The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-11-03
WAR OR LAW:

ton. In his argument the judge takes the
ground that as the world grows wiser the
rule of law must supercede arbitrament of
no more wherefore the Judge favors
an international congress to adjust
all international dflictldes and thus
through equitable jurisdiction and powers,
avert the horrid pcstilence that comes
of legitimatised murder, in its inhu-
manly ingenious methods to find out new
pains for life, new tcrrors for the grave
by new articles of death, That Judge
Matthews is correct in his sentiments and
in his aims, no one will say him nay, and it
is only commencing the agitation of
questions of such nature that
an end desired can be hoped
to be achieved. We apprehcnd it will not
be difficult to get up peace congress, but
whether they can make laws that will be
adhered to when the test day comes is an
other question. 1t is not so difficult of
getting fixed law as it sof getting out of
| n fixed law. The habit of war is so fixed
| upon mankind that to break through this
first preventative and long preserved in
habit, this thoroughly cooked cake of Gus
tom, is not so easy. The world progresses,
however, and has gradually proceeded from
the preliminary or fighting age, to that of
nation making, thence to that of the age of
discussion and we are now perhaps for
aught we know, fringing the millennium
age A national character is but the sue
ccsstul state or county character, Just as the
national speech is but the successful neigh
borhood dialect and humanity's character
| is but representative of the several national
ones. This is a commercial era, and com.
| merce begets an inter-COmmunication OF
peoples, and an interminging OF interests
an nter-dependenco the one upon the other
This is what we term progress, and it seems
| to be the natural, the inevitable order ofhu.
man nature, just as is the growth from in
| fancy to youth thence to manhood. 1t is
true there are some cases of arrested civil
cations, such as with China, India, Japan,
| etc. What is the cause of this social di-
lcmma, this yoke that appears to have
been imposed upon people to impede and
to check their progress, why those peoples
should have been stationary instead of
variable and progressive, we know not, but
nevertheless the rule as stated obtains.
That the fighting age evolved much
good is positively true. The re-.
suit Of conflicts was combinations, grqup-
ings ofpeoples, nationalitics. As these be-
came fiXities law becamea an Institution, and
the face of legality among community
making its property acoumulations safer
intensifes the evident necessities for people
to avoid conflict and abide by social rules
and orders This is the pouring of new
wine into old bottles. War has not always
been an evil. 1t is only by the competi-
ton ofcustoms thatgood customs are made
to. superccde bad ones. Some one
has said that conquest is the pre-
MUM that -.-snaturc gives to those
national characters which the ma
tional customs have made most fit to
win in war the characters which do win in
war are the characters which we should
wish TO win in war, So the best institutions
have n natural military advantage over bad
ones Hence the majority of these groups
which win and conquer are better than
those which fail and perish, and thus the
world grew better and improved. With this
improvement comes a desire TO still further
improve, the finer intellectual tastes are adj
vanced.T o the impctuosity of the war are.
succeeds the moderation Of the discussion
era, which in turn envolvcs those subtle
cxcellencics and finer social graccs, soundcr
discretion, in conduct, and more productive
efforts in settling disputes, When these
views prevail the narrow military habit of
rigid discipline gives way to the broader
conceptions ofjudicious llcxibility of feel
ings and actions. A nicer sense of the
rights of Others is recognizable; men become
more tender to one another, and shrink
from INJECTING what they used to ntct
without caring AS ii has somewhere been
cloquently stated, life is not set
campaign, but an irregular work,
requiring ilcxibility, and so while
military mortals can direct ut the Ak to
cut down the tree, they know nothing OF
tho quiet forces by which the forest grows.
If then the characteristic end
of law as an instrument q
government is to maintain the in.
tegrity, the conference and the vitality of the
groups of which n state or nation /, com.
posed, why then, when so many of our gov.
crnments and nations are built mp and arc
now sustained by the play Of the mutua
relations Of continuous commercial traffic L
not an international peace congress u
very possible SUGGEST We have not seen
Judge Matthews book, but we can r,adil,
conceive that he could make strong argu
ment in behalfof the proposed undertaking
The execution of his ideas may not at tn,
moment be practicable for physical force
nationally as well as individually is more pc
tent persuadcr to-day than merely mora
suasion, but the daybrcak of better thing
is dawning, and the century that has wit
messed what men has laughed at som,
twenty years ago, viz the emancipation O
the African race in America from persona
slavery, may also, despite the Globc.Demo
Gratis sneers, witness the triumphs of la,
through peace congress over military tel
rorism.