these the living acres of men, possessed by the one thought of playing brave to-day, are rolled on to battle. Thunder, fire, dust, blood, groans, what of these? — nobody thinks of these, for nobody dares to think till the day is over, and then the world rejoices to behold a new batch of heroes!

"And this is the Devil's play that we call war.”

And, finally, we have been startled by this wild crusade into a new conviction of the vast latent war-spirit of our country and of the world, and the necessity of more untiring and devoted labors, and more comprehensive plans to carry the peace enterprize to a triumphant conclusion. We believe in the true mission or destiny of our nation to illustrate the idea of Freedom and a Christian State. But if we disown the glorious career, God is not so poor that he has not other nations and races which he can employ for purposes equally grand and beneficent. We may hug the delusive phantom that we are a species of Israel among other people, but let us not forget that Israel did not escape the fiery furnace of punishment and retribution for all their transgressions and backslidings.

And, as we reflect upon the work to be done to guide this giant republic on a safe and peaceful career, we ask who is sufficient for these things? Oh, for parents of peace, who will make their well-ordered families so many living peace societies! Oh, for Christian teachers, who will early train the tender minds under their care to govern those passions whence wars and fightings come! Oh, for Christian historians, who will write the dark register of crime and cruelty with a melting heart, and a righteous, wholesome indignation, and warn while they instruct! Oh, for statesmen of peace, who will feel that they are amenable to God more than man, to Christ than to country, and that every war is a stab at the very existence of civil society, a reversal of civilization, a suicide of the republic! Oh, for Gospel ministers, who will proclaim the whole counsel of God on this subject,

and from the commanding station of the pulpit, with the meek wisdom of their master, win all men to "study the things that make for peace!”

CHAPTER XXIX.

SUBSTITUTES FOR WAR.

"In thirty-one days the natural results of this system of peace and fraternity have been more valuable to the cause of France and of liberty and of Poland herself, than ten battles with torrents of blood." LAMARTINE.

"For what can war but endless war still breed ?"

MILTON.

We have already argued at length on the beginning and ending of the war, as instructive and striking lessons of peace. In continuation and expansion of the same idea, in a little different direction, we would take up the means of preventing war by negotiation, arbitration, congress of nations, or some other method. Surely such an infernal system ought not to go on without the wisest counsels, and the most strenuous efforts of all Christians, patriots, and philanthropists to arrest it. "Shall the sword devour forever ?" We believe not. We have full faith, that there is latent abhorrence enough against war in Christendom to sheathe the sword, were it given utterance, and positive, practical application. There is an amount of sleeping indignation and opposition, so to say, in the minds of the Christian men and women in America, were it called forth, organized, and put into execution, to sweep the accursed institution among ourselves into eternal oblivion. But hitherto there have not

been sufficient decision and action on the subject. We have tampered and played and compromised with the evil. We have perhaps unconsciously and unintentionally, but actually, nursed the war-passion in the tender minds of our children and youth. Our great institutions of army, navy, militia, arsenals, naval and military schools, have done much to "educate the heart of the people for war." We have gloried in the past wars of our young republic, and promoted their heroes to the most brilliant posts of honor and emolument at home and abroad.

The subject of Peace and War, therefore, comes as surely under the law of cause and effect, as that of any other in the material or moral world. The causes and means of Peace, if properly and faithfully employed, would eventually result in peace, just as the causes and means of War have resulted in war. With a peace-education, a peace-literature, a true, and not a counterfeit "peace-establishment," a peace-administration of the general government, and shall we not say in view of some facts which have been stated in this essay, a peace-religion, the relations of the United States with every other government would be consolidated on a pacific basis, which nothing would be able to shake. And to the furtherance and ultimate carrying out of these peaceful influences on the part of society at large, two or three additional ideas should be incorporated into the permanent law of nations.

1. Mediation and Arbitration. These instruments of averting war, settling international questions, or putting an end to hostilities, have been often employed of late, and oftener as the relations of nations to one another have been seen more in a Christian light, and as falling, like the relations of individuals one to another, under all the solemn and binding sanctions of the law of God.

Thus, in the very matter of these difficulties between Mexico and Texas and the United States, we have no less

than three instances of the friendly offices of other governments, and in two of them the result was partially or wholly successful, and promoting a good understanding.

In adjusting the claims for Mexican spoliations, 1840— 1842, a Prussian umpire was employed to decide between the Mexican and American commissioners.

In 1845, through the intervention of Great Britain and France, Mexico consented to acknowledge the independence of Texas, "provided she would stipulate not to annex herself or become subject to any country whatever." That provision was not however fulfilled.

In 1846, Great Britain offered her mediation both to Mexico and the United States, to effect a treaty of peace, but by both powers it was either declined, or neglected.

But were there a proper spirit prevailing among the high officers of Christian governments, and were they sustained by the good sense and forbearance of the people, it would be held to be no more derogatory for two nations to accept the intervention of a third power to effect a peace, or to prevent war, or to submit their disputes to a friendly arbitration, than it is for individuals to do the same or similar things in their private transactions. Unfortunately however, the sensitivness of national honor is such, that it often refuses, after the duelist's example, to be satisfied with any thing short of human blood. Were the great mass of the population in any civilized country brought to see and understand the miseries, losses, and sins of war, they would sustain their rulers by the omnipotence of public opinion in any honest measures that would avert such an inundation of evils. How much more truly honorable in the sight of God and the nations would it have been, to submit our questions with Mexico to a board of impartial referees, or to accept the mediatorial offices of friendly powers to stay the rivers of blood! He who in private life is bent upon going to law with his neighbor, and rejects the proffers of conciliation,

is thought to be governed by sinister motives of revenge, apprehension of the badness of his cause, or of the results of an unbiassed examination. May not a like unfavorable construction be put upon the conduct of the nation that scorns pacific measures, and strides on to its work of blood, deaf to the entreaties, and amicable remonstrances of other powers?

The best method to insure arbitration in all cases of difficulty, is to insert in every treaty an article binding both parties to adopt that mode of adjusting boundaries, claims, and all questions. Mr. Roberts, first President of the Republic of Liberia, stated at the Peace Congress in Brussels, Sept. 1848, that "he had caused to be inserted in treaties, made with many of the African tribes, a clause, binding the parties to refer their difficulties to arbitration, and had thus succeeded in preventing war from breaking out between those savage tribes for ten years. If the measure were practicable among such populations, whose ruling passion was war, what might it not do for peace, if adopted by civilized and Christian nations ? '*

There are many reasons why nations should settle their disputes by legal forms, rather than by the uncertain chances of the battle-field. It is done by individuals and in corporations, and in our Union by the several States, and were it done by nations the change from barbarism to law would be completed. Then the chances of justice being fulfilled would be multiplied. The innocent would not be involved with the guilty in the horrid sufferings of war.

Vast sums of

money would be saved. The unspeakable disgrace and wickedness of nominally Christian nations engaged in cutting one another's throats on some punctilio of claim or ceremony, would be averted. It is to be hoped that every future treaty contracted by the United States and the European nations will contain a specific provision for arbitration, like the following one in the Treaty with Mexico.

*Advocate of Peace, vol. viii., p. 297.