Year: 1861

of Constitution as will allow tho withdraw
al of those who wish to leave. We might
deeply regret the necessity of such mea-
sure, but, as last resort, it certainly would
be infinitely preferable to civil war.


! Civil war What world of crimes,
calamties and woes would it bring. God
forbid it should ever sweep its bosom OF
wrath and vengeance over our land. The
very thought is enough to make ones
blood curdle with horror. No arithmetic
could compute, no imagination conceive,
the sum total of it's evils. II money could
avert such doom, better bankrupt the
whole country for ages. We have heard of
plans to buy off slavery by paying some
twenty-five million dollars year for TWEEN
ty-fiye years, to States voluntarily emanci-
pating their slaves, more than six hundred
millions in all {; and better by far pay all
I this. and ten times as much more. than
plunge into war among ourselves. No man
ought for moment to think Of such a thing
as admissible in any event Thirty mil
lions, North and South, East and West,
should cry ont with one voice, It cannot,
must not, sha u not be. -.. ..


And why should it be in any evcnte Is
it possible that the descendants of Wash
ington and Jefferson, Of Hamilton and jay.
of Hancock and Adams, should ever meet
over the graves of such sircs to Undue their
hands in each others bloody Have we not
among US enough Of christianity, patriot
ism, Of common sense, to settle our own
domestic controversies by legal, peaceful
means Resort for such purposes to mu-
tual slaughter! The whole world would
cry shame upon such degeneracy and mad
ness. Can we consent thus to make our
peaceful religion or our free government a
by word, n Kissing and scorn over all the
earth? Men Of the North and the South,
brothers all joint heirs to richer inheri-
tance than the world ever saw before, shall
on any issue, or for any reason, steep in
fretricitlal blood the memory of our com.
mon ancestry, and thus blast the fairest
hopes Of freedom for the human race?


The answer to such appeals as these must
depend chiefly on those who create or con-
troll public opinion through the pulpit and
the press. 1t is in their power, under God,
to set at rest our fears on this subject, and
make sure, sooner or later, Of peaceful is
sue to all our troubles ..


Could better s4rvicc than this be per-
formed by our four thousand papers, and
our forty or fifty thousands pulpits? The
question Of peace or war among ourselves
for many ages to come may now hang on
the decision Of month or day. Was
there ever louder, more imperative call
upon US to dilfuse far and wide the princi-
Piles of peace? Here is the great source of
our evil-we have been educated to habits
Of war, not in principles Of Christian peace
1t is the lack of such principles that has
brought this crisis upon us; for people
trained in the habits of Christian peace,
would never have resorted to acts or threats
of Illegal violence for the redress of their
wrongs. If it be too late to meet the pres
ent case, now is certainly the time to avert
like evils in future and earnestly would
we solicit the spontaneous, habitual coop
Grafton of every pulpit and press in this
work of patriotism, philanthropy and relig-
ion.


un behalf Of the American Peace Soce
ty, by direction Of its Executive Committee


J. A. COPP,


j. w. PARKER,


,jan1arv 1851 q q RE(tk w NIrTu