New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-03-16
DPEdNS or PEACE.

I IL
" comnosed of Several Passages of Isaiah the
Prophet,n in which occur the following lines:
"No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateIn eyes;
Nor fields with cleaning steel DO coyerd o'er
The brazen trumpets kinde rage no morei
| But useless ances into scythcs shall bend,
| And the broad faulohion in ploughshare end -
Ages have elapsed since the prophecy was
uttered of which these verses are paraphrasc;
and at the close of one of the most destructive,
albeit one of the shortest of wars, we Ind the
Pennsylvania Peace Society, on the I'd OF
March. A. ID. 1871, respectfully recommend
" ing the simultaneous disarmament OF En-
gland and the United States" the Joint
HIGH Commission at Washington being re-
ouested to take the matter in hand, although it
does nowhere appear that the said Commission
has any authority to do anything of the
kind. The Peace men of Philadelphia are
likewise enthusiastically of the opinion, should
we. with our elder brethren, adopt the plow-
share policy, that France would also ADOPT
"it. and Prussia, Russia, and other powers
"would be led to the same REFORM" 1t IS
little dispirling TO read of this pacific project
It's consummation has been sought for and
sighed for by benevolent men, to whom battle
fields were repulsive spectaces. Economists
have shown the waste of war, and satirlsts
have exhibited its folly, while the Church, re-
sponsible as it is for some of the most pro-
longed, cruel, and desolating wars which ever
distracted this grooming globe" has stuck
still by its theory of Peace, and been Voc1-
erOus in its antcipations OF sure millennium
at last Meanwhile, war changes somewhat us
minor pecularities but does not changes anu
never can, its fundamental characteristics.
Campaigns are shorter now, but still the grim
problem remains. So many men are to be
killed, upon this side or that, and, although
there may be material benefit in
CELEBRITY of slaughter, it is not easy TO DIS
cover the moral superiority OF our sharp
quick campaigns over tho longer ones OF 0Iden
tmes-the times of the tire-l0ck, OF Winter
quarters, and of fighting battles by the Rule OF
Three-in fact the art of modern warfare,
originating in the inpatient and decisive
spirit Of Napoleon, seems to be rather the
most savage and destructive. Indeed, we are
by no means sure that the rapidity OF the de-
cjsion is not TO nations which might shrink
from the prolonged horrors of Thirty Years
"War,n temptation to take up arms. lie this
as it may, the fact is apparent that Prussia,
| Russia Austria, France, and England,
to say nothing of Italy and the
United States, are as far as possible from
a general disarmament. In four of these cOun-
tries, at least, armies always standing are the
police which ward off revolutions; and Eng
land must be put into the same category, if
she il to retain her supremacy in Ireland.
Singularly enough, armies which preserve mon
arches, have been proved necessary in our
e., 10 ofotU md
publics All this points to the need of military
organization of some kind, at least for the pres
ent, if the stability of government and the Sc
curity of society against its lower constltu-
ents as with ourselves, or against the republic
can tendency as in despotisms, arc to be main
tanned. But the very possession OF an army In
the interests of internal peace is temptation
to undertake external ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and to
make nation arrogant and unreasonable IN
its diplomatic relations.
The question, therefore, is by no means so
simple as our well-intentioned Philadelphia
friends seem to suppose. The difficulty Is not
in the armies themselves, but in the human
PASSIONS which require restraint, the natural
ambition which springs from no less natural
pride of country, the tendency as old as the
world is of the strong to Cypress the weak,
and the embarrassment of adjusting interna-
tionaI differences without resort to the
ultima ratio. All this, we may admit, is ex-
tremely disheartening, but it is not more so
than much else in the constitution of society
which ofiends the better and truer moral sense.
II is simply evidence of one kind of human
in6rmity, as the institution of courts of justice
ia another. 1t is possible that the time may
| IL L. OF
for civil actiOns-at-law; when the Golden Rule
shall everywhere prevail and when it shall be
clearly apparent that society has OutgrOwn the
constable. and has no longer need of the jail
Int have we any reason for anticipating this
blessed condition of things tomorrow, or next
week. or even next year The abolition of all
military forces may be thing very properly to
be demanded by Pennsylvania Peace Societies;
but it must be preceded, If it Is to take place
at all, by an immense advance OF mankind,
not only in moral discrimination, but in the
will TO act by its results. There may be clear
enough perception of the right, and still a
shamefully eager pursuit of the wrong. A
strict adherence to the doctrines of Christianity
upon the part of all men would involve
general pacifcation but does Christianity it
self teach us to hope for this at once 7
Moreover, is it not true that vast
majority of those protesting Christianity
to-day, after its long establishment, believe it
to be certainly not unchristian to resort to
force for the protection of the person against
illegal violence. And, while men continue so
to believe, and while this violence continues,
we shall have private and public wars; and, as
the last may at any time come, we shall have
armies. Joint High Commissions may AMIGA