must devote to it a much larger share of their benefactions than it would otherwise have required at their hands.
ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY.
In accordance with public notice, the Society held its thirtieth anniversary in Boston, May 24th, in Park Street Church. At the business meeting, 3 P. M., Hon. AMASA WALKER, one of the Vice Presidents, was called to the chair.Messrs Angier and Leavitt were appointed a committee to nominate officers.
Anniversary of the American Peace Society.31
The Cor. Sec. on behalf of the Board of Directors, read the Annual Report for the Society, which was accepted and adopted. The Treasurer's Report was also laid before the Society and adopted.
On motion of Rev. L. H. Angier, it was unanimously
Resolved, That our thanks are due to Judge Jay for his important and effective services in past years to our cause; and, whether able or not to preside at our public meetings, we devoutly hope that the God of Peace may permit us still to retain his name at the head of our Society as its worthy and much beloved representative.
The following resolutions were also adopted, viz.:-
1. That the present state of the world opens opportunities unusually favorable, to the cause of Peace, which ought to be wisely and effectively used by its friend's.
2. That the occasional misunderstandings between governments, as now between us and England, and the consequent threats, made in one form or another, of appealing to the sword, show the constant peril to which the war-system exposes nations, and the urgent necessity of such efforts in the cause of Peace as shall effectually train both people and rulers to rely on peaceful measures alone for the settlement of all such disputes.
3. That there can be no real security for the continuance of peace among nations, except by permanently changing the wrong habits of reasoning that still prevail on the subject of war among the mass of every community in Christendom.
4. That the magnitude and difficulties of the Peace Reform require for its clear or successful prosecution a much larger amount of money and labor than have yet been expended upon it in this or any other country.
5. That our executive officers be requested to make during the current year special efforts for bringing the claims of this cause before Christian ministers of every denomination, and before the conductors of the Christian press, as depending for its success very much on their spontaneous, habitual. and active co-operation.
6. That we respectfully ask ministers and churches to secure for the cause of Peace a place on their list of objects to which stated contributions are to be made.
Adjourned to the public exercises at half-past seven o'clock, when in the absence of Hon. WILLIAM JAY, the President, the Hon. SAMUEL GREELE, one of the Vice Presidents, was called to the chair. Rev. F. D. HUNTINGTON, D. D., of Harvard University, offered prayer. The Corresponding Secretary then read a brief abstract of the Annual Report, after which Hon. GERRITT SMITH, of Peterboro, N. Y., before a very large audience, delivered the Annual Address.
On motion of Rev. F. W. HOLLAND, it was
Voted, That the thanks of this Society be given to Hon. Gerritt Smith for his able and eloquent address on this occasion, and a copy be requested for the press.
Resolved, That the Executive Committee be requested to take measures for as extensive a circulation of the address as practicable.
P. S. - We have already circulated in full 280,000 copies, besides some 20,000 or 30,000 abstracts of it, thus bringing it probably before more than a million readers.
On motion of Hon. AMASA WALKER, it was
Resolved, That the courage, firmness and signal ability with which the friends of Peace in England have maintained this cause amid the trying scenes and embarrassing circumstances of the Indian war, merit our highest admiration; and we tender our noble and faithful coadjutors of the London Peace Society our hearty thanks.
32 Officers.
ABSTRACT OF THE TREASURER'S REPORT.
AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY in account with JOHN FIELD, Treasurer.
RECEIPTS-
Balance from last account............................................$33.23
Acknowledged in Advocate Sep.,1857................................1.291.44
" " Jan.,1858................................ 621.65
" " March and April, 1858....................488.02
To be acknowledged.. ...............................................338.72
Interest on investment.................................................82.50
$2.855.56
PAYMENTS-
For postage, meetings, rent and other office expenses. ................$219.89
" paper, printing, binding and other expenses relating to publication.1.143.27
" agencies, and other travelling expenses............................1.349.22
" interest on loan..................................................50.00
Balance to next account... ...........................................93.18
Examined and found to be correct. $2.855.56
May 22d, 1858.
L.T. STODDARD, JULIUS A. PALMER, - Auditors.
OFFICERS.
HON. WILLIAM JAY, PRESIDENT.
VICE PRESIDENTS.
[Left column]
Hon. Theo. Frelinghuysen, LL.D. New Brunswick, N. J.
Hon. Chas. Sumner, Boston, Mass.
Rev. Chas. Lowell, D.D. ""
Samuel Greele, Esq., " "
John Tappan, Esq., ""
Rev. Baron Stow. D.D., ""
Jos. E. Worcester, LL.D., Cambridge, Mass.
Rev. C. E. Stowe, D.D., Andover, Mass.
Hon. Robert Rantoul, Beverly, Mass.
A. Walker, N. Brookfield, "
" S. Fessenden, LL.D., Portland Maine.
[Right column]
Rev. T. C. Upham, D.D., Brunswick, Me.
