362 Tlie Cost of War. [August, 



conceive these sums. Like the periods of geological time, or the 

 distances of the fixed stars, they baffle the imagination. Look, for 

 instance, at the cost of this system to the United States. Without 

 making any allowances for the loss sustained by the withdrawal of 

 active men from productive industry, to find that, from the adoption 

 of the Federal Constitution down to 1848, there has been paid 

 directly from the National Treasury — for the army and fortifications, 

 $266,713,209; for the navy and its operations, $209,994,687. This 

 amount of itself is immense. But this is not all. Regarding the 

 militia as part of the war system, we must add a moderate estimate for 

 its cost during this period, which, according to a calculation of an able 

 and accurate economist, may be placed at §1,500,000. The whole 

 presents an inconceivable sum total of more than two thousand millions 

 of dollars, which have been dedicated by our government to the 

 support of the war system — more than seven times as much as was set 

 apart by the government during the same period, to all other purposes 

 whatsoever ! 



Look now at the commonwealth of the European States. I do not 

 intend to speak of the war debt, under whose accumulated weight 

 these states are now pressed to the earth. These are the terrible legacies 

 of the past. I refer directly to the existing war system, the establish- 

 ment of the present; according to recent calculation, its annual cost 

 is not less than a thousand million dollars. Endeavor for a moment, 

 by a comparison with other interests, to grapple with this sum. 



It is larger than the entire profit of all the commerce and manufac- 

 tures of the world. 



It is larger than all the expenditures for agricultural labor, for the 

 production of food for man, upon the whole face of the globe. 



It is larger by a hundred millions, than the amount of all the 

 exports of all the nations of the earth. 



It is larger, by more than five hundred millions, than the value of 

 all the shipping of the civilized world. 



It is larger, by nine hundred and ninety-seven millions, than the 

 annual combined charities of Europe and America for preaching the 

 Gospel to the heathen. 



Yes! the commonwealth of Christian States, including our own 

 country, appropriates, without hesitation, as a matter of course, 

 upward of a thousand millions of dollars annually to the maintenance 

 of the war system, and vaunts its two millions of dollars, laboriously 

 collected, for difi'using the light of the Gospel in foreign lands ! With 

 untold prodigality of cost it perpetuates the worst heathenism of 



