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 THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 
 
 DEDICATED TO TfiE 
 
 Cabinets at Washington and Richmond, 
 
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 dethroned, Citizenship is at an end 
 
 RICHMOND : 
 
 RITCHIE ft DUNNAVANT, PRIMERS 
 1863, 
 
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 George Washington Flowers 
 Memorial Collection 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 ESTABLISHED BY THE 
 
 FAMILY OF 
 
 COLONEL FLOWERS 
 
THE TIMES! 
 
 The condition of our country and the progress of our time bring; 
 home to every reflecting mind consequences that outweigh the ex- 
 isting estimates of civilized life. History affords no parallel equal 
 to the present condition of this on land and countiy. Sages and 
 savans for ages to come, may toil in the fruitless endeavor to solve 
 the questions which that condition involves. A people, inhabiting 
 in peace a country with prosperity unequaled and influence un- 
 bounded, wrecked in desolation from inability to meet that diver- 
 pity of opinion and interest which is ever the universal behest of 
 Heaven to make the efforts of man effectual to secure the ends of 
 life. 
 
 We find ourselves to-day environed by consequences fatal to 
 the United States as a nation, and alike portending evil to the 
 whole country, with the greatest of questions unsettled — the mo- 
 mentous question of peace or war. 
 
 Contention and strife rob nations; desolate lands once fair and 
 fruitful ; and we are left to recoil from the frightful ravages made 
 by man upon his fellow. Did it stop here, we might theorize upon 
 the common casualties of life. But nature, in our civic immatu- 
 rity, produces an abortion, contrary to the human instincts, since 
 the first innate principle of being is self. The brute protects its 
 own, but man, a patrimony of Heaven, robs nature and gives death 
 to life. Brother is arrayed against brother, and father against 
 son, and this for whatf To establish right ? Then the great in- 
 nate principle of all life is wrong, for self-protection is the first law 
 of being. A monstrous wrong is war : 
 
 First — Because all men are opposed to being themselves injured. 
 
 Secondly — It leads to the injury nf some other one equally enti- 
 tled to the benefits of life and liberty. 
 
 If need be we would say, we are commanded when smitten on 
 one side, to turn the oilier ; but we are no apologists for such a 
 
doctrine, seeing it would annihilate the very instincts of nature, 
 as manifested in all the animal creations, from the greatest to the 
 least. And what is true of an individual, is equally so of a na- 
 tion ; for individuals are the stars that form the handiwork of its 
 greatness, as drops make the ocean, and sands the shore. Rea- 
 son, judgment, justice and virtue — peace, prosperity, human hope 
 and happiness — all make the common weal of both men and 
 country. 
 
 Is it not strange that there is never contact, but passion, preju- 
 dice, suspicion, fancied injury, revenge and jealousy — all form the 
 elements of destruction, while on them is based, at least, the appa- 
 rent weal or woe of mankind ? Our once common nation is now 
 .convulsed to its very centre. From within and without comes the 
 fearful cry of mighty wrong. Justice has been fledged of her 
 birth; duty forgotten; humanity dead, and the creature of passion 
 (war!) roams with the velocity of lightning over every recognized 
 right of freemen ! Loss, bordering on perdition, unless the supre- 
 macy of truth can wave her extended arm around the sorrowing 
 hearthstones, and make glad the home of the brave in the freedom 
 of its right. 
 
 There is a time in the history of nations as well as in the ex- 
 periences of men, when we are called upon to pause and reflect. 
 With duty upon the one hand and infinite destiny on the other, 
 we are ever made triplicate to the great creation around us. We 
 cannot shun the responsibility to God, self and country, if we 
 would, even though slaughtered millions lay at our beck, for at: 
 infinite destiny marks upon our hand the future results of its time. 
 
 All history, of which man has knowledge, all time, all nations 
 and every manner of people, may summon together their sub- 
 stance of life, and the war cry is ever heard. Desolation and 
 blood have been the passports to eternity. And why is this ? Is 
 it a part of nature ? Is it that creature and creator are at war? 
 Is it that God is avenged on the work of his own hands ? Or is 
 it not rather the failure to appreciate and apply the consequences 
 resulting from what every heart's sigh deifies as wrong? : To take 
 that, the life of another, to say nothing of the commands every 
 christian people profess to reverence as the sum of divine autho- 
 rity, and which say " thou shalt not kill ; thou shalt not steal" — 
 
it is a parody upon human reason and recognized right ; a falsity 
 in nature, a truism in God. We must master the one, or suc- 
 cumb to the other. 
 
