fifteen millions of dollars, for the period of thirty-six years, we are entirely unable to conceive.*

There is another subject whose bearings upon this matter of the necessity of war, we will allude to, and then draw our remarks to a close.

In a time of general tranquillity, we are suddenly shocked with the intelligence of barbarous outrages committed on the persons and property of our fellow-citizens, by savage Indian tribes. Stung to the madness of despair, they are disencumbering themselves of every embarrassment, murdering even their own infants in order to be free from their charge, and resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible. It must not be supposed that Indian tribes, dwelling within the territories of the United States, are unacquainted with the power of our government. The lesson which our government seems to have been mainly anxious to impress upon their minds, is the lesson of its power. Savages as they are, they possess a natural acuteness, which has led them to calculate the consequences of a conflict with the United States. They know they are engaged in a struggle in which they must ultimately be subdued, it may be, exterminated. The principal chief of the Seminoles is said to have stated how long he expects to be able to hold the government of the United States at bay.

It is natural to inquire what can have aroused these savages to enter into so desperate a conflict. We are at peace with other nations; they cannot have been instigated by the arts, or bribed by the rewards of white men. We must look for the cause of their hostility in something which concerns their relations to the United States. What this something is, has not, although the war has now been raging about six months, been made the subject of any public official communication between the different departments of our government. In the silence of the government, the people of the United States are left to gather from

* It will be distinctly observed that the injustice of our government in withholding the payment of the claims in question, is not chargeable on any one administration or any one political party, but upon all parties and upon all the Congresses of the United States for thirty-six years.

the reports of individuals and from their own surmises, what may have been the origin of the war. Report says that a most iniquitous treaty has been made between the commissioners of the United States and certain Indian chiefs who were not authorized to make such a treaty, and whom the commissioners knew to be unauthorized to make it. By this treaty these chiefs, without authority, conveyed away the lands of their nation; and the body of the nation, with other chiefs at their head have determined to resist its execution. This is said to be the origin of the war. With the recollection, still fresh in our minds, of an undoubted violation of the national faith pledged by solemn treaty, to one of the Indian tribes within our borders, and with a knowledge of the general policy of our government towards all these tribes, we believe that what report says, is substantially correct. The precise facts may not be so, but there seems to be a general acquiescence in the opinion that there has been, in some shape, great injustice. Ask almost any man whom you meet, what is the cause of this Indian war, and he will tell you, injustice. The Indians are stung by a sense of wrongs which their savage nature prompts them to attempt to wash out with blood. What candid man will say that these Indian tribes would have entered into a war with a nation so superior to them in power,-a handful of men, in a single section of the country, against the whole white population of the United States, if a policy founded in moderation, humanity, and equity, had been the unvarying policy of the European settlers of this continent, and of their descendants, in their intercourse with the Indian tribes? Yea more; who can believe that it has not been some particular act of injustice, some signal wrong, which, in the war in question, has so wrought up the savage passions?

Now with this Indian war we have nothing to do, except so far as it serves to illustrate our subject. It is not our business to complain of the policy of the government. But facts, we think we have a right to take, wherever we may find them, concern whom they may, whenever they contribute to shed light upon our cause. And what light do, what we have above as

sumed to be facts, cast upon the alleged necessity of war? They show it most clearly to be a moral necessity, a necessity founded in the avarice, the ambition, the iniquities of men. Let governments renounce their romantic notions of honour, adopt, and act upon the principles of common honesty, and the main spring of the necessity of war is broken.

In the remarks which we have thus made, on occasion of commencing a second volume, our design has been to give some general illustration of the nature of the object to which our work is devoted. The first volume was occupied, chiefly, with the discussion of general topics. In the present volume, while such discussion will not be excluded, it is our intention to adopt more the method of illustrating general principles by particular incidents.

Imploring for both writer and reader, the influence of that Spirit who is able to guide into all truth, and to imbue the heart with peace, to Him we solemnly commit our cause.

ARTICLE II.

