The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1870-10-21
Standing Armies.

The nations of Europe are fast learn
ing how fallacious it is to rely on stand
ing armies. The United States inaug..
urated the policy of trusting to the
people In every emergency, and though
the old world has refused to be taught
by example, it is now learning by eX-
perienco, that the people who give pros.
peiity to a nation in time of peace, are
its surest defense in war. Robert Lowe,
English Chancellor of the exchequer,
recently delivered speech, in which he
said:
There is another lesson or consequence
still more agreeable. What we have
been witnessing is the destruction of a
most gallant standing army by what is
not a standing army, but an armed ma
tion, and that not altogether by the su-
perior qualities of the men, but by the
enormous preponderance of numbers
which the fact of their being an armed
nation has given them. think l hear
in that the knell of standing armies,
many of the large standing armies of
the Continent If they cannot protect
the nation against war with such a
country as Prussia, whose troops have
to be called from the counter, the loom
and the plough, of what use are they :?
1t seems to me that any nation that
wishes to be protected against invasion
and against destruction must not only
rely on standing army, If for no other
reason than because its numbers are
necessarily limited, but it must put
arms in the hands of the people and
trust to them as Prussia trusts for the
defense of their own land. If that be
so, see the blessed results which will
follow from it. One is freedom. A ma
tiou which is armed, and on whose an
swer to the call deuendS the safety of
the country, must necessarily be ma
ton of free men. They will be armed,
and their sovereign must govern in &C"
cordance with their wishes, or he will
not get their support when he gets in
volved in difficulty. Ii seems to me
that this is return to the sort of rude
liberty enjoyed in the middle ages, when
the king was kept in order by the fact
that all his subjects had arms in their
hands, and would not suffer themselves
to he oppressed beyond q certain limit.
Then there is another good effect, and
that is, that such an organization is
mainly useful for defensive wars. Had
not the heart of the Prussian nation
been in this war it would have been
vain to expect from it the extraordinary
efforts it has made, and it would have
been impossible for the people to as
semble in so wonderfully short time.
IF the people are to be consulted, the
people will only fight when they see it
to be to their interest, and think they
will only see it to be for their interest
when it is for the sacred idea of pro-
tecting their common country.
Whatever may be the end Of the con-
test, it must be evident to all that Prus-
sia entered upon it with no desire to ac-
quire territory, but merely to defend
herself from invasion. These things
seem full of promise for the future;
they seem to promise more enlarged
freedom in the future than exists at
present; they seem to hold out fair
promise, if not for universal peace, at
least for the prevention of such wars as
this we are now witnessing. If kings
must rest upon their people, if they de-
pend upon them and not hired soldiers,
they must govern according to the will
of the people. If that be so these things
may compensate for great deal of the
bloodshed and horror we have seen.