 Thinking and reflecting miuds would say, that justice should 
 form an equipoise between differences of whatever nature. Man 
 should not abolish reason, and substitute passion. Life should not 
 become death to arbitrate the rights of the surviving ; for when 
 dead, the exercise of this principle is supplanted in God. But 
 human nature is averse to war. Human hope is opposed. All 
 experience answers in the dreadful notes of its calamitous bear- 
 ing upon the great good of all people. Still its ill effects deso- 
 late the earth, and make man a murderer and an outcast ? Do 
 you ask why ? We readily answer : 
 
 Because your nation is false : because the highest incentives 
 known to the human heart are foisted into the hypocritical arena 
 of conscience : because man is dead and insensible to the living 
 light of his own soul: because' cimiHied and chruticmized people 
 call upon their God to help them murder, while daily repealing 
 the commands, '-thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal," and 
 while singing paeans to the praise of that inspiration which says, 
 w - when smitten on one cheek, turn the other." And all this for 
 the glory of Heaven, and the humanizing influence of this enlight- 
 ened and christian people, while days are appointed for thanks- 
 giving and prayer to ascend to Heaven in adoration to the same 
 great dispenser of human events over your slaughtered brothers ! 
 Creature and Creator are thus brought in contact ! 
 
 Again, it hath been said. " a house divided against itself, cannot 
 stand;'' but christianized humanity calls upon its God to minister 
 an unsparing hand, and desolate the creature of his own making! 
 Such is the life we inherit to-day. 
 
 But while stating these plainest of facts, it is not our object to 
 grieve over the past. Let us be benefited in the future. Must 
 the sad realities of war eter visit us 1 Must murderous death and 
 relentless desolation ever be our portion ? Yes — so long as we 
 are insincere and false to the first principles of life. But if reason 
 is above passion, right above wrong, we have a basis of action 
 upon which ail differences of opinion as well as interest may iiud 
 an easy solution. It is strange and has no parallel, when men 
 
will pause and reflect, that these great questions of national good 
 and enduring right have not met with their just estimate. Liberty 
 is more than oppression. The distinction that forms the inevita- 
 ble consequences of desolation, is so plain that none need mis- 
 take it, were they free to do so. It is the misappliance, the dis- 
 organized relation of that evident principle that regulates the 
 destiny of individuals as well as nations, that brings upon us the 
 fearful consequences of dissolution, both civil and military. The 
 system of the United States government is imperfect, disjointed, 
 and the consequence is as saddening as the defects are palpable 
 and plain. Why not then remedy the evil by a final dismissal of 
 the ends and acts that destroy it ? But it is equally applicable to 
 all conditions o.f human kind, be they high or low, great or small. 
 Climate and country enjoy the universal behests of time and con- 
 dition, all subservient to natural law, so that man as man, may 
 be made partaker of a common bounty as extended as life and as 
 universal as £rod, and still we seem inadequate to their benign 
 administration. 
 
 I need not traverse back o'er the past, nor measure the diver- 
 sified conditions of human life. Neither is it necessary to follow 
 the rise of empires or the decay of nations. All are alike, and no 
 one forms an exception to the inexorable law of desolation. Yet, 
 humanity has but one God, and justice oae trust — the dispenser 
 of universal good to the race. Clothed with the inalienable rights 
 of conscience, makes us men to subserve the ends of life, and pre- 
 pares all for its natural diversity. We cannot ignore these stub- 
 born facts; and when duly considered, they must lead to benefi- 
 cial results. 
 
 I would propose there should be no more war. Stranger than 
 fiction, says my friend, such a proposition. In the diversified con- 
 dition of humanity, war is an inexorable necessity. As men are 
 now constituted, they must be governed with might. No rule could 
 adapt the conditions of man to the estimate of peace. Its standard 
 would be too high to render full and adequate justice to all men. 
 We will see. If there is a universal law of life, there is a uni- 
 versal conformity to the conditions of that life. To say there is 
 not, is to say it does not exist. What those conditions are, is the 
 problem of humanity, and the life throes of nature have paid the 
 
■debt thrice over, and still they will not be heard. Forensic elo- 
 quence in the halls of your nation, has been as clods upon the 
 conscience of our people, and it has drenched humanity with the 
 subterfuges of life. 
 
