The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-17
SPIRIT or THE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading JournsIs
upon Current Topios-Cempiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
DREAMS OF PEACE.


Eoloeue, composed of several passages of
Isaiah the Prophet, in which occur the fol-
lowing lines:-
tfNo more snail nation against nation rise,
No ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes;
Nor fields with cleaning steel be cover'd DER,
The bfazen trumpets kindle rage no more
But useless lances into scvthes shall bend,
And the broad faulchion in pough-share endp
Ages have elapsed since the prophecy was
uttered of which these verses are paraphrase;
and at the close of one of the most destruc-
tive, albeit one of the shortest of wars, we find
the Pennsylvania Peace Society, on the I'd of
March, A. d. 1871, respectfully recommend
ing the simultaneous disarmament of Eng
land and the United States, the Joint High
Commission at Washington being requested
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 plowshare
policy, that "France would also adopt it,
and Prussia, Russia, and other powers
would be led to the same reform" 1t is q
little dispiriting to read of this pacific pro-
ject. Its consummation has been sought for
and sighed for by benevolent men, to whom
battle. fields were repulsive spectacles. Eco
nomists have shown the waste of war, and
satirists have exhibited its folly, while the
Church, responsible as it is for some Of the
most prolonged, cruel, and desolatine wars
which ever distracted this ''groaning GLOBE"
has stuck still by its theory of peace, and
been vociferous in its anticipations of sure
millennium at last. Meanwhile, war changes
somewhat it's minor peculiarities, but does
not change, and 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 bene-
fit in celerity of slaughter, it is not easy to
discover the moral superiority of our sharp,
quick campaigns over the longer ones of
olden times-the times of the fire-lock, OF
winter quarters, and of fighting battles by
the rule of three-in fact, the art of modern
warfare, originating in the impatient and de-
cisive spirit of Napoleon, seems to be rather
the most savage and destructive. Indeed, we
are by no means sure that the rapidity of the
decision is not to nations which might shrink
from the prolonged horrors of "Thirty
Years War" a temptation to take up arms.
Be this as it may, the fact is apparent that
Prussia, Russia, Austria, France, and Eng
land, to say nothing of Italy and the United
States, are as far as possible from general
disarmament. In four of these countries,
at least, armies always standing are the po-
lice which ward off revolutions, and Eng
land must be put into the same category, If
she is to retain her supremacy in Ireland
Singularly enough, armies, which preserve
monarchies, have been proved necessary, in
our own case, for the safety and perpetuity
of republics. All this points to the need of
military organization of some kind, at least
for the present, if the stability of govern
ment and the security of society against its
lower constituents as with ourselves, or
against the republican tendency as in despot-
isms, are to be maintained. But the very
possession of an army in the interests of in
ternal peace is a temptation to undertake
external aggrandizement and to make a
nation arrogant and unreasonable in its diplo
matte 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 oppress the weak,
and the embarrassment of adjusting interna-
tional differences without a 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 offends the better and truer moral sense.
1t is simply evidence of one kind of human
infrmity as the institution of courts of justice
is another. 1t is possible that the time may
come when there will be no theft, no cause
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-but have we any reason for anticipating
this blessed condition Of things tomorrow,
or next week. or even next year? The aboli-
ton of all military forces may be thing
very properly to be demanded by Pennsylva-
MIA 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 dis
elimination, but in the will to act by its re-
suits. There may be clear enough percep-
tion of the right, and still shamefully eager
pursuit of the wrong. strict adherence to
the doctrines of Christianity upon the part
of all men would involve a general paci-
fcation; but does Christianity itself teach
us to hope for this at once?
Moreover, is it not true that q 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 ami.
cably adjust many differences otherwise to be
fought out; and in this there is great gain;
but we shall have no universal peace until
such commissions have become unneces-
sary. They may be an improvement upon
the old diplomatic double-dealing; but they
do not by any means indicate that nations
intend to abandon war. All, if they would
ah, if they could Clear enough are our
perceptions of the disrepute which war brings
upon the nature of man, of the discredit
which ii does to our much-bepraised civiliza.
fion. of the agony which il infiicts unon in