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1 A Congress of Nations, for the Peaceful Adjustment of All International Disputes 1 (1800s)

handle is hein.hoil/cnatpeain0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ADVOCATE OF PEACE, NO. X. A CONGRESS OF NATIONS, FOR THE PEACEFUL ADJUSTMENT OF ALL INTERNATIONAL DISPUTES. I. WAR NOT REmEDILESS. THE: evils of war, though admitted by all, are fully understood by none. Its waste of property; its havoc of human life; its desolation of whole empires; its baleful influence on agriculture, commerce and man- ufactures, on the arts and sciences, on liberty and learning, on morals and religion, on the happiness of individuals, and the prosperity of nations, on the chief interests of mankind for time and eternity;- all these well nigh bid defiance to calculation or conception. No created mind can tell the sum total of evils occasioned by war to our race for two worlds. It has ever been their worst foe ; and too truly did Voltaire aver, that ' all the vices of all ages and places put together, would never come up to the mischiefs and enormities of a single campaign.' Well may we wonder that mankind should have slumbered so long over such a scourge; but they have at last waked in some degree from the lethargy of five thousand years. The late wars of Europe, requiring barely for their support nearly $15,000,000,000, and destroying no less than 9,000,000 lives, convulsing a continent, and alarming the world, forced even despots and warriors to pause in their favorite work of blood, and roused philanthropists in both hemispheres to inquire in ear- nest if the sword must thus devour forever. This mighty reform is only just begun; but already have we reached results vastly important, and prospects still more cheering. For more than twenty years has the general peace of Christendom been pre- served; and during this period a very marked change has come over its. views and its policy. A new spirit pervades more or less its leading cabinets; negociation, or amicable reference, is actually taking the place of the sword as the arbiter of national disputes; and there is now a growing disposition to believe, that nations, like individuals, can, if they choose, live in constant amity. On this point there is no valid reason for doubt; and a little reflection must convince every one, that war, like every other wrong custom, may be abolished by the right use of appropriate means. Its continuance depends entirely on the will of men. It exists solely because they choose it; and, whenever that choice shall be changed, the practice must of necessity come to an end at once, and forever. It is a foul libel on mankind to suppose, that their war-sentiments cannot even by the gospel be changed into a permanent, universal preference of peace.. There is nothing in their passions or habits; nothing in the structure of society or government; notking in the nature, long continuance, and deep inveteracy of this custom ; nothing in all the influences which have fbg 1 REPRODUCTION BY PERMISSION OF THE BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY BUFFALO, NEW YORK

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