 My hope of human happiness and eternal good rises not with 
 the dust of battle and the diu of arms. But my thoughts and 
 feelings rise to a just estimate of the condition of all men, whether 
 noble or ignoble, so called. We must ever rise above the condi- 
 tion of conflict, to find a recipe for its benefit. Fancied interest, 
 party or prejudice, must be laid aside. A more extended view of 
 life and its -benefits demand our recognition, before we can be 
 ■equal to their ultimate condition. 
 
 There is no diversity of opinion as to the frightful slaughter of 
 our people. There is but one song of lamentation and sorrow 
 rhat sweeps o'er this once happy but unfortunate country. The 
 results of war, and the admitted casualties incident to it in the 
 most favorable aspect leave but one breath, and that of sorrow 
 and dismay. Such being the case, may we not hope for a brighter 
 day 1 May we not look for the morn of life, whose kindred emo- 
 tions shall swell the heart in harmonious strains to one universal 
 God, whose precept and practice will not accord its hallelujahs for 
 brothers slain ! But how is this to be attained ? When men come 
 to recognize that right is above might. Because I have the physi- 
 cal ability to do you bodily harm, it does not follow that I have 
 the right to do it. But on the contrary, having the ability, is the 
 infinite reason why it should not be done. Learn this of nature 
 and her God, and do not pray him to become a party criminis to 
 the hellish deeds you would hold for your adversaries. But feel 
 there is a principle above the right and the wrong — for even the 
 right is a secondary clause in the apocalypse of nature — and that 
 is yourself, the creature ; and you are brought in contact with the 
 cou'lition; and if not above that condition of antagonism, you 
 will never be equal to it for good. Consequently, man should live 
 a life of precept and principle, recognized in the great chart of 
 humanity, to escape all wrong and inspire every action to the con- 
 summation of all good. To do this, it is not necessary to confine 
 ourselves to that paraphernalia of thought limited by our special 
 views of propriety or people. We must study the great lesson of 
 
8 
 
 nature or humanity, from its" unbounded diversity. A universal 
 principle incapacitates no people from its beneficial results. If 
 we cannot humanize and fraternize upon a mere question of life 
 and death, God forbid that we should still call ourselves christian- 
 ized ; for until this is done, these abortions of nature cannot be- 
 come so secondary in their influence as to enable us to realize this 
 hope for the good of man. 
 
 I might well propound, Is there one thing on earth, one hope 
 of Heaven, that will warrant us in the belief from which recog- 
 nized humanity will not dissent ? I ask the question, Is it wrong 
 for one man to take the life of another, to redress his grievances ? 
 I ask it in principle, I ask it in theory, and I ask it in fact. Why 
 all civilized countries answer that question most emphatically by 
 rule and order, to set aside passion and frenzy and distribute jus- 
 tice, dignified by laws, courts and governments. If it is wrong in 
 an individual, it is equally so in a nation. And if we judge of 
 the enormity by the effect — and it is for this exigency all law is 
 required — it is greater, aye, more than greatness itself. 
 
 Look at the desolate hearthstones in this once happy land. 
 Made so by any part or action of theirs ? No ! Thousands of 
 exceptions of this kind, weigh with the weight of eternity upon 
 the administrative policy of the existing government. Its enor- 
 mity is beyond comprehension. Why ? The innocent too often 
 suffer while the guilty repose at ease. With results so fatal to 
 the peace of man, the individual is made a party in his own con- 
 dition, undesired, unsought. Thus the nation makes her difference, 
 wielded by the omnipotent arm of power, injustice to all. The 
 widow and the orphan ; the maimed and the wrecks of humanity 
 become her inheritors for the proud task she displayed in her 
 misdirection. 
 
 Then I would propose, that* we have war no more r and peace 
 universal should be the triumphal car in which all diversities, in 
 sober thought., might ride triumphant throughout the land! 
 
