The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-05-02
Firm the ". Y. journal If Commerce.l
PEACE ADDRESS.

PEACE ADDRESS.
PEACE Society, LONDON, April 10, 1861.
To The Editors Of the Journal Of Commerce:
GENTLEMEN Il am requested by the Committee
of the London Peace Society, respectfully to ask
the favor of your inserting the ACCOMPANYING adj
dress in your Journal.
Your obedient servant,
HENRY RICHARD, Secretary.
ADDRESS
From Tie Peace Society Of london to the Pcople of
the United States
FEIGNDs AND FELLow-CHGrTIANs
1t is in 10 presuming or dctatorial spirit that we
venture to address to you these few words of earn
est sympathy and respectful! expostulation in ref
to the peTous crisis in your national history
through which you are passing. But having
been long lahOring, in our humble measure in pro-
noting peace earth upon the broad princi:les of
our common Christianity, we cannot hut feel how
deeply that cause to which We are devoted. is i'm
plicGted in the result OF the experiment now being
enacted in YOUR country.
We do rot feel ourselves either competent or en-
titled to Offer any suggestion to toe best method
of solving those internal difficulties, which now
agitate your great commonwealth. But we yen-
ture confidently to state that The worst of all s1lu-
tinns that can be attempted IS a fratlicidal war,
which must, however long and serceIy it NAV be
waged leave the merits OF the questions in dispute
wholly untouched while it cannot fail to eXaspe-
rate into tep-tOld magntv the feelings OF aiiena-
ton which already exist. War, under any circun-
| stances, and between any sections Of the human
race, is an evil which reason, reigiol and human
itv cannot bewail too bitterly. But civil war in
| nation like your Owr. Of the very foremost
! among the nations of the earth in intelligence.
! civilization, and Christian enliGhtenmeut,-a war
| among men Of the same race language and Teli-
| gion--a wal which would involve neighbors,
! friends, bTothcrs-members OF the same Christian
communions, children, il may be, of the same fam
lily. in mnd and murderous conflict with each other,
| would be a spectacle at which all mankind
would stand aghast in horror and dsmav,
| spectacle which, more than any event that
has occurred for ages, would smite with dis
| enlargement, and all but despair, The friends oil
| human progress throughout the world For a long
time past, thoughtful and philanthropic men. wit.
Messing with sorrow the distracted and divided con
dition of the old world, and the ferocious and san
| culinary wars to which these national antipa thics
| have led, have tnndly cherished the hope that the
time might come when the several States Of Europe
might be far federated together as to be brG rh
| under the jurisdiction of common tribunal which
should decide their differences without having re.
course to the irrational srbitrament of the sword
In support of the practcability of such measure
| they have been hitherto wont to appeal trium
phantly to the admirable example and illustration
of such a system presented in your country. But
the effect will be dsheartenng and disastrous tC
the last degree if it be now found that you Chris
| tan brethren, who had the immense advantage OF
growing up side by side into free communities, ex.
empt from those hereditary prejudices which have
struck their roots deep into the soil of Europe
can find no better means of adjusting your differ
ences than by having recourse to the old expedien
of barbarism ana blood, of which Europe il
beginning to be ashamed, for its combined folly anC
| brutality.
Permit Us also respectfully to remind YOU thai
| the evils of war-as know to our bitter cost il
| the old world-do not end with itself. On the con.
trary, it bequeahs to posterity sinister legacy o
hatreds ealnusies and rivalries which poison thu
blood Of nations for ages and entail upon them
| hardly han of
war. The enormous military establishments thai
are now sitting like an incubus on the heart o
Europe, all but suffocating its life, are the penal
ties have to pay for the conflicts into which our
ancestors plunged, often in reference to questions
which all men now see might have been easily ad
jused without blow, If passion had not been per
mtted to usurp the place Of reason. But the rank
ling recollectoDs and mutual distrust which those
quarrels engendered, are still the source whenc,
arises the alleged necessity for the ruinous rivalry
in ornaments, which is hurrying us onward on
path that, if pursued much longer, can only leac
to general bankruptcy. May Heaven in its mercy
deliver America from a policy which would entan
gle it in the coils of such a system as this!
We impl0re you, then, Friends and Fellow
Christians, to avoid the fatal mistake of imagining
that you can decide questions of dis uted right b,
conflicts OF brute force.
We appeal to American patriots to save the lane
they love from the dishonor of appearing beiOr,
! the world in attitude which can only excite th
| sorrow and pity OF all good men.
We appeal to American philanthrOpSts to inter
pose their influence to ward oifa catastrophe which
! will not only become n source of uputterable SUI
| tcrirg and naturalization to their own country
but which will exercise malign influence over tht
destinies of the whole human race.
Above all, we appeal to Christian Churches of nj
| denominations, and emphaticallv to the minister
OF the Prince OF Peace to stand between the living
and the dead, that the plague be stayed; by thei
example, by their persuasiOns, by their PRAYERS t.
arrest evil which will not only paralyze thei
own efforts, and des0late Gods inheritance by {
! food of passion and crime, but which will be- {
! scandal and reproach to our comm on Christianity
JOsEPH PEAsE, President.