Persons occupied on land exclusively with the arts of Peace cannot be molested.

Like the Laws of the Duel, they should yield to some arbitrament of reason.

In the light of reason and religion there can be but one Law of War,--the great law which pronounces it unwise, unchristian, and unjust, and forbids it forever, as a crime.

Let it be impressed upon the heart of every one of you, impress it upon the minds of your children, that this total abolition of War upon earth is an improvement in the condition of man entirely dependent on his own will.

Will it, and War fades away like the fires of religious persecution.

Will it, and War passes among profane follies, like the ordeal of burning ploughshares.

Will it, and War hurries to join the earlier institution of Cannibalism.

Will it, and War is chastised from the Commonwealth of Nations, as Slavery has been chastised from municipal jurisdictions by England and France, by Tunis and Tripoli.

To arouse this public will, which, like a giant, yet sleeps, but whose awakened voice nothing can withstand, should be our endeavor.

The true character of the War System must be exposed.

To be hated, it needs only to be comprehended; and it will surely be abolished as soon as this is accomplished.

Strip away all its presumptuous pretences, its specious apologies, its hideous sorceries.

Above all, men must no longer deceive themselves by the shallow thought that this System is the necessary incident of imperfect human nature, and thus cast upon God the responsibility for their crimes.

They must see clearly that it is a monster of their own creation, born with their consent, whose vital spark is fed by their breath, and without their breath must necessarily die.

Recognizing these things, men must cease to cherish War, and will renounce all appeal to its Arbitrament.

This we are able to do; and so doing, we reflect new light upon the atrocity of a system which not only tramples upon all the precepts of the Christian faith, but defies justice and discards reason.

The most complete and permanent substitute would be a Congress of Nations, with a High Court of Judicature.

From the experience of history, and particularly from the experience of the thirty States of our Union, we learn that the occasion for any executive arm will be rare.

The idea of a Congress of Nations with a High Court of Judicature is as practicable as its consummation is confessedly dear to the friends of Universal Peace.

By formal treaties between two or more nations, Arbitration may be established as the mode of determining controversies between them.

The complete overthrow of the War System, involving the disarming of the Nations, would follow the establishment of a Congress of Nations, or any general system of Arbitration.

Then at last our aims would be accomplished; then at last Peace would be organized among the Nations.

Put together the products of all the mines in the world,--the glistening ore of California, the accumulated treasures of Mexico and Peru, with the diamonds of Golconda,--and the whole shining heap will be less than the means thus diverted…

Under the influence of such a change, civilization will be quickened anew.

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