 If it becomes necessary to have a judiciary or the recognized 
 forms of law for the purpose of adjusting the differences among 
 men, is it not equally necessary to have a tribunal equally effec- 
 tive in purpose among nations ? An answer in conformity to this 
 is well established in what is called international law. But this 
 
9 
 
 international law as jet is but a sparrow upon the hawk; the 
 great bugbear of freedom, human liberty and constitutional light. 
 I care not what the varied forms of government are, there is a 
 settled principle of right that demands a recognition universal. 
 The essential element of all government is life. Then it should 
 be protected; not left to diplomatic inter< ourse and the etiquette 
 of courts. Such mushrooms grow in a night, and fortunately for 
 human interests, fall in a day. How, then, shall we proceed to 
 effect what humanity most needs ? To do this, we have to go be- 
 yond courts, and even country, and stand upon a platform of 
 universal right. That right in God we ever have. Not to subvert 
 the Creator's wiil and wisdom by taking that we cannot give, that 
 we may inherit ill abroad and discontent at home, but to live a 
 life of peace and good will to men. Who is there, then, that will 
 object to this ? None ! Let us, then, come to the confines of the 
 grave, and bury forever the war cry upon our brothers, and culti- 
 vate those great principles of love and justice to our fellow-men, 
 by doing to others as we would they should do to us ; by abolishing 
 the war code from the statutes of nations, all breathing alike a 
 healthful enthusiasm of life, justice and truth. 
 
 Trust and confidence would inspire mutual respect. National 
 greatness would be goodness. All would seek to emulate those 
 principles they now call upon their God to destroE. I summon 
 all prejudice, passion and power to do away with an example so 
 worthy as the one which I propose for the universal benefit of all. 
 Not one dismembering the fixed conditions v, hich have been the 
 status of country and court, leveling all the prominent obligations 
 of life and liberty thereto, but establishing these. 
 
 I charge all nations with an absorption of the true eLc-ments of 
 their nature. It is sucking the life-flows of its own existence ; de- 
 moralizing and deadening its influence, and bringing to decay its 
 own greatness, so long as the fundamental law of life is un- 
 heeded. It is a plain demonstration; it requires no thought, 
 what I propose for the subjugation of this great error, war. The 
 infant mind can comprehend it. It is a part of ourselves that 
 respects it. What is it, then ? 
 
 I propose that every nation shall disarm, beating their imple- 
 ments of destruction into instruments of construction, by mutual 
 2 
 
10 
 
 consent. And why ? Because their use subverts the true prin- 
 ciples of life. Because their use and maintenance is an inver- 
 sion, opposed to the Creator for the destruction of his creatures. 
 Because every impulse of humanity is opposed to war. Because 
 every legalized and recognized nation on earth opposes in princi- 
 ple and practice its exercise, by law and order, in the civilized 
 walks of men. Nations should not practice of themselves what 
 they condemn in the individual sources of their existence. 
 
 But I am told that the natural relation of state to state and 
 country tp country, requires these mutual defences for their own 
 good ; for that mutual protection of interest allies their very ex- 
 istence and being as a people. As a counterpoise, we may add 
 that every nation requires and must maintain this inherent prin- 
 ciple or self-existing power, in order to subjugate those differences 
 of opinion and interest that might naturally accrue as the out- 
 growth of a great and mighty people. We admit this might be 
 -so, or is so. All countries have their diversities, their peculiar 
 interests and institutions, that should be fostered with paternal 
 care. We will not encroach upon the aggrandizement of a na- 
 tion or the well-being of any people, but we will substitute right 
 for might. We propose, therefore, 
 
 First — One grand council of all the recognized nations on earth. 
 Secondly— I would propose that each nation be equally represen- 
 ted, independent of condition or country, great or small. Wh} r ? 
 Because right is not measured by might, nor by wealth, fortune, 
 power, extent of country or influence. Were it a local or tempo- 
 ral interest, it should be measured, or represented by its effect, as 
 fifty men would have a greater interest than one man. But all 
 men have an interest in life and death, and the question we are 
 considering is war. 
 
