Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-05-27
The Disarmament Idea n,
Some Ne10 Lights of History

Some Ve1O Lights OF History
~ REDIT for first advancing the Amer
lean idea of international limitation
Of ornaments is now traced back one
hundred and twenty-eight years to the ever
fertile brain Of Alexander Hamilton. 1t was
in the spring of 1894 that John Jay, then
Chief Justice of the United States Supreme
Court, sailed as Envoy Extraordinary to the
Court of st. James on the most difficult
diplomatic mission of his career" England,
in her conflict with France was restricting
the freedom Of the seas in way that told
heavily against Americas foreign commerce;
while on this side Of the water the retention
Of the Western posts by British garrisons
at once menace and an affront to the
young Republic. To secure the nations
rights and at the same time avert war was
Jays exceedingly delicate task. In his ne
gotiations to that end he was guided by GER
tain instructions and suggestions, in the
course of which occurred these lines:
A stipulation that in case of war with
any Indian tribe, the other party shall
furnish no supplies whatever to that
tribe, except such, and in such quanti-
ty only, as it was accustomed to furnish
previous to the war; and the party at
war to have the right to keep agent
or agents at posts or settlements of the
other party nearest to such Indians to
ascertain the faithful execution of this
stipulation.
It may be desired-and would it not
be for our interest to agree-that nei-
Their party shall in time of peace keep
up any armed force upon the lakes, nor
any fortified places nearer than --
miles to the lakes, except for small
guards (the number to be defined) sta
toned for the security of trading
houses.
These suggestions, although penned by
Randolph, then Secretary of State were in
principle but a re-draft of a memorandum
entitled, points to Be Considered in Jays
Instructions" which Hamilton previously
had written for the President. So, at least,
Professor Samuel Flagg Bemis now argues
upon the strength of documents lately
brought to light from unpublished papers of
Lord Granville, with whom in the capacity
of British Foreign Secretary Jay conducted
negotiations, and also from Canadian
chives at Ottawa. Touching this evidence
the American Review Of Reviews directs at
tention to a significant paragraph, hitherto
unnoticed by historians, in jays draft OF
September 30, 1894: mo armed vessels -
the notes run, shall be kept by either of
the parties the lakes and waters through
which the boundary line between them pass
es. 1t being their earnest desire to render
mutual justice, confidence, and goodwill,
sufficient barrier against encroachment and
aggression. Under influence Of these mo-
tives they will, as soon as circumstances
shall render it seasonable, enter into ar
rangements for diminishing wholly with
drawing all military force from the borders"
It was tWenty-fOur years later, in the Treaty
of 1918, that the principles thus enunciated
were put into practice along the boundary
between the United States and the Dominion
of Carbohydrates which from that day
to this have proved to be as feasible as ben
eficent in these two countries relationships,
and which at length have been extended to
program embracing the great Powers of all
the world.
The disarmament idea dates a. vast deal
further back of course, than Alexander
Hamilton, or America, or even the begin
nings of what we call modern times. 1t was
beautifully visioned, more than twenty-six
hundred years ago, by Isaiah when he was
Secretary of State to King Hezekiah: They
shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruninghooks nation shall
not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more" It. was
happily though fitfully exemplified in the
Olympian peace periods of Hellas, and also
in Medieval Europes Truce of God 1t
haunts the minds Of men with persistence
that marks it as springing from the deeps
OF human needs and hopes. Now, with the
World War tragedy for background, 1t
appeals more tnan ever cogently to work-a-
day reason as we'll as to lofty Imagination.
Far it may be from it's goal, or nearer may
hap than we dream; but in the process of
that History wherein thousand years are
as a watch in the night it moves as nightly
forward as the march of the stars.