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ENGLISH VIEWS OF OUR DUTY AS PEACE MEN.

Last autumn a leading member of our Society, (Hon. Amasa Walker) wrote to the Secretary of the London Peace Society, a very fair and pretty full statement of the difficulties into which our great rebellion had thrown the friends of peace in this country, and asked our English friends what they would have us do, or what they would themselves do in like circumstances. After five or six months, an answer came; but so far from meeting the case, it does little more than remind us of a certain chapter in Don Quixotte entitled, "a conclusion in which nothing was concluded." For any practical purpose, it is just no answer at all, and leaves the whole question, whether of principle or expediency, entirely untouched. It does not even attempt to solve our difficulties, but frankly says "we of the Peace (English) Society cannot say what we should do in a moment of extreme temptation." They feel sure, however, they "ought not to renounce their principles," as we say we have neither renounced nor contradicted ours; but what do these principles require us to do in such a case as ours? To remind us, that we acted, as we were forced to do, before consulting our English advisers, or to say, that we on the spot, familiar with all the facts, do not understand the case half as well as foreigners do, that our territory is forty times as large as that of England, or that the form of government, and diversities of local character and institutions are quite different, does not in the least relieve or enlighten us. Supposing all this were true, what ought we as peace-men to do? As soon and as long as we could with any hope of good results, we urged, in every feasible way, a calm, kind, earnest application of our principles to the case, the use of such legal, peaceful means as both parties had themselves, in their cool and candid moments, provided to meet just such difficulties. The government and its loyal supporters asked nothing more than this, but, scorning all such means, the banded slaveholding rebels persisted in their purpose to trample all our laws and constitutions under their feet, and, if necessary for their ends, to annihilate the government itself. Here we were; and what were we to do? Support the government, or join the rebels; enforce law, or abet wholesale crime? One or the other we were compelled to do in fact, if not in form; for real neutrality was impossible, and all who have attempted it, whether here or abroad, have in truth been among the most effective allies of the rebellion.

We do not wish now to discuss this subject; but we are quite anxious to have the friends of peace everywhere reach, if possible, some common, satisfactory conclusion upon it. Sooner or later, we must; for difficulties like these which now press upon ourselves, are very likely to overtake the friends of peace in every country. How shall they be met? Shall they, as our Society has from the first, treat government as a divine ordinance for the good of society? If so, it has a right to exist, to enact laws, and to put them in execution by any amount of force that may be requisite for the purpose. Nothing more than this has our government attempted in its efforts to suppress the gigantic rebellion still in progress among us. It has

only been trying to do its appropriate and prescribed duty; and if it may not or cannot do this, it ceases, in fact, to be a government. Shall peacemen oppose such enforcement of the laws, and thus practically say that our principles are subversive of all effective civil government? In this country, where the people are the sovereigns, and feel themselves responsible for the maintenance of law and order, nearly all objections to our cause have resolved themselves into this alleged inconsistency of our principles with the authority and legitimate, indispensable operations of government. We insist that our principles are not incompatible with government, but say that since our sole aim is to do away the custom of war, or the practice of nations settling their disputes by the sword instead of laws and courts, it is no part of our business to decide how any class of offenders shall be punished. The execution of the laws, whether civil or criminal, we leave to the government, and marvel that our loyal, peaceful acquiescence in its exercise of this acknowledged right and duty, should be construed into an endorsement of the war principle. It is a peace principle in fact; and we deem it a gross misnomer to brand a due enforcement of law as an act of war. It is never so called, except in a few extreme cases; for when offenders are punished for robbery, murder and the like, everybody regards it as a legitimate, necessary exercise of authority for the peace and order of society. What else is an effort to suppress a mob, an insurrection, or a rebellion? If the government may and should bring to condign punishment one criminal, why not ten, a hundred, or a million, charged with the same crime? Where does its right to punish in such cases stop, and why?

This subject we regard as vital to our cause. Its wide bearings are not as yet fully seen; but they will be whenever our reform becomes a living power. Should peace-men become in any country a majority, or a strong minority, and their principles were supposed to mean no coercion of wrongdoers, no punishment or "forcible restraint of men who should commit the worst of all crimes by the overthrow of the government itself, how long would Peace, thus understood and applied, be tolerated? We know no peace-men, not even Quakers, who hold such views of peace. They are indeed averse, as all peace-men are, to severe punishments, but recognise the right of government to punish crime, and thus protect society against the disturbers of its peace and prosperity.

What we want is a clue to our duty in the case now upon us. Generalities, however true, will not suffice; we wish to know precisely what we ought to do now and here. With the general facts and arguments in favor of peace, we have long been familiar, and admit them all. Nor can our friends abroad see so clearly, or feel so deeply as we do, the guilt and evils of the conflict into which our country has been plunged. We foresaw them all long before they came, and did what we could to avert them. all in vain, because our people had not been, as no other people in the world are, trained as yet in the principles and habits we inculcate, and are trying to diffuse through the land. It was just the lack of these that has

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brought our country where it is. Thus situated, how ought the friends of peace to act? If the case had been their own, how would the London Peace Society have acted-for or against their government; in favor of having the laws enforced, or of allowing them to be violated with impunity? Neutrality being out of the question, on which side would they have arranged themselves, or thrown their influence? If on the side of law and order, it would have been all that we have done, while we utterly condemn and deplore a resort, as forced by the rebels, to violence and bloodshed instead of the peace ful, legal, Christian means provided in our government for the settlement of all such questions.

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AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY.

CONGREGATIONAL LIBRARY BUILDING, 34 CHAUNCEY STREET.

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