258 AVES ISLAND. 



the Frencli revolution, who vainly insisted that it was only necessary 

 to establish one supreme court of justice for the whole world to effect 

 the coming of the millenium and secure universal peace forthwith, hut 

 who were never able exactly to agree upon the formula for the execu- 

 tion of the decrees of such august tribunal to effect their object, nor 

 neither have any peace societies since. 



And here it may be observed (as is conceived not inappropriately to 

 this case) that this entire class of pseudo-philanthropic philosophers, 

 whether anti-war, anti-privateering or general reprisals, anti-capture 

 of merchant vessels in war, anti-retaliation or retorsion, or "anti-special 

 reprisals in time of peace," all begin at the wrong end to effect the 

 consummation of their sublime wishes. To crown their hopes with 

 favorable success peace societies should alter their names, and style 

 themselves anti-quarrel, anti-spoliation, and anti-wrong and injustice 

 leagues, and adopt measures to effect the objects indicated by such 

 change. Prevention of wrong, and not the abolition or lessening of 

 the penalty for the commission of such wrong or weakening the means 

 of redress and of establishing right and justice, is the true course. 

 National injustice is the cause of all wars. War is, in fact, but an 

 effect of and result from such injustice. Prevent the cause and there 

 is no such effect. And this can only be done by enforcing the princi- 

 ples of rjght, and a respect for and adherence to them upon the 

 individuals who compose a nation or rule a State. War is a punish- 

 ment for national crimes. In every war one or the other State acts 

 wrongfully, and often both. There is no case of a war just on the 

 part of both. As in civil society, so it is with respect to States, that 

 the least salutary of all modes of preventing crime is to abolish or 

 weaken and render ineffective the punishments therefor. It gives im- 

 punity to crime. Would it tend to prevent murder to provide that the 

 murderer should not be hanged or imprisoned, but merely censured or 

 reprimanded by the judge ? If a State persists in injustice, what other 

 effective punishment than war, in ultima 7xitione, is there? How is she 

 to be constrained to do justice or make reparation? Will the rebuke 

 or reprimand of other nations suffice? Just in so far as the punish- 

 ments now allowed by the law of nations^ and, it is believed, by the 

 divine law, are abated, and in so far as the means of redress now given 

 are weakened, will the apprehension of them be less likely to deter 

 nations from the perpetration of wrong. Who does not know that 

 the fear by merchants of the capture of their ships and goods by priva- 

 teers, and by public ships in war, and their consequent opposition to 

 war, is a powerful restraint to every commercial nation from engaging 

 in war? Abolish privateering and the capture of merchant ships in 

 war, and this commercial influence, now pledged by its interests to 

 peace, will not be, as heretofore^ exerted to preserve it. 



The penalty for the commission of national crimes, it is admitted, 

 will be rendered less severe, but the effect of such exemption will also 

 be to make such punishment unequal with regard to the different classes 

 in a State, and likewise to make the means of reparation less coercive 

 against the delinquent nation, and therefore less effective in maintain- 

 ing justice and preserving peace. 



If a new remedy is proposed in lieu of general war between people 