 That council should be the sole arbitrator of the differences 
 among all nations and all peoples. Their decision to be final, 
 and beyond reclamation. Any nation dissenting from its decision 
 to be considered the enemy of mankind, and at war with the com- 
 bined world. This will, in effect enthrone reason and right in the 
 place of passion and power. It would lead to the demolition of 
 the nations' God ; that is, the ability of each to do the other the 
 greatest harm. Human language is insufficient to express the 
 
11 
 
 benefits to be derived from such a course. The human mind can- 
 not enumerate the sum total that would be saved by the existing 
 powers of the earth, in abolishing all the means and artifices of 
 war. The sums now expended would feed, clothe and educate 
 eveiy subject of their respective governments Thousands, nay, 
 millions of men taken from the ordinary channels of life, would 
 be restored to their country and their God. For all such are 
 alienated from the Creator by the unholy art and artifices of war. 
 Were we to leave out the horrible consequences of war in all 
 their details. And present it only as a financial consideration, there 
 is not one like it on earth. Talk of acquired greatness by the 
 success of arms. It is a lullaby to destruetion and a fallacy. For 
 the means expended would honorably acquire and make tenfold 
 greater acquisitions of empire and state than the combined armies 
 of the world. For such successes have only been the transient 
 sunbeams of the hour— they passed away. All history accords this 
 to have been the fate of nations by-gone. Where are they? 
 Mouldered and faded away. There is, then, a living principle 
 and an eternal right, that should actuate every bosom and freshen 
 every impulse for good. This principle we propose for the pacifi- 
 cation of all nations. 
 
 Now, what objection have we to offer? What sacrifice is to be 
 made ? None ! There is none ! It is a plain principle of right 
 on the one side and might on the other. 
 
 If nations were like the sun, never vacillating— a fixed fact— 
 we might hope for the end of strife; that some power might be 
 supreme, final, universal. All history, all time accords the fact 
 that they are vacillating, so as one ascends above the other, mu- 
 tual jealousies arise, and destruction with a hoary hand strikes 
 death and desolation. Cannot this be averted ? 
 
 Well, then, let us look at all its aspects. We may say, that our 
 institutions are peculiar, not consonant with the forms of govern- 
 ment in the olden world : that we vary ; sympathies and institutions 
 at variance with our friends. We must be exceedingly jealous, 
 or they will conspire to our ruin. Now, this is a fallacy. Nothing 
 more than the shadow to the substance ;" a subterfuge to beguile a 
 thought, an appeal to the lowest passions of man. Do no # t these 
 nations exist now as they would then ? Could not they combine 
 
12 
 
 to subvert our institutions, overcome and subjugate our country 
 more easily being armed, than without arms ? Are we willing- to 
 admit that we can live with them when we are equal in emergency 
 armed, but are unable to do so unarmed? Where is the dif- 
 ference ? The supposition that we jeopardize our country, our 
 liberty, is a fallacy in this view. Then let us meet the facts 
 as they arc, and stand forth as the great galaxy of stars that o'cr- 
 span and reflect upon the vast congregations of man alike for that 
 universal boon, freedom. 
 
 National or international law would not have a place for in- 
 trigue and corruption. Boundaries as definite as time and as solid 
 as eternity, would mark the future era. Man would stand forth 
 unsubjected to the wholesale destruction of human life. He would 
 not be in antagonism to the Creator and creature, but a part of 
 the fundamental law of right. 
 
 There is none so prejudiced, so insane, as to be willing to even 
 risk his convictions of duty and sense of right upon a matter of 
 interest, and refuse to submit to arbitration. While these plain 
 and ostensible facts come home with an appeal so calm and dis- 
 passionate that none can dispel them, why may we not be free 
 from the greatest of all horrors ? What so easy, so plain, so well 
 defined, as might be the province of this council ? Our nation- 
 ality, all law, internal or otherwise* would be secure; our commerce, 
 universal; why, it would be an expansion of the heart, an opening 
 of the soul ; a truth deified in Gocl, that all men dwell together in 
 unity. 
 
 The unmeasured diversity of human interest ever brings man 
 in contact with his fellow. To conciliate and harmonize their just 
 and equal differences, becomes the great part we have to act in 
 life. Country and condition, the essential elements of greatness, 
 broad and expansive, buried as are their forms, require at least an 
 exhibition in accordance with their true merit. To measure these 
 true diversities and paramount interests for individual good, we 
 have to step aside from the localized ideas that surround any na- 
 tion as a people, and breathe the healthful influence of common 
 confidence and trust. 
 
