The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1861-05-15
Plea From England for Peace.

puOIiShlHS thiS Pledj YOU WIN thnCu ouiiSo
the friends of Peace on both sides OF the
Atlantic.
Very respectfully, G. C. BEck WITH.
Sec. Am. Peace Society
BosToN, April 25, 1861.
ADDRESS FROM THE PEACE SOCIETY OF LONDON
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.
Friends and Fellow- Christians:-Itis is in no
presuming or dictatorial spirit that we ven-
ture 10 address to you these few words of
earnest sympathy and respectful exposula
tion, in reference to the perilous crisis in
your national history through xhich yon
are now passing. But having been labor
ing in our humble measure, in promoting
peace on earth, upon the broad principles
of our common Christianity, we cannot but
feel how deeply that cause 10 which we are
devoted, is implicated in the result of the
experiment now being enacted in your
country.
We do not feel ourselves either compe
tent or entitled, to offer any suggestion as
10 the best method of solving those internal
difficulties which now asiiate your great
Commonwealth But we venture conf
dently 10 state, that the worst OF all solu-
tions that can be attempted, is a fratricidal
war, which must, however long and fierce
ly il may be waged, leave the merits of the
questions in dispute wholly untouched,
while it cannot fail 20 exasperate, into ten
| fold malgnity, the feelings of alienation
which already exist. War under any cir
| cumstances, and between any sections of
! the human race is an evil which reason,
| religion and humanity cannot bewail too
J bitterly. But civil war in a nation like
| your own, one of the very foremost among
the nations of the earth in intelligence, civil
war among men OF the same race language
and religion--a war which would involve
neighbors, friends, broihers-members o.
the same Christian communions, children,
may be. OF the same family, in mad and
murderous conflict with each other, would
be a spectacle al which all mankind would
stand aghast in horror and dismay spec
tacle which, more than any event that has
| occurred for ages, would smite with dis
couragement, and all but despair, the
friends OF hnman progress throughout the
world
For long time past thoughtful and phi
lanthropic men, witnessing with sorrow the
distracted and divided condition of the old
and ferocious and sanguinary wars 10 which
these national antipathies have led, have
fondly cherished the hope that the time
might come when the several States of Eu-
rope might be so far federated together, as
10 be brought under the Jurisdiction of a
common tribunal, which should decide
their differences without having recourse 10
the irrational arbilrament OF the sword In
support of the practics biliiy of such a
measure, they have been hitherto wont to
appeal triumphant!y TO the admirable ex-
ample and illustration of such asystem pre-
sented in your country. But the effect will
be disheareniug and disastrous TO The last
degree, if it be now found that you, Chris
iian brethren, who had the immense advan.
tage of growing up side by side into free
communities, exempt from those hereditary
prejndices which have struck their roots so
deep into the soil of Europe, can find no
better means of adjusting your differences
than by having recourse 10 the old expedi-
ent of barbarism and blood, of which even
Europe is beginning 10 be ashamed: for lis
combined folly and brutality.
Permit US also, respectfully to remind
you that the evils OF war,-as we know to
our bitter cost in the old world, do not end
with itself. On the contrary, i: bequesths
TO posterity sinister legacy OF hatreis
jealousies and rivalries, which poison the
blood Of nations for ages, and entail upon
them burdens hardly less crushing than
those of actual war. The enormous militia
~ establishments that are now sitting like
an incubus on the heart of Europe, all but
suffocating It's life, are the penalties we
have TO pay for the conflicts into which oul
ancestors plunged, often in reference to
questions which all men now can see. nigh,
have easily been adjusted without n blow
if passion had not been permitted 10 usurp
the place Of reason. But the ranking rec.
oecions and mutual distrust which those
quarreIs engendered, are still the source
whence arises the alleged necessity for the
ruinous rivalry in ornaments, which is
hurrying US onward on path II pursued
much longer, can only lead to general bank
ruptcy. May Heaven in It's mercy deliver
America from policy which would entan-
gle it in the coils OF such a system as this
We implore you, then, Friends and Eel.
low Christians, 10 avoid the fatal mistake oil
of imagining that you can decide questions
of disputed right by conflicts of brute force
We appeal to American patriots 10 save the
land they love from the dishonor of appear
ing before the world in an attitude which
| can only cyclic ih.a snrrn,y md ritr Of al