76 KANSAS UNlVERSriY QUARTERLY. 



"The real sorrows of war," says George Gary Eggleston,* in 

 speaking of the Soutli, "fall most heavily upon the women. They 

 may not bear arms. They may not even share the triumphs which 

 compensate their brothers for toil and suffering and danger. They 

 must sit still and endure. The poverty which war brings to them 

 wears no cheerful face but sits down with them to empty tables and 

 pinches them sorely in solitude. After the victory the men who 

 have won it throw up their hats in glad huzza, while their wives 

 and daughters await in sorest agony of suspense the news which 

 may bring hopeless desolation to their hearts." 



I have heard men say that war would be a good thing, it would 

 raise prices and make trade brisk. Truly when such remarks can 

 be made, much remains to be done to correct popular ideas and 

 sentiments upon the subject of war. The duty to do this rests 

 upon those who know and feel the evil. It rests upon all alike, 

 teachers in the schools and professors in the colleges, writers for 

 the press and preachers in the churches, men of business on the 

 street and statesmen in the halls of legislation. Lord Derby has 

 said: "The greatest of England's interests is peace." Let us echo 

 the sentiment: The greatest American interest is peace. 



1 come now to the third danger that threatens our national peace 

 — enormous expenditure for war purposes. This expenditure, as 

 Dunning said of the influence of the crown, "has increased, is 

 increasing and ought to be diminished." The possession of great 

 force is a standing temptation to use it. 



It has been common for great men to give accounts of their 

 early intellectual development and of books that have helped 

 them. I see no reason why it may not also be permitted 

 to small men to acknowledge their indebtedness to the influences 

 that have moulded their opinions. In the library of the school 

 where I received my training preparatory for college, there was a 

 copy of the "Speeches and Addresses of Charles Sumner," which 

 I often used to read when supposed by my instructors to be study- 

 ing Latin or Algebra. The first speech in that collection made a 

 powerful impression upon my mind. It was entitled "The True 

 Grandeur of Nations," and defended the proposition that in our 

 age there can be no peace that is not honorable, and no war that 

 is not dishonorable. The oration was delivered on the fourth of 

 July, 1845, before the city corporation of Boston. Mr. Sumner 

 was himself a notable example of the scholar in politics — not 

 always right, to be sure, but always honest and honorable. This 

 speech v/as his first public appearance, the beginning of his public 

 *" A Rebel's Recollections." 3d ed , p. 58. 



