The pilot and transcript. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1840-1841, 1841-01-21
poRrRArrURE OF WAR.


BY Dh. CtALAlbNos
o tell me if there be any relentings OF pity IN
your bosom, how could you endure IT. TO be-
hold the agones of the dying man, as, goaded
by pain, he grasps the cold ground WIN con
vulsive energy, or, faint with the loss OF blood,
his pulse GIBBS low, and gathering paleness
spreads itself over his countenance-or wrap
ping himself round in despair, he can on.y
mark. by few feeble qmverings, that lie stun
turks and fingers in his lacerated body-or
lifting up a fading eye, he casts on you
look of imploring helplessness, Tor that succor
which no sympathy can yield him. II may be
painfll to dwell on such represenation-but
this is the way in which the cause of human
ty is served.
The eve of the senhmeAtalist turns away
from its sufferings, and he passes by the other
side lest he hear that pleading voice, when Is
armed with tone of remonstrance so vigorous
as to disturb him. He cannot bear thus 10
pause, in Imagination, on the distressing pic
ture of one individual, but mulhplylt ten thou
sand times-say, how much OF this dlsstess
has been heaped together upon a single field
give us the arithmetic of this accumulated
Wretchedness, and lay it before us with all the
accuracy of an official omputation,-and,
strange to tell not one sigh is lifted up among
the crowd of eager listeners, as they stand on
tiptoe, and catch every syllable of utterance,
which is read to them out OF the registers OF
death.
9! say, what mystic spell is that, which so
blinds us to the sufferngs of our brethren
which deafens to our ear the voice OF bleeding
humanity, when it is aggravated by the shrek
of dying thousands-Which makes the very
magnitude of the slaughter throw soitening
disguise over its cruelties, and Its horrors
which causes US 10 eye with indifference the
H. II = 4 1 H., ~
denominations, and arrests that sigh, which each
individual would singly have drawn from US,
by the report of the many who have fallen ana
breathed their last in agony along with him.
When think that the Christians, even OF the
great world, form but very little flock, and
that an army is not a propitious soil for the
growth of Christian pIineiple-when l think
ontlhe character of one such army, that had
been led on for years by rutfian ambition
and had been Injured to scenes of barbarltY-and
had gathered most ferocious hardhood of
soul, from the many enterprises of violence
TO which an unprincipled commander had car
ried them-when follow them to the field of
battle. and further think, that on both sides OF
an exasperated contest, the gentleness of Chris
tianity can have no place in almost any bosom;
but that nearly every heart is lighted up with.
fury, and breathes yindictiVe purpose against
Or0tler OF the species, L CtlnIiOt Dul II
among the most fearful of the calamities of war
that while the work of death is thickening
along its ranks, so many disembodied spirits
should pass into the presence of Him who sit
teth upon the throne, in such posture, and
with such preparation.
have no tune, and assuredlY as little taste for
expatiaing upon topic so melancholy, nor can
afford at present to set before you vivid pic
ture of the other miseries which war carries in
its train-how it desolates every country through
which it rolls, and spreads violation and alarm
among its villages-how, al its approach, every
home pours forth its trembling fugitives-how
all the rights of property and all the provisions
of justice, must give way before its devouring
exlctions-how, when Sabbath comes, no Sab
bath charm comes along with it-and for the
sound of the church bell, which was wont to
spread its music over some fine landscape Of ma
ture, and summon rustic worshippers to the house
of prayer, nothing is heard but the beautiful vol
les OF the battle, and the maddening outcry of
Infatuated men-how, as the fruit of victory, an
unprincipled RIGHTEOUSNESS which no discipline
can restrain, is suffered to walk at large among
the people-and all that is pure, and reverend,
and holy in the virtue of families, is cruelty
trampled on, and heldT in the bitterest derlsion.
Oh my brethren, We're we to pursue those de-
tails, which nolpen ever attempts, and no chroni.
Gle perpetuates, we should be tempted to ask
what that is which civilization has done for the
characterof the speciesm