Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-10-19
Victor Hugo or the Peace of Nations.

MT eminent anu Wise Taulcal Ol
Europe, Victor Hugo, was really
elected to the honorary Presidency
of the Peace Congress-, recently held
in Switzerland, to which he address
ed the following letter:
EslEO'O-cttisess file Jaited States Of Earopsi
Permit me to give you this name,
for the European Federal Republic
is founded in rights, and in the mean
time is founded in fact. You exist ;
therefore she exists You prove it
by your union, which outlines unity.
You are the commencement of the
grand future. You confer on me the
honorary Presidency of your Con-
gress Your Congress is more than
an assembly of inteIleets it is sort
OF compilation committee of the fu-
ture table of the land. An ellie exist
only because there is a multitude
You are this elite From the pres
ent you signify by law that war is
wrong that murder even glorious,
bombastic, and royal, is infamy that
human blood is precious that life is
sacred. That last war will DO nee
essary, | am assuredly not of those
who say otherwise What will that
war be? A war of conquest. What
conquest is to be made Liberty
The first want Of man-his chief
right; his Srst duty-is liberty
Civilization tends invincibly to unity
of language, of money, of measures,
and the fusion of nations in humanity,
which is the supreme unity. Cor
cord has a synonym-simplificatioa
as wealth and life have a synonym
circulation. The first ofthe servitudes
IS the frontier. Who says frontier,
says ligature. Cut the ligature, efface
the frontier, remove the customs of
ficer, remove the soldier, in other
words be free ;peace follows. Thence
forth there will be profound peace
peace made once for all inviolable
peace the normal state of labor, of
exchange, of supply and demand, Of
production and of consumption, of
vast effort in common, of the attrac-
ton of the industries of the 90 and
come of ideas of the human fiux and
refux.
Who has an interest in frontiers
The Kings divide to govern. A
frontier indicates sentry-box; SEN
try box implies a soldier mo one
can pass" is the password Of all priv
ilegos, prohibitions, judgements, and
tyrannies. From this frontier-from
this sentry box-from this soldier,
all human calamity proceeds. The
king being the exception requires the
soldier to defend him the soldier, in
his turn, must murder in order to
live. Kings must have armies arm
les must have war Otherwise their
rGlSOR d etre vanishes. A strange
thing that man should consent to
kill man without knowing Why
The art of the despots is to divide
the people and the army. One half
Expresses the other. Wars have all
kinds of pretexts, but they have new
er but one cause.-the army. Do
away with the army and you do
away with the war. But how sup
press the army? By the suppression
of despotisms! How all supports it
self Abolish the parasites in their
different forms-civil lists, paid idlers
salaried clergy, pensioned magis-
trates, aristocratic sincures, gratu-
ties TO the public edifces, standing
armies. Make this sweep and vow
cndow Europe with s2,000,000 900
per annum. Here, by a stroke of
the pen, is the problem of misery
simplifed. The thrones do not wish
this simplifcation. They prefer
forests of bayonets. The kings only
understand one point-perpetuate
war. 1t is believed that they are
quarreling, but not entirely. They
are assisting each other. The soldier
must, repeat, have his reason for
existence. Perpetuate the army:
perpetuate despotism: excellent fe-
rocious logic. The kings exhaust
their patient, the people, by blood
shed. There is a savage fraternity
of swords, from which results the en-
slavement of man. Therefore, to
proceed to your object, which | have
called somewhere the reabserption
Of the soldier in the citizen The day
when this repossession will take
plaee-the day when the people will
not have outside them the man of
war, that inimical brother, they will
again find themselves united, loving,
doubled in power, and in soul, and
Civilization will name herself Har-
mouy and Labor, and Peace will
make itself as light does by the sim
pie ascension of a star. The star is
Liberty Raise, therefore, the cry ::
Deliverance which contashs the So
luton of all. Citizens and brothers,
send you my warmest thanks, and
my cordial adhesion.
Victor HUGO.