admitted, that there is no connection between religion and poliitcs. Religion is a matter between man and his Maker. It may, perhaps, be well that some regard should be paid to it by individuals in their intercourse with each other; but in matters of legislation it has no concern. By virtue of this rule, divine injunctions, when they interfere with the immediate convenience of legislative bodies, are disregarded. For example: should it be convenient to hold a session on the Sabbath day, the divine injunction, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, is of no force. In virtue of the same rule, religious men abandon the right of suffrage, and leave the election of the rulers to others; and in investigating the qualifications of candidates for office, religious considerations are overlooked. The nation requires their services as magistrates and legislators. Farther than their capacity for the discharge of such services, those who are to give their suffrages need not inquire. In virtue of the same rule, grave senators and cabinet counsellors violate law both human and divine, are suffered to retain their stations, and perhaps afterwards promoted to those of greater dignity; men, at the bidding of a phantom, once and again, attempt to imbrue their hands in human blood, and yet aspire to the very summit of political elevation. With international relations, religion has, if possible, still less The rule of religion is, Do to others, as you would that others should do to you. The rule of diplomacy is, Do to others whatsoever dexterity in negotiation, subtle manœuvre and deep laid schemes, will enable you to do. In cases of differ ence, religion insists on the wisdom of forbearance, and the vir tue of a soft answer to turn away wrath; but diplomacy regards, on such occasions, brisk discharges of gallantry and menacing flourishes of arms as among her most brilliant achievements. And when questions of international difficulty are debated in halls of legislation, who is the statesman living that would venture to found his argument expressly on the principles of a Christian morality? The attempt to introduce such principles into the discussion, would excite wonder. We would know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest, is concern. thou bringest certain strange things to our ears-would, on such an occasion, be language most appropriately employed. Recently, when in the councils of the American nation a warlike policy was urged, on grounds of national honor of gal. lantry of chivalry-who rose to proclaim them discordant with the religion of the gospel? The religion of the gospel in halls of legislation! Religion may come there to furnish embellishments for oratory, but to offer her principles there as living principles of action, would be daring intrusion. Rejoice, O ye nations, in your freedom from religious obligation, and cherish your honor, and your pride, and your selfish passions; but know that for all this God shall bring you into judgment. Even as you proceed in your course, His judgments fall upon you— a necessary consequence of your divorce of religion from affairs of state; and among the most dire of these necessary judgments, is that of WAR. 4. Fourthly, the peaceful employments of life do not afford sufficient scope for the display of genius and courage. Abolish war, and where would be the field of human glory? Soon the voice of historic and poetic eulogy would be unheard—the monumental marble would no longer rise-and no new heroes would ascend to take their places in the firmament. To be a soldier of the cross, to march under the great Captain of salvation, to partake in the toils of Christianity and in its triumphs, are not enough! Man feels within himself desires which cannot thus be satisfied-aspirations after human applause and glory, which, since they are the promptings of his nature, it is necessary to satisfy. The sphere marked out by the Christian religion as the proper sphere for the exertion of the human faculties, is insufficient! Hence, it is necessary that there should be war. 5. Fifthly, youth behold from their earliest years immense importance attached to military achievements and display. Wars and warriors are the themes of the great poems of antiquity, which are leading subjects of study in the high places of education. Efface the remembrance of wars and warriors -and what would remain of history? How would statuary and monumental architecture be stripped of their honors! Without military costume and display, much of the pageantry of courts would vanish-kings and emperors could not appear in presence, of their subjects with becoming dignity-in our country of republican simplicity, we could no longer testify our respect for the Chief Magistrate, as he might happen to pass through the land. There are epochs in our history which deserve to be remembered the planting of a colony-the founding of a city by the arts of peace, in this land of the pilgrims-this asylum of piety-how could they be worthily commemorated without the noise of fife and drum, the display of colors, the burning of powder, the marching and evolutions of armed men? How common is such display on such occasions! And certainly it is no less proper than on occasions of founding churches, and consecrating cathedrals to the services of religion and piety. A system to which such deference is paid by his fathers, of which even the shreds and fragments, as exhibited in many militia musters, attract such attention; which is held forth to him by his instructors as one of the earliest objects for his admiration, the youth must regard, however much it may be at variance with the simplicity of the gospel, as a system of indispensable necessity. Thus regarding it, he will, in imagination, cherish the system, and with it, the necessity. 