Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1846-01-10
THE TRUE CHARACTER OF WAR.

son--payablei in all cases in advance.
THE TRUE CHARACTER OF WAR
We are not among those who Aatter ourselves
that war between Nations has ceased upon earth.
All that contend for is, that war Without neces-
sity is crime and disgrace to civilization Hold
ing this opinion, in common, we believe, with the
great body Of the People Of the United States, it
always pains us to hear War spoken of lightly, or
in any other way than as great political and
moral evil.
We were the proprietors Of this paper some
time before the commencement of the war Of 1912,
and were the advocates of that war, believing its
declaration and prosecution to be an inevitable
cessity. We were young at the time, it is true,
but, when we doubted, we followed the counsels Of
the Fathers of the Republic then living amongst
us. We have therefore lived and played our, part
in one war, and are not without experience Of the
character and consequences Of that ultima ratio
Regusn, which ought with much stronger reason to
be the last resort Of Republics.
In listening to the Debate now going on in the
House of Representatives, and observing the mar
tal spirit which glows in the speeches Of the
younger Members, of both political parties in that
assembly, we could not help wishing that they
could, without age, have had the benefit of our
experience. It's not possible that some practical
knowledge should not have inspired them with
very different ideas the subject from those which
they appear to entertain.
Thus thinking, there came to our recollection a
passage in the writings of famous author in our
mother tongue, who had occasion 10 speak Of the
true character Of war, without reference to the
grounds upon which it is waged We have turned
to the works Of that writer, from which we make
the subjoned extract, which we trust will give Of
fence to nobody. II ought not to do So for truer
picture was never drawn by pen or pencil.
"As war is the last of remedies, all lawful expe-
dents must be used to avoid it. As war is the
extremity OF evil, it is surely the duty of those
whose station entrusts them with the care Of ma
tons to avert it from their charge. There are dis
eases OF animal nature which nothing but ampu-
tation can remove; SO there may, by the depra-
walton Of human passions, be sometimes a gran
creme in collective life for which fire and the sword
are the necessary remedies |; but in what can skill
or caution be better shown than preventing such
dreadful operations while there is yet room for
gentler methods
!" 1t is wonderful with what GOODNESS and indif.
ference the greater part of mankind see war COM
menced. Those that hear Of it at distance, 1or
read Of it in books, but have never presented its
evils to their minds consider it as little more than
a splendid game, proclamation, an army, bat
tie, and a triumph. Some indeed must perish in
the most successful field, but they die upon the
bed of honor, resign their ires amidst the joys
of conquest, and, filled soiM glory smile IN
death!
The life of modern soldier is ill-represented
by heroic fiction. War has means of destruction
more formidable than the cannon and the sword
Of the thousands and tens Of thousands that per-
ish in the contest very small part ever feel the
stroke of an enemy; the rest anguish in tents
and ships, amidst damps and putrefaction; pale,
torpid, spiritless, and helpless gasping and
groaning, implied among men made obdurate by
long continuance of hopeless misery; and are
at last whelmed in pits, heaved into the ocean,
without notice and without remembrance. By
incommodious encampments and unwhoesome
stations, where courage is useless and enterprise
'impsactcable, fleets are silently sdispeopled and
armies slugglishly melted away.
"Thus is people gradually exhausted for the
most part, with little effect.
"The wars of civilized nations make very slow
changes in the system Of empire The public
pciCCifCs cCdiCCiy any dcTdLOH OUT all increase
of debt; and the few individuals who are bene-
flied are not supposed to have the clearest right
to their advantages. If he that shared the danger
enjoyed the profit, and, after bleeding in the bat
tie, grew rich by the victory, he might show his
gains without envy. But, at the conclusion of
ten years war, how we recompensed for the
death of multitudes and the expense of millions
but by contemplating the sudden glores Of pay
masters and agents, contractors and commissaries,
whose equipages shine like meteors, and whose
palaces rise like exhaationsl
These are the men who, without virtue, labor,
or hazard, are growing rich as their country is i'm
poyerished; they rejoice when obstinacy or am
biton adds another year to slaughter and devasta-
ton; and laugh from their desks at bravery and
science, while they adding figure to figure and
'cipher to cipher, hoping for new contract from a
new armament, and computing the profits of a
siege or tempest.
Those who suffer their minds to dwell on these
considerations will think it no great crime in the
Ministry that they have not snatched with eaqer.
ness the first opportunity of rushing into the field
when they were able to obtain by quiet nepotia.
ton all the real good that victory could have
brought u.s."
bill has been reported in the House Of Repre-
sentatives Of the United States by the Committee
on Foreign Relations for giving to Great Britain the
required twelve months notice of the cessation O
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