 We, as a people, have ever held paramount and sacred our in- 
 terest, at whatever cost. We have fostered and chided in the 
 
13 
 
 same breath. Interest and temporal aggrandizement has been 
 the star in midheaven upon which we, as a people, have ever 
 gazed with idolized affection, independent of the consequences 
 reflected from our action thereunto. 
 
 We must, now, become cosmopolites, laying aside party or fac- 
 tion. In other words, we must be freemen. To be so is not an 
 isolation; for we cannot be free ourselves, without according it 
 universally to our fellow-men. The depth of soul or the measure 
 of conscience is no safeguard to eternity, when its demoralizing 
 influence, with a trespassing hand!, wipes the escutcheon of divi- 
 nity, to obliterate a trust made sacred by Heaven. Man with his 
 fellow-man talks of freedom, and banishes the idol of oppression, 
 by lifting high in lofty measure the strains of conscience, and calls 
 God to be the rectifier, the distiller of events that must supersede' 
 all. Why is this ? Because his creed is a selfish one, guided by 
 arbitrary rules and decrees of fate. Because desolation breeds by 
 day and solaces by night his thought for the condemnation of his 
 fellow. Because the Christian'.- God is a respecter of persons and 
 a revenger of wrong, according to the localized idea. Because 
 time has chronicled fortune and misfortune as her birthright. 
 Because antipodes throw their shadows o'er the pathway of hu- 
 man events. Because life and death — two measured sentinels on 
 the charts of time — hasten on the events that are coming. 
 
 Is God a jealous God? The evil propensities of the human 
 heart that generate such a reflection, weigh as an incubus upon 
 our birthright. Is God no respecter of persons ? Then why cry 
 to Him aloud to be avenged of your enemies ? Why not strike 
 at the fundamental principle of all wrung, and set at right and 
 bring home to the inner man these exiled affections of the human 
 heart. Thus we may know that we have one Creator, who loves 
 his creatures; one duty and destiny inspiring honest effort for 
 good. No exiles to punish nor sorrows to cast away : bnt feeling 
 the emotion of a true and rightful allegiance to an Infinite Cause, 
 we may be prepared to be equal partakers of the bounty universal. 
 
 Peace and war is the fratricidal harem where is established that 
 idea that overthrows all right, and where death maintains its su- 
 premacy at whatever cost. The inalienable right of men has but 
 one significance, and that is the truth it bears for g>ood, and that 
 
14 
 
 can be perpetuated only by the true source of all life individually 
 considered. Individuals make the drops that form the great life- 
 currents of the mighty ocean of suffering and wrong. Individual 
 actions are the sources from which spring the great rivers of hu- 
 manity that flow into the mystic ocean where dread and dismay 
 accords a fate so universal. Temporary influence has acted and 
 reacted upon the great throes of nature, and still are they ever 
 convulsed. And why ? Because we are not in sympathy with 
 one accord, feeling for good. Jealousies and immunities depose 
 each other, and throw us into the great whirlpool, absorbing and 
 overriding each feeling expressed beyond a limited degree of finite 
 action. 
 
 Why are we as a people at war to-day ? Why, living as we do, 
 under every -professed obligation of duty, are we so averse to each 
 other ? Why have we left the old landmarks, and launched our 
 barques upon this boisterous ocean of discontent, that only too' 
 well suffices to bury our all ? Was it the oppressor's hamd ? No ! 
 Was it conscience ? No ! What was it ? ' 'Twas because man 
 had but one eye and saw nothing. It was because man was in- 
 different to the great interests committed to his care. It was be- 
 cause nature was throttled and impeded in her onward way. It 
 is because nature is not tied down. Because man is not equal to 
 this great diversity of sentiment and feeling prevalent in this our 
 land and country. It is because the great ocean of eternity does 
 not form its base in a consolidated idea at Washington. Nature 
 is averse to an aristocracy. The little stream flows as sweetly 
 and as musically as the mighty ocean in its furious roar. One 
 does not impede the other, but they mingle together in harmony. 
 Nature's vine-clad hills and snow-capped peaks form a unity in 
 unlimited diversity. A patrimony of Heaven to all alike equal. 
 Our people have failed to discriminate and maintain an equipoise 
 in the great balance that time is weighing for the future, and the 
 result is before us. The burning sands of the southern shore and 
 the ice-clad hills of our northern border are antipodes. Neither 
 fortune nor misfortune is the possessor or dispossessor of these 
 events. But we are mutual partakers of each — and is it not our 
 province to estimate them for what they are ? Is not the vege- 
 table and the animal kingdoms as different as a black man and a 
 
