Each nation endeavors to assert its claims by force of arms, and all its energy is used to inflict injury and to crush the foe. Finally, when the struggle is over, and one nation is subdued and prostrate, the victor dictates terms of peace, which the follon nation must accept. The pages of history record no more foul blots than the accounts of injustice received by fellow states from the lands of their conquerors yet, such are the conditions and results of war, and nations climb into eminence and power over the prostrate forms of those countries whose ruins have compassed. The law of war is might, the decisions of war are found in the chance of battle, and justice, which war professes to seek, is far removed from its path. Reason the divine element in war, in which only we differ from beasts, is dethroned and unheeded.
Military heroism is also inconsistent with the better impulse of man's nature.
To the American heart memory presents no more cherished name than that of Abraham Lincoln 4 . Thus does the human heart ever reverence and respect the highest and best in the race, which it shrinks from deeds of violence. It is not necessary to depict the scenes of carnage, worse than the combats of wild animals, which poets call the glorious field of battle. Neither is it necessary to speak of the desolations of countries ravaged by hostile armies. No, let the false mask of honor be drawn aside.