Hon. T. W. Williams, New London, Ct.
Rev. A. P. Peabody, D.D., Portsmouth N H.
Hon. Ryland Fletcher, Proctorsville, Vermont.
Rev. F. Wayland, D. D., LL. D., Providence, R. I.
Wm. B. Crosby, Esq., New York.
Hon. Gerritt Smith, Peterboro, N. Y.
Isaac Collins, Esq., Philadelphia, Penn.
Isaac H. Allen, M.D., LL.D., "
Rev. H. Malcolm, D. D., Lewisburg, New York.
DIRECTORS.
[Left column]
F.D. Huntington, D.D., Cambridge, Mass.
Rev. Charles Brooks, Medford, Mass.
" J.W. Parker, D.D. Newton, "
Prof. Alpheus Crosby, Salem, "
Benj. Greenleaf, Esq., Bradford, "
Rev. G. C. Beckwith, D.D., Boston, "
"William Jenks, D. D., " "
"R. P. Stebbins, D.D.;" "
W. C. Brown, Esq., Boston, "
S. K. Whipple, Esq., " "
[Right column]
Timothy Gilbert, Esq., Boston, Mass.
Hon. Julius A. Palmer, " "
H. H. Leavitt, Esq., " "
John Gove, Esq., " "
L. T. Stoddard, Esq., " "
Jacob Bancroft, Esq., " "
John Field, Esq., " "
Franklin Rand, Esq., " "
James Tolman, Esq., " "
Galen James, Esq., " "
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Samuel Greele, G.C. Beckwith, L.T. Stoddard,
R.P Stebbins, J.W. Parker, W.C. Brown,
Charles Brooks, John Field, Benj. Greenleaf
JOHN FIELD, Treasurer.
G. C. BECKWITH, Corresponding Secretary.
W. C. BROWN, Recording Secretary.
[back cover]
THE
The Organ of the American Peace society, published at 21 Cornhill, monthly, or a double number in two mouths, making a volume in two years, at $1.00, in advance. It is devoted to information and discussions respecting the Cause of Peace. Sent gratis to every member of the Society, and to any contributor of a single dollar or more; a ,year.
PRINCIPAL PUBLICATIONS BY THE SOCIETY
1. A Prize Essay on a Congress of Nations, 8vo., pp. 706. Few, if any for sale. ................................................$3.00
2. Ladd's Essay on a Congress of Nations, 8vo., pp. 196. A very valuable compend of the whole subject,............75
3. Book of Peace, 12mo., pp. 606. The Society's series of Tracts, bound. The richest thesaurus on the subject in the world...................1 00
4. Peace Manual, by George C. Beekwith.18mo., pp. 252. A very full epitome of the general subject........................25
5. Manual of Peace, by Prof. T. C. Upham.18mo., pp. 212. A gem of its kind,
........................................................25
Hancock on Peace. 18mo., pp. 103.......................20
6. The Right Way; a Premium Work on Peace, by Rev. Joseph A. Collier.16mo., pp. 303. Issued by the American Tract Society as one of its Evangelical Faintly Library. A very judicious, instructive, and interesting work ..........................................25
7. Review of the Mexican War, by Hon. Wm. Jay.12mo., pp. 333....50
8. War with Mexico Reviewed, by A. A. Livermore.12mo:, pp. 310....50
9. Inquiry Into the Accordancy of War with Christianity, by Jonathan Dymond; a masterly discussion.8 vo., pp. 158 ................25
10. The War-System of the Commonwealth of Nations, by Hon. Charles Sumner; with Judge Underwood's Report on Stipulated Arbitration. 8vo. 8o pp. A very full and able view of the subject in its practical bearings........................................................
11. Plea with Christians for the Cause of Peace.8vo., pp. 32.($2.50 per 100.) ....... ................................................5
12. Stipulated Arbitration as a Substitute forWar. 8vo. pp. 16...2
13. Duty of Ministers to the Cause of Peace.8 vo., pp. 12.1..........2
Various Addresses before the Society, such as two by Judge Jay; by S. E. Cones, Esq., Andrew P. Peabody, D. D., Walter Charming, M. D., William H. Allen, M. D., LL. D., F. D. Huntington, D. D. Rev. A. L. Stone, Rev. R. W. Clarke.
FORM OF BEQUEST. - I give and bequeath to the American Peace Society, incorporated by the Legislature of Massachusetts, in 1848; the sum of ______ dollars, to be paid in ____ months after my decease, for the purpose of said Society, and for which the receipt of its treasurer, for the time being, shall be a sufficient discharge.
N. B. - See that the will is drawn in the way, and attended by the number of witnesses required by the laws of your State, or your purpose may, be defeated, as has often been the case.
POSTAGE. - In Massachusetts, 3-4 a quarter, or 3 cents a year, elsewhere in the United States, double this. The Law allows no more.
Geo. C. Beckwith. Cor. Sec., H.V. Degen, AGENT
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