New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-02-24

wake UP in an odor of constitutional sanctty I
Such treatment, although little rougher,
might be analogous to that by chloroform, and
thus in various ways mitigate the austerities Of
war. There would be something extremely TO-
mantle in this quoting process; and we do not
see why tho reverberating SHORES of whole
enchanted population should not furnish epcal
poets with many opportunities for novel and
striking description.
1t is claimed by the moralists that the dis.
covery and use Of bellgerent engines Of extra
ordinary efficacy would in the end put stop
to war altogether. However devoutiy we may
desire this contamination, it is impossible to for
get that similar agreeable antcipations might
have been just as reasonably entertained when
bows and arrows went out, and gunpowder
came in. A certain and somewhat desirable
effect of the employment Of these decisive pro-
jectiles would be to render wars much shorter
in duration; but it is not easy to see how this
would lessen the aggregate Of human suffering.
The waste OF material would lie the same; the
horrors of q months siege would be none the
less, perhaps they would be harder to bear, If
compressed within period Of seven days; the
covert designs Of conqueroE, looking to the
subugation Of territory and the enslavement OF
races, woull be none the less pertinaciously
fierce and wlckedv insaliate; and, indeed, the
fate of small people, Of limited material re-
sources, would be Oh the more certain from the
Unusual means OF attack possessed By their
enemies. The campaigns Of Napoleon weEe
most Of thcm short; but it was never found by
| the grooming and stricken continent Of Europe
/ that anything was gained by the rapidity Of It's
conquest. The worst horrors of war, i Is need
ful TO remind this most material Of the ages, are
not 10 be found in sacked and smoking cities, IN
/ devastated fields, in ruined commerce, IN the
wholesale homicide; but in the power which the
conqueror yields Of perpetuating old slaycrles'
or establishing new ones. Men who talk pleas
anty Of abcli.hing war, forget that i, has Its
compcnsations-that il may be the only re-
source ola sh1ckled and suffering people-thIt
the alternative Of " liberty or death, mouthed
as il has been into hackneyed commonplace, re-
! ally mean, somothing-that Infinitely worse
r
than war MAJ be the tame acquiesence of an
inert and british population in au,ocTatic cru
elites and irresponsible oppression. Bofo-e we
rid the world Of war, it may be well to ask our
selves what lie world would be without it, and
whether w lle prepared to 9bandon altogether
physical resistance to evil. The power Of
wagng hosd.i,ies depends upon something
more than the loss or gain Of battle-upon the
moral spirit which animates the combNants-
upon the worth Of a cause which is supported
by On appeal TO alTls-upon the comparative
facilities with which nations submit to.e1tine-
ton. II does not seem often enough 70 occur
to Liud-heartet speculalers that DC tender mel
Gle. o. esbinet that never sets squadron IN
the fieid" may be as hard 20 bear as the ex-
actions of Triumphant general peaceful
people, pos sessed Of all the cardinal virtues,
may be fgee from coyetous sggressoni but If
so. they will be indebted for their immunity
rather TO chance than to the effects Of ordinary
and prcdicated causes. Before a defensive
power, with all the preparation which il neces-
sarily supposcs, is Systematically abandoned,
It viii be necessary to ascertain with absolute
certainty The disappearance of the aggressive
element in human affairs: We suspect that
these contingencies hardly depend upon merely
material progress.
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