Here also is its great aliment; here are the seeds of the very evil it is sometimes vainly supposed to avert.

But I deny that these preparations are needed for just self-defence.

Consider the prodigious sums, exceeding in all two thousand millions of dollars, squandered by the United States, since the adoption of the National Constitution, for the sake of the War System.

Had such means been devoted to railroads and canals, schools and colleges, the country would possess, at the present moment, an accumulated material power grander far than any it now boasts.

Overflowing with intelligence, with charity, with civilization, with all that constitutes a generous state, ours would be peaceful triumphs, transcending all yet achieved, and surrounding the land with an invincible self-defensive might…

Such men will possess a Christian greatness, rendering them unable to do an injury; while their character, instinct with all the guardian virtues, must render their neighbors unable to do an injury to them.

Whatever may be the infirmities of our passions, it is plain that the natural state of man, assuring the highest happiness, and to which he tends by an irresistible heavenly attraction, is Peace.

The proper rule is, In time of Peace cultivate the arts of Peace.

Condemning the War System as barbarous and most wasteful, the token and relic of a society alien to Christian civilization, we except the Navy, so far as necessary in arrest of pirates, of traffickers in human flesh, and generally in…

Fortifications are instruments, and standing armies are hired champions, in the great Duel of Nations.

It stands before us, a colossal image of International Justice, with the sword, but without the scales,--like a hideous Mexican idol, besmeared with human blood, and surrounded by the sickening stench of human sacrifice.

Here I shall unfold the tendencies and examples of nations, and the sacred efforts of individuals, constituting the Peace Movement, now ready to triumph,--with practical suggestions on our duties to this cause, and a concluding glance at…

Civilization now writhes in travail and torment, and asks for liberation from oppressive sway.

Like the slave under a weary weight of chains, it raises its exhausted arms, and pleads for the angel Deliverer.

By your own energies, through united fraternal endeavor, will the tyranny of War be overthrown, and its Juggernaut in turn be crushed to earth.

In this spirit, and with this encouragement, we must labor for that grand and final object, watchword of all ages, the Unity of the Human Family.

Not in benevolence, but in selfishness, has Unity been sought in times past,--not to promote the happiness of all, but to establish the dominion of one.

The common good and mutual consent are its enduring base, Justice and Love its animating soul.

Here is the vital elixir of nations, the true philosopher's stone of divine efficacy to enrich the civilization of mankind.

And just in proportion as these find recognition from individuals and from nations will War be impossible.

Voluntary associations, confederacies, leagues, coalitions, and congresses of nations, though fugitive and limited in influence, all attest the unsatisfied desires of men solicitous for union, while they foreshadow the means by which it…

There is, first, the Swiss Republic, or Helvetic Union, which, beginning so long ago as 1308, has preserved Peace among its members during the greater part of five centuries.

It is in the order of Providence, that individuals, families, tribes, and nations should tend, by means of association, to a final Unity.

History bears ample testimony to the potency of this attraction.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.