Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-05-29
BOUDOIN COLLEGE.
Editor of the .IonlnaI ;

To the Editor Of the Journal;
Far be it,from me to write anything that shall
reflect unfairly on any institution of learning
in this State, but have read with indignation
the accounts that have been reaching us late
ly from Bowdoin College, the Oldest and per-
haps most honored institution Of its class in
Maine. don't believe that any man is fully
aware of the firm hold that the doctrine OF
peace has gained in this State during the past
decade. Any one who has noticed carefully
the reception of Military Companies AS they
have passed about of late must have come to
the conclusion that the old time enthusiasm is
gone. The boys get as enthusiastic as II a
circus were passing and that is about all there
is of it. Those of us who saw and felt real
war in the terrible years of the rebellion have
got enough of it. In the matter of war we
have become Quakers. We believe the world
is getting daily nearer the new testament. We
believe that when a statesman like Charles
Sumner, who in matters of principle or con-
science was rarely if ever wrong, struck the
keynote of his career by delivering to the
soldiers and citizens of Boston an Grafton
the sublimity of whose truths is becoming
more and more apparent as time rolls away,
it is time for us lesser lights to fall in.
make this assertion, and do it fearing no con-
tradiction that the time is past when any civ
ilzed nation can go to war on an unjust issue.
and those who drill men to slaughter, prepare
them for the cause of injustice. The tele-
graph and printing press have placed US side by
side. and candid opinion and peaceful council
get expression and become so formidable in
their influence that nations quail beneath their
force. Can men fail to see that we escaped a
war with Spain because this is sol? Is any
body sorry that we had not spent millions
more to get ready, that we might have pre-
scented more formidable front?
Is anybody sorry that all the students in all
our colleges were not soldiers so that with all
after much butchery of Spaniards the honor
of this enlightened republic? What lustre it
would have shed upon our name throughout
the ages!
How antquated, how impracticable, how
silly would have been shown the doctrine pro-
mulgated by the Divine Man of Galilee:
"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness Chat is JUSTICE for they
shall be filled?" How glorious the new doc
trine "Blessed are the mar- makers for they
shall be called the children of Cod" But in all
seriousness let me ask the Faculty of this insti-
tuition one question: Have you sufficiently re-
Elected upon how this account looks in the light
of coming years, that is if the matter gets as
far as threatened? The students of Bowdoin
College being required to drill and furnish
themselves with uniforms, refused en- maSse
to comply and were expelled" Is the qelig-
ious society having this institution in charge
willing to let this 90 down to posterity even
in the light of the present day. Is the Presi-
dent of the INSTITUTIONAL citizen soldier who
knows the sweets of Peace, and too well, one
would think, the horrors of war,-qute salts
fed that the record will look well?
X. NJ J.
Nass.Iborn' Nav 9th