ple in right, peaceful habits; such as shall effectually forbid a resort to the blind, brutal arbitraments of the sword, and demand the use of rational, legal means alone. Here is the grand desideratum. And how little would all this cost, compared with what is spent to support the war-system even in a time of peace, or to meet the incalculable evils inseparable from actual war! A mere fraction of what has been from the first wasted upon our own skeleton of a war-system, would have been amply sufficient. Had Christians in our country spent aright in this cause only $100,000 a year from its rise nearly fifty years ago-in all, scarce a single day's cost and loss of the present war to both parties, this gigantic rebellion could never have arisen. Alas! how short-sighted are even good men! They would not in season give one dollar for peace; and now they are obliged to spend or lose a hundred thousand in war and its nameless evils. The time, however, has not yet come to reckon up the sum total of these evils in a thousand ways and forms-in property wasted, in business suspended or deranged, in scores of thousands of lives lost, in families bereft and broken up, in villages burnt, and cities left in ruins, in the Sabbath desecrated, and enterprises of benevolence and reform arrested or crippled, in churches, schools and colleges closed, in a wide prevalence of irreligion, vice and crime, a fearful injection, perhaps for generations to come, of the war virus into nearly all the veins and arteries of society. We have no arithmetic that can fully compute these evils, And the worst of these will cling to us like the shirt of Nessus. We may sing paans, and raise monuments; but nothing can alter or efface the terrible facts of the case. Long will its malign influence be felt all over our land. It will infuse its war venom into the nation's heart, and thenceforth increase perhaps fourfold the expenses of our war-system, and the dangers of actual war. Our religion, our morals, our liberties will all suffer for ages to come. There is not a child now living that will survive them all. We may indeed expect some compensations for these, more or less; but if all history be not false, there will be a fearful and long-continued preponderance of such evils. God will doubtless overrule them all for good in the end, but only as he makes even sin and the Devil subserve the ultimate purposes of his wisdom and love. Nations, however, seldom learn much except from bitter experience; and on one point at least, we are in a fair way to be taught a lesson that we shall feel to the quick-the cost of this war. How much, nobody can as yet guess; but we shall soon learn enough to make us rue the day we entered upon such a career of war prodigality as took the nations of Europe long ages to reach. In this respect we have outdone all examples. Thus far we have only borrowed; but pay-day must come soon, and teach us for many a year, perhaps for many an age to come, what is meant by an omnipresent system of war taxation, like that of England so vividly sketched by Sidney Smith: "Taxes," he says, 66 upon every article which enters the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under the feet; taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell or taste; taxes, upon warmth, light and locomotion; taxes upon everything on the earth, and in the waters under the earth; taxes upon everything that comes from abroad, or is grown at home; taxes upon the raw material, and upon every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man; taxes on the sauce that pampers man's appetite, and the drug that restores him to health; on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal; on the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice; on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribbons of the bride. Taxes we never escape; at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay. The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, upon a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid seven percent., into a spoon that has paid fifteen per-cent., flings himself back upon his chintz bed which has paid twenty-two per-cent., makes his will upon an eight-pound stamp, and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble; and then he is gathered to his fathers-to be taxed no more." ABSTRACT OF THE TREASURER'S REPORT AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY in account with JOHN FIELD, Treasurer. For paper, printing, and other expenses connected with publications, $1,125 26 For agency services, and travelling expenses,.. For postage, rent of office, stationary, meetings, &c.,. For premium and incidental expenses, Balance to new account,. 818 55 147 71 45 28 20 81 $2,157 61 BOSTON, MAY 26, 1862.-We, the undersigned, have this day examined the above account of JOHN FIELD, Esq., Treasurer of the American, Peace Society, and find the same correctly cast and vouched. ANNIVERSARY PROCEEDINGS. The Americon Peace Society held its thirty-fourth anniversary meeting in the Winter Street Church, Boston, May 26th. At the business meeting, 3 P. M., Hon. AMASA WALKER, one of the Vice Presidents, was called to the chair, and, in the temporary absence of the Recording Secretary, J. W. Parker, D. D., chosen Secretary pro tem. Rev. L. H. Angier and H. H. Leavitt were appointed to nominate a list of officers for the ensuing year; and on their report, those of the last year were, with the exception of two changes by resignation, and three by death, elected as found on page 100. The report of the Directors was read by the Corresponding Secretary, and, with a slight modification, was adopted, after remarks by Rev. Mr. Perkins, Dr. Parker, W. C. Brown, J. P. Blanchard, Dr. Malcom, Rev. Warren Burton, Rev. L. H. Angier, George Merrill and Hon. A. Walker. The Report of the Treasurer was, also, laid before the Society and adopted. RESOLUTIONS. The following preamble and resolutions, explanatory of the Society's course, were adopted, viz : Whereas, the present rebellion in onr country necessarily exposes the friends of peace to sore and very peculiar trials, and our views to many serious misconceptions and misrepresentations; therefore, Resolved. I. That we find in the strange and bitter experience of the passing hour no reason whatever to change either our principles or our measures. 