6. The last consideration which I shall adduce, to show the necessity of war, is, that international disputes cannot be settled without it. One government prefers a claim of debt against another. The justice of the claim is disputed. After loud words and lofty attitudes on both sides, the claimant resolves to expend a thousand fold more than the amount claimed, in prosecuting a war. The struggle is long and bloody, involving almost every kind of suffering and wretchedness, and sealing up the doom of many souls to the day of final retribution.-At length, the parties agree to cease from the war. A treaty is made, perhaps on the basis of equality, perhaps with the advantage against the claimant party. Nothing is said of the debt, but it is forever regarded as discharged. Such an admirable and efficient mode of collecting debt-who can fail to perceive and appreciate its necessity? Our seamen are taken from our merchant ships, and pressed into the service of a foreign power. Our foreign commerce meets with much obstruction from measures of blockade on the part of distant belligerents. We declare war. For three years it rages by land and by sea, with the destruction of villages and cities, of many thousand soldiers, and with the loss of many thousand sailors-not imressed into a foreign service, but mutilated and pierced, or dead-victims to the fury of each other's hands. A debt of millions is contracted.--Then a a treaty of peace is concluded. Changes not connected with the war have done away the subject of complaint, as it regards commercial restrictions, and the question of the right of search is waived. The contest, however, is not over. Commanders on distant stations, unconscious of the peace, continue the work of death, still fighting for the settlement of a difficulty terminated, by a treaty involving no one of the original points in dispute. Such a mode of settling difficulties between nations is undoubtedly necessary! A question of boundary between two States arises. In the original acquisition of the right of domain, the limits were left undefined. Or, it may be, the territory was acquired by purchase, and the boundaries, in the instrument of conveyance, were not marked with sufficient distinctness. Or, perhaps, war and conquest have given an entirely new face to political geography, but its features were not drawn with sufficient precision. If the dispute has arisen because no line of division has in fact ever existed, it is impossible to make one without first resorting to war. Or if it has arisen from an indefiniteness in the original settlement of the boundaries, no powers of research, no interpretation of language and of circumstances, no application of testimony, are competent to determine them. But let the parties meet on the field of battle, and endure the horrors of a war, then the boundary lines, as if by magic power, rise up to view with a distinctness which makes them susceptible of clear discernment. On a recent occasion, we have heard that our fellow citizens* were about to employ this mode of determining boundaries, and that they actually raised troops for the purpose. By what accident they have been prevented from carrying out a system promising such success, or what has enabled them to dispense with what seems so indispensably necessary, I am not informed. But let us be just: if, after all, we doubt the sufficiency of the considerations adduced to show the necessity of war, we must admit it to be necessary as a means of teaching nations who insult us and do us wrong, that they cannot do so with impunity. This topic will form the subject of a future paper. ARTICLE II. THE EXECUTION OF A DESERTER. BY A LATE OFFICER IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY. In civilized countries, where war is reduced to a science and a profession, the strictest discipline, enforced by penalties of the greatest severity, is required as a substitute for the ferocious passions and the deadly hate which, in savage nations, are found competent to the work of destruction. The dire work of war cannot be accomplished, where men fight from merely professional motives, or in obedience to their rulers, without a system of the most rigorous compulsion. The weaknesses, the tender sensibilities, even many of the outward vices, must be subjected to this system-individual volition must be suppressed-and the whole army move like so many machines, only as the will of some controlling agency shall direct. With the dreadful *Of Ohio and Michigan. |