Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1851-05-21
Effects of War.

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the census of Croatia, Slavonia, Banet
ard Transylvania, recently taken, shor
that there are in those provinces t,eenty
fee thousand aridops, the result of the
Hungarian war. Such facts as these art
eloquent and should be known and eli.
culatcd By every lover ofpeace. Million.
of men have fallen since wars began
millions and tens of millions. Caesar sac.
rifced at least two millions, and Napoleon
directly and indirectly, as many.
The dead are not all. There are the
disabled physically, who remain tax upon
their country Or their friends. And there
are the disabled morally, whose war-tuitior
units them for the arts and purposes Of
peace. And there are tic destitute wi.
dows and orphan child-en, who, if rot in
all cases absolutely dependent upon society
by the death of the heads of households,
are less productive to the state, and less
useful to the race, than they would lc
under the culture and direction of their
natural protectors. Confusion in COR,
merce, hindrance to the progress of the
arts, impeded education, or false education,
Indifference to suffering, national exclusive
ness and hereditary cnmity-such are a
few only of the evils which follow war,
righteous or unrighteous, successful or un-
successful. In case where war must be,
it is only the choice between evils; and
we rejoice in the belief that, under the
direction of Providence, the purposes for
which wars and fighting have been permit
ted, are so nearly accomplished that their
occurrence will become more and more
rare, until "wars cease in all the carth''
The expense of war appears sordid
part Of the calculation Of its evils but
even this should not be forgotten in the
account. In our own case, for instance,
what millions Of money have been con-
sumed in the late war with Mexico! And
the account is not yet closed /; for, by acts
Of Congress, SO much Of the public domain
has has been given to the soldiers and
soldiers widows, that we do not undertake
to compute the amount of acres, or the
money value of them. Justice to clai-
mants under the wars of preceding years,
reopens their account, and increases the
vast aggregate. We do not speak as Oh
jecting to these grants. Men who peril
their lives should receive the semblance
Of payment-though no payment can be
really adequate. And their representatives,,
when the soldiers have left the world, are
entitled to compensation. That these ap-
propriations-that pensions, gratuities,
and land grants are among the just and
necessary consequences of war, does not
weaken our argument, but rather enforces
it.
Our policy, as nation, is peace. In
peace, education, industry, frugality, re-
ligion, the true elements Of national glory
and happiness, arc best cultivated. The
notion that, to preserve independence, our
youth must be trained as bulldogs, and
be "sudden and quick in quarrep'-ar
Did time 6gment, preserved at second and
third hand from the Spartans, ,Goths, Huns,
he banditti founders of Rome, and ether
giving way before common
'ense. We are new nation, living in a
lew world, and must teach our race better
hings than this, by preeept and example.
The war-spirit needs no culture, but is
iound sufficiently abundant whenever op-
occurs for its development, as
experience testifes.-Authur's Gazette.
SrCTARIANJsM ;ftlo narroxv nroiu