2. That we still adhere fully to the basis of the first Peace Congress in London, June, 1843, and adopted as the basis of all the subsequent Congresses held in England and on the Continent, viz: "That War is inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity, and the true interests of mankind; " and that our object in the Cause of Peace is "to show the world the evil and inexpediency of the spirit and practice of War, and to promote permanent and universal Peace." 3. That, in accordance with the recommendations of those Congresses, we earnestly desire "the adoption of the Principle of Arbitration for the adjustment of all international differences, and that stipulations be introduced into all international treaties to provide for this mode of adjustment, whereby recourse to war may be entirely avoided between such nations as shall agree to abide by such stipulation ;" and that, while favoring this plan of Stipulated Arbitration" as a measure most immediately available for the prevention of war, we still regard, as Peace Societies have from their origin, "a Congress of Nations to settle and perfect the Code of International Law, and a High Court of Nations to interpret and apply that law for the settlement of all national disputes, as that which should be urged upon governments as one of the best practical modes of settling peacefully and satisfactorily such international disputes." 4. That these resolutions designate the leading measures which the friends of peace ought ever to keep in view, until they shall have trained the general mind of Christendom effectually to demand and secure the adoption of these better means of international justice and protection in place of the sword, and thus gradually supersede the whole war-system as a relic of pagan barbarism and brutality. 5. That in treating the vast rebellion in our country as not coming properly or strictly within our province, but rather as a gigantic crime with which government must deal, as it does with all similar offenses, by a due enforcement of its own laws applicable to the case, we have neither contradicted nor ignored any of our principles, but have merely carried out the views distinctly proclaimed by our Society from its start. 6. That all our experience and reflection thus far constrain us more and more to regard our course in this respect as the only one either right, safe or practicable in the prosecution of our great reform; and we trust it will soon be understood, if it is not so now, that our cause does not aim to interfere with the legitimate, indispensable operations of civil government, but restricts itself to the single purpose of doing away the custom of war, or the practice of nations settling their disputes by the sword. To the above resolutions were added the following :— 1. That the concession by England and France of Belligerent Rights to our rebels, we are constrained to regard as utterly wrong in principle and tendency, as a practical endorsement and moral guaranty of the rebellion itself, as clearly violative of the obligations assumed by them in their treaties of peace and amity with us, and as virtually proclaiming to the world a rule of action fatal to all stable government, viz: that men who avowedly combine to commit the worst crimes known in the criminal code of our own or any other country, are just as deserving of approval, sympathy and aid, as our government itself in attempting to enforce its own laws, and thus bringing to condign punishment the disturbers of the public peace. 2. That we see no reason why this Society should cease to put forth earnest and vigorous efforts for the attainment of its great object, the suppression of the entire war-system; for, if war was ever wicked and cruel, it is so still; if ever absurd and useless, it is so still; if ever the greatest obstacle in the path of human progress and improvement, it is so still; or if there was ever a reasonable prospect of overthrowing the system by the silent yet powerful influence of Christianity, by the progress of commerce, and the triumph of reason and common sense over passion and prejudice, the present is pre-eminently the time when the friends of peace may labor with the best hopes of ultimate success. 3. That the occurrences that have taken place within the last year in this country, growing out of the sad and disastrous struggle in which we are engaged, clearly indicate a general revolution in the war-system, especially as carried on by sea; and we see good reason to expect that privateering, blockades, and the right of search, will ere long be abolished by the common consent of civilized nations, and that the ocean and all navigable waters of the globe will be neutralized. 4. That the wonderful changes recently made in the enginery of human destruction on sea and land, whereby its effectiveness is greatly increased, have a direct tendency to hasten the time when such enginery shall be disused altogether. PUBLIC EXERCISES. In the evening the Society met a t7 1-2. A select audience, larger than could have been expected under the circumstances, were present. DAVID THURSTON, D. D., long a personal friend of our Society's founder, William Ladd, and a zealous co-worker with him in our cause, who went at the age of more than seventy as a delegate to the third Peace Congress, held on the Continent at Frankfort, Germany, introduced the exercises by prayer, and by reading from the prophecy of Isaiah, 2: 2-5. Large extracts from the Directors' report were read by Dr. Beckwith, and the annual address was delivered by the President of the Society, HOWARD MALCOM, D.D. At the close, on motion of Hon. Amasa Walker, a vote of thanks was passed for the able and very timely address just delivered, and a copy requested for the press. At the suggestion of Dr. Beckwith, Mr. Walker was also requested to furnish in full a copy of his remarks, partially made at the Society's business meeting, on the present progress and prospects of our cause. We designed, but have no room, to give these remarks, so suggestive, and so pertinent to the times, in our present number. We shall publish them in the next Advocate, which may be expected in a few weeks. THE SOLDIER TO HIS CHILDREN. The following exquisite poem is taken from the Boston Transcript as written in camp, after a battle, by a soldier to his children at home. Darlings, I am weary pining: Shadows fall across my way; I am weary of the sighing, I am weary of the fighting; Brothers red with brothers' gore. I am pining, dearest, pining For your kisses on my cheek; For your loved words, darlings-speak! Tell me, in your earnest prattle, Darlings, I am weary pining; Shadows fall across my way; |