War is the institution established for the determination of justice between nations.
Charles Sumner
The Public Record
Charles Sumner was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American advocate for the abolition of slavery, and after the war he was a key figure in the Reconstruction era, during which he and other Radical Republicans successfully fought to end slavery and ensure basic rights for Black Americans. He continued advocating for racial equality until his death, lobbying in his final days for a civil rights bill that served as a model for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historians credit Sumner with coining the phrase "equality before the law," which he first used as part of an early attempt to integrate Boston's public school system.
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In the event of controversy between these different jurisdictions, the Municipal Law establishes a judicial tribunal, and not War, as arbiter.
Only when we contemplate War in this light can we fully perceive its combined folly and wickedness.
As Slavery is an Institution, growing out of local custom, sanctioned, defined, and established by Municipal Law, so War is an Institution, growing out of general custom, sanctioned, defined, and established by the Law of Nations.
But the Law of Nations,--and here is a point of infinite importance to the clear understanding of the subject,--while anticipating and providing for controversies between nations, recognizes and establishes War as final Arbiter.
Much is always gained by a clear understanding of the question in issue; and the cause of Peace unquestionably suffers often because it is misrepresented or not fully comprehended.
Waiving, then, these matters, with their perplexities and difficulties, which do not in any respect belong to the cause, I come now to the precise object we hope to accomplish,--The Abolition of the Institution of War, and of the whole War…
If I am asked to sympathize with the efforts for freedom now finding vent in rebellion and revolution, I cannot hesitate to say, that, wherever Freedom struggles, wherever Right is, there my sympathies must be.
If I am asked--as advocates of Peace are often asked--whether a robber, a pirate, a mob, may be resisted by the sacrifice of life, I answer, that they may be so resisted,--mournfully, necessarily.
The answer to this question will necessarily affect the rights of three million fellow-citizens held in slavery among us.
Shall a people endure political oppression, or the denial of freedom, without resistance?
Our appeal is to the larger number who make no such application of Christian precepts, who recognize the right of self-defence as belonging to each individual, and who believe in the necessity at times of exercising this right, whether…
Of course all who subscribe to this renunciation of self-defence must join in efforts to abolish the Arbitrament of War.
Nor does this right imply the right of attack; for, instead of attacking one another, on account of injuries past or impending, men need only resort to the proper tribunals of justice.
No defence of property, no vindication of what is called personal honor, justifies this extreme resort.
One of these is the declared right, inherent in each individual, to take the life of an assailant in order to save his own life,--compendiously called the Right of Self-Defence, usually recognized by philosophers and publicists as founded…
Their introduction has perplexed the discussion, by transferring to the great cause of International Peace doubts which do not belong to it.
Naturally Peace is the longing and aspiration of the noblest souls, whether for themselves or for country.
Of Wisdom herself it is said, that all her ways are pleasantness, and all her paths are Peace.
There is nothing valuable which does not gain from Peace.
There is nothing elevated which is not exalted by Peace.
Peace is the distinctive promise and possession of Christianity,--so much so, that, where Peace is not, Christianity cannot be.
Let Peace exert her gladsome sway, and all other charities quicken into life.
Let Peace be removed, and all other charities sicken and die.
Peace is the grand Christian charity, fountain and parent of all other charities.
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