That it may please Thee to give to all nations unity, peace and concord.

THE LITANY.

What angels shall descend to reconcile

The Christian States, and end their guilty toil.-WALLER.

BOSTON:

AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY, 21 CORNHILL.

1854.

1

"I look upon the way of treaties, as a retiring from fighting like beasts, to arguing like men, whose strength should be more in their understandings than in their limbs." -CHARLES I. Eikon Basilike.

"We daily make great improvements in natural - there is one I wish to see in moral-philosophy; the discovery of a plan that would induce and oblige nations to settle their disputes without first cutting one another's throats. When will human reason be sufficiently improved to see the advantage of this."-FRANKLIN.

"La meme politique qui lie, pour leur bonheur, toutes les familles d'une nation les unes avec les autres, doit lier entre elles toutes les nations, qui sont des familles du genre humain. Tous les hommes se communiquent, même sans s'en douter, leurs maux et leurs biens, d'un bout de la terre à l'autre."-Bernardine de St. PIERRE.

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"Only the toughest, harshest barbarism of past ages War-remains yet to be vanquished by our innate anti-barbarism. There is a growing insight of its unlawfulness."-JEAN PAUL.

"War is on its last legs; and a universal peace is as sure as is the prevalence of civilization over barbarism, of liberal governments over feudal forms. The question for us is only, How soon?"-Emerson.

MAY 13 1927

1824

THE WAR SYSTEM

OF

THE COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN,

We are now assembled in what may be called the Holy Week of our community; not occupied by the pomps of a complex ceremonial, swelling in tides of music, beneath time-honored arches; but set apart, according to the severe simplicity of early custom, to the Anniversary meetings of the various associations of charity and piety, from whose good works our country derives such true honor. Each association is distinct. Within the folds of each are gathered its own peculiar members devoted to its own peculiar objects; and yet all are harmonious together; for all are inspired by one sentiment, the welfare of the united Human Family. Each has its own distinct orbit, a pathway of light, while all together constitute a system which moves in a still grander orbit.

ours.

Of all these associations, there cannot be one so comprehensive as The prisoner in his cell, the slave in his chains, the sailor on his ocean wanderings, the Pagan on his distant continent or island, and the ignorant here at home, will all be commended to you by eloquent voices. I nead not tell you to listen to these voices, and to answer to their appeal. But, while mindful of all these interests, justly claiming your care, it is my special and most grateful duty to-night, to commend to you that other cause the great cause of Peace which, in its Christian embrace, enfolds the prisoner, the slave, the sailor, the ignorant, all mankind; which, to each of these

charities, is the source of strength and light, I may say of life itself, as the sun in the heavens.

Peace is the grand Christian charity, the fountain and parent of all other charities. Let Peace be removed, and all other charities sicken and die. Let Peace exert her gladsome sway, and all other charities quicken into celestial life. Peace is a distinctive promise and possession of Christianity. So much is this the case, that, where Peace is not, Christianity cannot be. There is nothing elevated which is not exalted by Peace. There is nothing valuable which does not contribute to Peace. Of wisdom herself it has been said, that all her ways are pleasantness, and all her paths are Peace. Peace has ever been the longing and aspiration of the noblest souls whether for themselves or for their country. In the bitterness of exile, away from the Florence which he has immortalized by his Divine Poem, pacing the cloisters of a convent, in response to the inquiry of the monk, "What do you seek?" Dante said, in words distilled from his heart, Peace, peace. In the memorable English struggles, while King and Parliament were rending the land, a gallant supporter of the monarchy, the chivalrous Falkland, touched by the intolerable woes of war, cried in words which consecrate his memory more than any feat of arms, Peace, peace, peace. Not in aspiration only, but in benediction is this word uttered. As the apostle went forth on his errand, as the son left his father's roof, the choicest blessing was Peace be with you. As the Saviour was born, angels from Heaven, amid quiring melodies, let fall that supreme benediction, never before vouchsafed to the children of the Human Family, Peace on earth and good will toward men.

To maintain this charity, to promote these aspirations, to welcome these benedictions, is the object of our society. To fill men in private life with all those sentiments, which make for Peace; to animate men in public life to the recognition of those paramount principles, which are the safeguards of Peace; above all, to teach the True Grandeur of Peace, and to unfold the folly and wickedness of the INSTITUTION of War and of the whole WAR SYSTEM, now recognized and established by the COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS, as the mode of determining international controversies ;such is the object of our Society.

There are persons, who sometimes allow themselves to speak of associations like ours, if not with disapprobation, at least with levity and distrust. A writer, so humane and genial as Robert Southey, has left on record a gibe at the "Society for the Abolition of War," saying, that “it had not obtained sufficient notice even to be in disrepute." It is not uncommon to hear our aims characterized as visionary, impracticable, Utopian. It is sometimes hastily said that they are contrary to the nature of man; that they require for their success a complete reconstruction of his character; and that they necessarily assume in him qualities, capacities and virtues, which do not belong to his existing nature. This mistaken idea was once strongly expressed by the remark, that "an Anti-War Society seemed as little practicable as an anti-thunder-and-lightning society."

It cannot be doubted that these objections, striking at the heart of our cause, have exerted great influence over the public mind. They proceed often from persons of unquestioned sincerity and goodness, who would rejoice to see the truth as we see it. But plausible as they may appear to those who have not properly meditated this subject, I cannot but regard them -I believe, that all who will candidly listen to me to-night will hereafter regard them as prejudices, without foundation in reason or religion, which must yield to a plain and careful examination of the precise objects of our society, and of the movement which it represents.

Let me not content myself, in response to these critics, by the easy answer, that, if our aims are visionary, impracticable, Utopian, then the unfulfilled promises of the prophecies are vain; then the Lord's Prayer, in which we ask that God's kingdom shall come on earth, is a mockery; then Christianity is a Utopia. Let me not content myself by reminding you, that all the great reforms, by which mankind have been advanced, have encountered similar objections; that the abolition of the punishment of death for theft was first suggested in the Utopia of Sir Thomas More; that the efforts to abolish the crime of the slave trade were opposed almost in our day, as impracticable and visionary; in short, that all the endeavors for human improvement, for knowledge, for freedom, for virtue, that all the great causes which dignify human history, — which save it from being a mere protracted War Bulletin, a common sewer, a Cloaca Maxima, flooded with perpetual uncleanness have been pronounced Utopian, while, in spite of distrust, of predjudice, of en