The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1904-10-07
SECRETARY HAY.
Maenidcent Address Before the In
ternational Peace Congress
At Boston.

welcome on yesterday afternoon to
the delegates to the International
peace congress assembled in Boston
for the formal meeting Of the thlr-
teenth annual convention OF that
body.
Secretary Hay spoke as follows:
I esteem it a great honor and
privilege to be allowed to extend
to you the welcome OF the govern
ment and the people OF the United
States of America on this memorable
and auspicious occasion. No time
could be more fitting for this gather
ing of parliament of peace than
today, when at the other end OF the
world the thunder OF a destructive
and sanguinary war is deatenlng the
nations. while here we are preparing
to settle the question of vast trans
fer of power by an appeal to reason
and orderly procedure, under the
sanction of law implicitly accepted
by eighty millions of people. No
place could be more suitable than
this high-hearted city, which has
been for nearly three hundred years
the birthplace and the home Of every
idea of progress and enlightenment
which has terminated in the west
ern world. To bid you welcome to
the home of Vane, of Winthrop, and
of Adams, of Claiming and Emerson,
is to give you the freedom of no
mean city, to make you partakers OF
a spiritual inheritance without which,
with all our opulence, we should be
door indeed. 1t is true that this
great commonwealth has sought,
with the sword, peace under liberty,
We confess that many wars have lett
their traces in the pages of its his
tory and its literature; art has adorn-
ed the public places Of this stately
town with the statues of its
heroic sons. But the dominant
note Of it's highest culture,
it's most persistent spirit, has been
that righteousness which exalteth
nation, that obedience to the inner
light which leads along the paths OF
peace.
And the policy of the nation at
large, which owes so much OF its
civic spirit to the founders Of New
England, has been in the main pol
icy of peace During the hundred
and twenty years of our independent
existence we have had but three wars
with the outside world, though we
have had most grievous and dol
orous struggle with our own people.
We have had, I think, greater rela-
tive immunity from war than any of
our neighbors. All our greatest
men have been earnest advocates OF
peace. The very men who founded
our liberties with the mailed hand
detested and abhorred war as the
most futile and ferocious of human
follies. Franklin and Jefferson re-
peatedly denounced 1.-THE one with
all the energy of his rhetoric the
other with the 1amhent fire of his
wit. But not ou1 philosophers alone
Our fighting men have seen at close
quarters how hideous is the face OF
war. Washington said, My first
wish is to see this plague to mankind
banished from the EARTH" and again
he said, "We have experienced
enough of it's evils in this country
to know that it should not be wanton-
ly or unnecessarily entered upon"
There is no discordant note in the
utterances of our most eminent SOL
diers on this subject. The most
famous utterance of General Grant
the one which will linger longest
in the memories of men-was the
prayer of his war-weary heart, LET
US have peace" Sherman reached
the acme of his marvellous gift OF
epigram when he said, "War is hell"
And Abraham Lincoln, after the four