The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1862-06-13
Peace Societies.


eau sagaciiy hes invented for the improve
uient OF the hurna1 race, Peace Sceieties
promised at enc tins to occupy prominent
position. We believe that their first advocate
in America (ouiside The Society OF Friends
IVES an old gentleman by The lame Of Ladd a
citizen, we think. Of New York. He was +
s.out gentleman, with Il benevolent face,
bald head, aud d very eloquent torgue. He
waxei 80 earnest in the vindicaiion OF his
PRINCIPLES tha, il would have haen & danger
QUE business for any one but professional
pusi!ist to have stooa Up agalIs: Elm. Poor
cid geu,le4aui rs has long SINGS been
gathered 10 his fathegs, and, though ne IL AT
peace, the nations kept On sparring away jdss
az If lie, had never existed.
But Ladd had laGy followers. The Friends,
or QusSsIs, q course, were al OF his way
Of thinking. Vhie sect ahouaded ia Penn
s7lyania, narced after William penn, WAC
laid tie cornerstone of that City O! Broiheiiy
Love, in which Cen. Mcclellan was born.
Probably Ia State aud Io city have surpassed
the land of the peaceful Penn in feroeity and
b!oodtbirstinees. Peace Societies have Eluti-
piled. Elihu Barritt spFaug Rp, and !uttered
about with his olive branches al last, they
held Peace Congress in Paris, which was at.
tended by various signitaries in the world of
politics and letters. Philosophers. savaas, d.
vines, and even soldiers. gave ccla, TO the &c.
ession Victor Hnxo tionrished 10 rhetorical
periods, and she testimony of the Iron Duke
was quoted in support of the Olive Leaf Bur.
rift. Everybody declared there was eombi
nation OF sH Imaginable sni unim agiuabie
causes, and it was unanimously agreed that it
ought at once to come to "a end. II Mas had
not been the most uncivil of deities, he wou!d
, have written a note 10 this Congress, and had
something to say, like the Dake OF yelling
ton, ab0ns the horrors of war. AZ il was, the
: Congress djourned without any recognition
from the sovereign whom they were proposing
to strip OF his sceptTe, and met year after
wards il London, where each had new speech
with the old ideasSand departed, with q civil
! word from Lord Palnaerston, ami an inward
conviction that the millennium was at hand.
But scarcely had the placid sun of the
Worlds Peace Congress sunk beneath the
golden horizon, before a small speck appeared
in the Eastern sky, NOT larger at first than a
mans hand, but which spread rapidly and was
black as Erebus. The dulcet notes OF Burrit.,
: of the Olive Leaf, were followed by the deep
growlinss of old Menchikof, who represent
/ ell the Russian Boar q. the Court of Turkey.
Whether Menchikohf had ever read the speech
es and resolutions of the Peace Congress- has
never been satisfactorily established. If he
did, he has great deal to answer for. The
! C.imesp war burst upon the Peacs horizon
like clap of thunder. Alas for the Millennium!
( Blood flowed in rivers. All the old, savage
passions of humanity broke through the giided
bars Of modern civilization, and men were
again wild beasts, tearing and rending human
flesh and waliowing in human gore. The
Crimean war was the answer OF Mare and
Bell0na 10 the Peace Societies. Hercules made
his appearance cues more among men, aud laid
abou. him right and left with his big club.
Scarcely was the Crimsan war we'll over, be.
fore the ruler Of France furnished the world
with another illustration of HIS memorable
declaration, that '''be Empire lie Peace Italy
was the scene of this instructive illustration,
and the French soldiers demonstrated that they
had never listened to Elihu Burritt.: They
proved themselves as invineihls as in the days
Of Napoleon, and even more destructive.
Whilst the advocates Of Peace had been utter.
ing benevolent platitudes, the instruments Of
war had been improved in their death. dealing
capacities with an ingenuity which may we'll
4 have been the work Of the devil The bloody
ecenss in India, and the tiger like assaults Of
the Turks upon the Syrian Christians, added
their fearful attssts.ions to the truth that the
lion has not yet laid down with tho lamb.
hut there wac one land which had hitherto
escaped thess convulsions--thst lsud OF prom.
ise, America, which was 20 fsr removed from
the jarring interests Of the Old World. and
had so long escaped the creates. curse 81 hu.
nsnisy, that here, a. least, 1t wa, supposed the
Millennium had been insugurasad. Il was he
land Of pssos Societies, Of Bible s,ocis,ie, 81
Tract Societies, Of Societies for Foreign Mia.
eions, and for Domestic Missions, and Tor
] everything else that Ia good, and holy. and
] .aniable. The people Of that favored land had
4 little doubt that they were exempt from the
common passions Of humanity. and that they
were not sf the sams blood with tho other
! nations OF the earth. The North In particular