15 
 
 white man in their two extremes ? Can any government or 
 policy erase these decrees of nature ? Neither can any govern- 
 ment efface the result? of this day or the stubborn decrees of fate 
 that await its decay, unless they add the broad ad infinitum that 
 underlies the basis upon which this fabric of nature resl 
 
 The innate principle of man is consistent, though to a 
 extent in an imperceptible decree. For you will find that he 
 adapts himself to extremes of whatever kind. He does no! clothe 
 himself in the sunny shade as in the boisterous north. lie adapts 
 himself to the stupendous condition that brings all within his 
 circle of extent. But our government has legislated with but one 
 idea independent of conditions localized. It has gone to extremes) 
 not measuring in its capacitative form that spontaneity of cha- 
 racter and culture that is ever inevitable. 
 
 We speak of " union," of unity. There is unity in nothing only 
 as it exists in diversity. The unity of my body is in the free 
 exercise of each limb thereof. Not that one part is the other, but 
 each different in its use and effect — all oue combined whole — a 
 natural diversity with a distinct unity. So with any government, 
 I care not what may be its behests. Whenever it restrains the 
 natural, the free, the spontaneous action of its parts, it deadens 
 the impulse of the whole. For example : while the animal and 
 vegetable world in the north differs from the south, experience 
 ever tells you it would be fallacy to cultivate and propagate their 
 elements with success out of a given latitude. When nature 
 differs in her variety so marked, shall we suppose that in that 
 which is greater than the animal and vegetable world there is in- 
 sensibility to these universal behests of nature in man ? The forms 
 of thought and order like those of the animal world, subserve their 
 time in accordance with their capacity tor perpetuity and growth. 
 And, I ask, are they fit subjects to order and ordain for that to 
 which they are averse by the natural ties of growth and life ? So 
 do institutions and countries differ. And so i^ it with men, all 
 blending together in the universal and eternal. 
 
 What hope have we outside of the immutable, from which man 
 ever cometh, to which he ever tendeth ? What hope has any 
 people outside of the natural elements of which they are com- 
 posed ? According to the influence of climate and condition, is 
 
16 
 
 the unmeasured variety. Then let men be willing to let others 
 enjoy what they have of the same right divine. It is the failure 
 of this thought in our government, that has lost to us the peace 
 we had. It is the narrow-minded and contracted views of right 
 that have been measured by every door sill, not knowing that God 
 in humanity dwelt as much without as within their own scanty 
 habitation. It is this view that makes two contending parties, 
 brothers by nature, call upon the same God for desolation to each. 
 Where is the soul so lost to a human view, that with impious 
 thought c#uld look thus to its God, and not fail to recognize in its 
 fellow-man' the creature of His hand? When will reason, when 
 will right usurp the power over wrong, and enthrone on judg- 
 ment's high seat the equal desert of each — who blasphemes the 
 nature he bears, when in holy condolence he prays and grieves 
 over his slaughtered dead ? What hell so low is there to bury 
 an inconsistency so foul as this mockery of virtue, truth and right. 
 This is the christian's God; the nation's fall and humanity's 
 blight. Rather let hell usurp the throne, than such prayers meet 
 their recompense and reward. 
 
 We have viewed at some length the discrepancy arising from 
 the varied conditions of men — their solid imperfections in govern- 
 ment as well as in individuals. And in scanning their results, 
 our object has been to awaken some thought that will arise above 
 the present unhappy condition of our country. In doing so, we 
 are compelled to hold out the differences that exist, in such .a 
 manner as to be able to appreciate the inextricable difficulties into 
 which we have been forced as a people. 
 
