Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1839-03-27

ouT money, or our influence.
How suicidal, too, would be the policy
OF such contest The whole territory
IN dispute is worth only few millions Of
dollars; but we could not even beoin the
war in earnest without an outlay of some
some fifty or hundred millions, nor car.
ry 1t on without an equal expenditure eve.
ry year, -and'an incidental loss to the NJ
Ion OF several times as much. 1t would
take oae or two thousand millions to COW
er the probable waste of property by both
parties IN protracted contest about a for
est not worth the two hundredth part of
such a sum; and when we farther antici-
pate It's sacrifice of human life, the domes-
TIC anguish aud desoIation it would send
through the land, its ruin of immortal
souls by thousands, the floods of vice and
crime it would pour over the whole coun-
try, and all lis baleful influences on the
cause of religion, on the progress of gen
eral improvement, and upon every enter
Prise OF Christian benevolence or reform
we cannot refrain from recording before
heaven and earth, our most solemn protest
against ererq- proposaI Of soor wiA the
L0md Of our fathers and brethren. -.-<.
Tellus the use ofsuch a contest Waste
millions on millions of treasure; cripDle
our commerce, our manufactures, all our
gainfui enterprises; drench the land in
blood. and fill it with the wailings of wild
ows and orphan roll over ourselves, over
England, over the world, a flood Of the
difcst evils; would all this end the dis
pute2 Every school boy knows that we
must, after all, cease to fight, and resort
to negotiation or reference as the oulu
means DISCRIMINATING any quarrel between
civilized nations. To such expedients we
must come, sooner or later; and the onIv
question is, whether we shall do 50. before
or after fighting! Must scores or hun
dreds of thousands of the people die a H.
gers death on the field of battle, Jus, to
make rulers willing m0ao to use what they
know perfectly well to be the only means
that can ever settle the dispute!
Every plea for war in this case we are
constrained to discard as altogether insult
ficient. Do you Say we are clearly in
the right? We neither deny nor doubt
the business OF our claims; nor would we
have them surrendered; but we protest
against this barbarous method of asserting
them. Do you reply that we have no
other means LETT? If it were so, would
the gospel permit all the atrocities of war
FOR the vindication of our right TO rule
over a forest? But the plea is false, for
England has never declined negotiation
or reference and, if she had, we might
employ better means than the sword for
bringing her to terms. But do YOU fear
dishonor from forbearance2 Such for
bearance the gospel requires; and obedi-
ence to God can never disgrace indiyidu.
ais or nations. Be it that England is
wrong; will our own conscience or the
common sense of the world, reproach US
for her wrong doings! The wickedness
OF our neighbor cannot arnish our char
acter; but if it did, we could not mend
the matter by imbruing our hands in his
blood, or setting ourselves up as targets
for his wrath. Calm reliance on the
business of our cause; patient endurance
o(injurles repeated for years; frank, earn.
est, confding appeals to British Justice
and magnanlmlty; a willingness. 10 sur.
render evea unquestionabIe rights rather
than maintain them by deIuging two ma
tons in blood would such a course. the
only one allowed by the gospel, dishono,
a christian people? Does our religion
permit US to avenge insults by bioodshed
as the only preservative from disgrace
Against such sentiments we solemn,
protest, and think it high lime that thu
strange deIusion, the relic of pagan ant
barbarous age, were utterly discarded b,
every community calling itseIfchristian.
The present crisis devolves on ever,
one of US an awful responsibility an
fain would we call aloud upon every rel
gious editor upon every minister of Chris
; upon every church, upon every christian
and every phiIanlhropist, high and low
male and female, to use their utmost inf1u
euce against war with England, as re
. pugnant to every principle Of the gospe
, and sure to occasion evils which no arith
: ,metic can calculate, no human sagaci
foresee. Write against it, preach again;
9 it, pray against it, Talk against it, ARA
r against it all the good Influences in til
:. land; rally a. once from every quarter t
: the rescue of two nations from its threa
: ened evils; and, if it should afer all com,
then, only then, will yo~r hands be clea
: of its blood
: The case demands an immediate ant
!. dote. What we do, must be done quickly
: and especially would we urge every mil
' lister in the sanctuary, and every christia
!, in his family and his closet, to bear tn
/. tsubject before the mercy seat of Him WI
IS ruleth among the nations, and hath Il
,e hearts of all entirely in his hands. II
e. representative Of a whole denominatit
is cannot meet to recommend in season
general cnnnnrt 1,f E,cliocr aud .,or