THE CAUSE OF PEACE DEMANDS THE SPECIFIC ATTENTION OF CHRISTIANS.

BY REV. L. P. HICKOK, LITCHFIELD, CONN.

IF war could be abolished, and peace universally secured, the combined voice of mankind would admit it were a consummation devoutly to be wished.

But notwithstanding this admission, to some the whole subject of peace is but an Utopian scheme. To others, who admit the truth of inspired prophecy, universal peace is something that will take place in some distant age, but like the beauty of a fair morning, or the blessings of a fruitful season, it will be the absolute gift of God, exclusive of all human agency. Some entirely despair of its accomplishment, and feel that war, VOL. II. No. 9. 2

though terrible, is as inevitable as the tempest and the earthquake. Others stand aloof, and gravely rebuke its friends because they propose no one simple, undisputed principle, around which all may gather for common adoption and combined action. And others again seem to feel that no special effort is necessary, imagining that the general advancement of philosophy and Christianity will do the work.

We are persuaded that these views are fraught with no little danger to the whole cause of Christian benevolence and philanthropy. Their influence, so far as it extends, (and this in some of the above forms is over a wide portion of the community,) discourages all distinct attention to the cause of universal peace on earth. The first point is, to convince the advocates of Christian benevolence that something can, and ought to be done in the way of specific and direct action. The evils of war, in all their dreadful detail, should be exposed to view, its effects upon social enjoyment, national prosperity, civil liberty, life, morals, religion, and every thing which enters into the composition of human happiness, should be effectually exhibited, for the purpose of awaking and directing the feelings of mankind; but still the great object now is to bring the Christian community to feel obligation, and be excited by a sense of duty and responsibility. In our view, the church, (and we use the word as including all who believe and love the gospel), must put forth efforts with specific reference to the cause of peace, or war will forever remain spreading its mourning and woe over the face of the earth, and laying its obstacles before every movement of the good, in their efforts of humanity and benevolence.

The question does not seem to be, simply, whether "wars and fightings shall cease from under the whole heavens," but whether primitive Christianity shall become universal. Full and deep is our persuasion, that the church will soon see, and be obliged to admit, that the cause of benevolence most fearfully, and perhaps fatally, labours under the weight which the spirit of war is from every side throwing upon it. Some advances will doubtless continue to be made within the bor

ders of paganism, but so interrupted and insecure from the successive desolations of war, that what is gained in one interval of peace, will be almost entirely subverted and scattered "by the surge of the next returning tide."

It is a painful fact, that for the accomplishment of any great object of benevolence, so large an amount of the choicest talent and warmest feeling which the church possesses, must be turned in and spent upon herself. A professed reception of the gospel ought always to involve the possession of perpetual preparation to every good word and work. But alas! this is far from the fact. In every great enterprise we have been obliged to wear out a great proportion of our most precious materials upon the church herself. The cause of Foreign Missions affords a sad though conclusive demonstration. For thirty years this cause has been appealing to all that it is pious and benevolent in the church. Probably more time, and labour, and life, have been spent upon her members to excite them to the work, than have been laid out directly on heathen ground. And yet how far back do they stand from primitive example and present obligation! More Evarts, and Cornelius, and Wisners, with all that is lovely and precious in their spirit, are yet to be sacrificed to the criminal lethargy and covetousness of the church, before she will be ready of her own accord to take the simple commission of her Lord and Master, and go forth to put it in direct execution. The same was true in the efforts to suppress the slave trade; and in the cause of Temperance, we have the same fact before us. A great amount of capital must be withdrawn from its direct application, to be expended in the removal of the evil in question, and expended upon those to whom it is a sin to have needed the expenditure. On no subject is this more true than on that of universal peace. If the church was right and ready in this cause, the great work would be near completion. If she now stood on the high ground which she firmly occupied in the first two centuries,* the efforts,

The results of a thorough investigation of this subject, we believe to be still a desideratum. We have seen nothing as yet which fully satisfies us what ground the primitive Christians did take.—Ed. Advocate.