Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1819-12-25

| IS lieadS OF rulers OF the different Sec
tons for the purpose of preserving or
! Ger and peace--yea, to learn that those
privileged characters who ought to act
the part of parents or guardians of their
several communities, are the main
springs who keep in motion the engines
of cruelty; and who SO frequently play a
game atwar making use (as late writer
expresses i0 of the lives of the COM
mon people like the gamester with his
counters, TO keep their reckoning, while
their countries are at stake in this bloody
gambling. Could we, LILY friends, any
one OF us make such visit, and be sup
posed to forget, for moment, that there
had ever been wars in our world, wi hat,
let me ask, would be our opinion Of the
inhabitants there Would it not be hard
for Us to believe them to be rational pro-
stationary beings Might we not more
naturally conclude we had got among
the spirits of the pit below? But, alas !.
my dear friends, we have no need of
making visit to distant planet to be-
come acquainted with such melancholy
idolS. vi IL VIC VIII Dul iGillOfS uCtu-
sive tradition and prejudices from our
minds, we may see the very same enor-
mites practiscd among ourselves. For
what we have been supposing is literally
the condition of our earth, the world in
which we live. The objection is readi-
ly made that nations must defend them
selves against the aggressions Of neigh
boring nations, and at all times be ready
and vigilant inv indicating national honor.
We answer, when nations complain OF
outrage, like individual quarrels, they
are as liable as individuals to see the
faults of others in a very partial light.
But, allowing those aggressions to be as
gricyous as the champions for war as
sert, is it not fact that the course
generally pursued by governments to
settle their differences, seldom accords
with good policy, or even a desire to
avoid recourse to the sword History
furnishes abundant evidence to support
the fact, that when ambitious rulers de-
sire war, preteXts are always ready at
hand, specious indeed, but only require
to be gilded with sophistry in order to
make them become SO popular as to
meet with such a degree ofsupport that
it may with propriety be called de-
voted enthusiasm. We will observe, VIC
think the American government has
conductedi its war measures with as much
sound policy, as much justice and SIN
cerlty at least, as uuy nation has general
ly done. But we choose TO illustrate
the doctrine we aim at by the example
of other nations. Let me call your at
tention to the late lengthy game at
bIoodshed which has been played for
above 90 years between the nations of
Europe, which, like the tornado that
sweeps the forest, terminated at the san
culinary battle of Waterloo. Let US ey-
amino the facts and principles which
served to lead the way to that bloody
drama. 1t appears the French people,
dissatisfied with their form of govern
ment, set themselves at thorough re-
form. The Jealous soyereigns OF Eu-
rope were offended at this revolution
commencing in France, and leagUed
themselves to maintain the doctrine that
one nation has right to interfere with,
and even dictate the mode of regulating
the government of a neighboring nation,
and that, too, not by mild, persuasive ne
gociation, which alone could render
such an interference tolerable, but by
the laundering manifestos Of the duke
of Brunswick, Suwarrow, and their san
culinary coadjutors, whose outrageous
threats were enforced to the utmost of
their power by the sword. Such all in
reference naturally called into action
every energy of the French people.
Some few solitary voices were raised as
advocates for peace, whose minds re-
VOTED at the prospect of the impending
carnage. Witness Stanhope in the British
house Of lords and the Marquis De La
Fayette, in the national convention cfi
France. But, alas \! their counsels were
not needed; their tongues were silenced
by the precipitate clamor Of unnumber-
ed voices, who called loudly for war.
And the course of that war, through very
diversified changes Of alternate success,
was marked with enormities on both
sides answerable to such beginning.
There is notorious fact connected with
the circumstances of that war, which
may be called ain incontrovertible evil
dence to demonstrate, that wars in gene
raj, and that war in particular, have been
without cause which might |
operate as a motive to determine the
combatants to pursue any thing like q
uniform or consistent course of conduct.