 In the first place, no army, however victorious, ever settled the 
 true questions of difference which led to the fatal results of war. 
 The taking the life of one man or of millions ; the expenditure of 
 one dollar or the impoverishing of a nation, has never affected the 
 cause of difference, nor made it right or wrong. It is justice and 
 judgment, or that which too often supersedes both, namely, power, 
 that settles these differences. If the latter, it is that which should 
 ever add shame to the victor. If the former, it is that which ever 
 existed, ere the death notes were heard in the land ; and they 
 come as the return of spring after the desolate winter of war has 
 Said its unwelcome hand upon the innocent and confiding. Why, 
 
17 
 
 then, cannot man look in the face the plainest of all facts, the re- 
 sult of such a demolition of nature as war ? 
 
 What means the proffered offering of a foreign power of media- 
 tion? Were it accepted, does it remove the mistaken causes 
 which have led us to desolation and death ? Are not the same 
 questions now to be settled that existed before ? Does not that 
 very act, or its proposition, say, in tones of clearest light, that 
 passion and frenzy ruled the day ? Does it not say, or appeal in 
 significant terms to that which is mightier than nature, reason 
 and judgment, that we may have peace ? And I ask every recog- 
 nized conception of man, whether or not we are not like two 
 mighty animals goring each other to death ? Can justice appor- 
 tion to each any thing more? And the proposition for interfe- 
 rence amounts to a cessation of strife till their blood may cool ; 
 that the consequences of an effect so monstrous and hideous may 
 be 'seen in its true light ! This is the highest and most elevated 
 plain upon which our country stands to-day, and its natural sur- 
 roundings are evident to all men of common sense, who allow 
 justice and peace to ascend above passion and prejudice. 
 
 But that we may have all that can be possibly claimed for those 
 who advocate the existing conditions of national defence and 
 glory, so termed, we would say let the existing government that 
 overthrows or displaces its opponents, propose to all to disarm 
 and return to reason, to adjust upon nature's broad platform, the 
 differences that will still exist. I stop not to dilate upon the 
 moral grandeur of such a spectacle. I simply appeal to the ex- 
 isting good sense and sound principles of our people, ere another 
 departure overthrow us forever. But we do not wish to confine 
 ourselves to our own condition as a special application or object j 
 for were we to do so, it would be entitled to a twofold bearing, 
 from the fact that one party requires simply to be let alone, and 
 the other, the aggressor, at least so far as the finale of life and 
 death is concerned, is intent on conquest and power — but we will 
 take any two contending parties, separate and distinct powers, not 
 questioning their differences or difficulties, allowing it to be suffi- 
 cient that they exist. One subdues the other. Does it lead ad 
 vertum to the result, that the power failing to succeed is wrong ? 
 Does it affect the principle of justice recognized among men? 
 3 
 
18 
 
 Does it confirm or destroy the principle of right? That either 
 party would be ashamed to own. Then, how fallacious, how 
 foreign to the true instincts of mankind, to your own country, is 
 the use of force ? 
 
 Is there any basis of observation that would allow a great na- 
 tion, because it has the physical ability, to crush a lesser one ? 
 Does that establish right and ignore wrong ? Not at all. 'Tis a 
 suicidal policy, averse to the dictates of the conscience, and a 
 dead letter in the alphabet of being. Is it that nations have 
 more confidence in might than they have in right? — who profess 
 to be so tenacious of their honor, and still allow the lie to be sanc- 
 tioned with the blood of their fathers, and deified on the tombs of 
 their sons ! And can they still cherish a love for war ? — or would 
 they not rather seek those natural defences born on high to rule 
 upon earth, that good will may be cherished among men ? 
 
 The existing condition of armed protection all see is an admis- 
 sion of national falsity in practice, and should be abandoned. 
 Whenever disturbances become evident, they should be placed in 
 the balance, and justice awarded where duty ordered. It is 
 clearly proven that no amount of life or treasure expended affects 
 the relation of opposing powers, of whatever degree. It is, then, 
 to the pen, to the head, the heart, the conscience and duty we 
 owe to creator and creature, to admit the results that have 
 weighed, like a mighty incubus, upon the great family of man, 
 and say, that war shall be no more. 
 
Hollinger Corp. 
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