16 NY OF RT 
ne Hy OF Re B 
ON THE DAWN OF PEACE 
Rev. Edward A. Tuck Delivers Timely Discourse at the 
Manchester Baptist Church; Facts and Figures 
Against the Continuance of War 
Rey. Edward A. Tuck of Concord, 
N. IL, a son of one of Manchester’s 
best known old time families,—the 
Squire Tucks—preached at the Bap- 
tist church Sunday, September 10th. 
He selected for his subject: ‘The 
Message of Peace.’? In his dis- 
course he said: 
‘It is perfectly certain that at a 
date no longer remote peace will 
take the place of war, and arbitra- 
tion and justice be substituted for 
brute force, in the settlement of 
international difficulties. It 1s an 
old maxim of the law books that 
‘he knoweth not the law who 
knoweth not the reason thereof.’ I 
want to speak this morning of the 
forces that make for peace, that 
your faith in it may not be a senti- 
ment merely but may rest upon 
reason, and that you may thus per- 
haps be equipped to both enjoy and 
support this greatest of reforms 
which (as Secretary Root said re- 
cently) no longer waits for diplo- 
macy but for education. 
‘“While we think of Alexander, 
“Caesar and Napoleon as scourges 
and of their wars as inhuman and 
unjustifiable, yet we assume that our 
own wars were necessary and justi- 
fiable. I submit to you reasons that 
they were neither. Since becoming 
a nation we have had three foreign 
wars, the war of 1812; the war with 
Mexieo and the Spanish War. 
“The provocation for the War of 
1812 was the unjust act of England 
in seizing American vessels and tak- 
ina from them men who, she 
claimed, were deserters from her 
navy, but who probably in a ma- 
jority of cases were Americans. 
President Madison was opposed to 
the war, and the better sentiment of 
the country supported him. The 
declaration of war by Congress was 
opposed by a large majority. But 
fiery spirits like Henry Clay and 
John C. Calhoun overruled, playing 
upon the hostility to England, at 
that time still fresh, and vainglori- 
ously predicting that we would 
easily whip England and _ dictate 
peace in Quebee or Halifax. 
‘‘Now, five days after the declara- 
tion of war and before it had ac- 
tually begun, the Orders in Council 
were repealed in England and the 
main cause removed, and instead of 
the prophesied easy victory the dis- 
tressing war dragged on for two 
years, and peace was gladly con- 
cluded on both sides—but not one 
thing contended for was alluded to 
in the treaty. Never was a war 
more barren of results. It was 
neither necessary nor justifiable. 
“It is the general judgment of 
mankind that the war with Mexico 
was unjustifiable. The war was 
due to slavery. Texas, one of the 
fairest and dearest of the provinces 
of Mexico, had been annexed; the 
boundary line was to be determined 
by arbitration. Without authority 
from Congress, President Polk sent 
General Taylor with an army to oc- 
ecupy the disputed territory. This 
caused the war. 
‘“Now, at the same time we had a 
controversy with Great Britain over 
our northwest boundary. Polk him- 
self was elected on the issue ‘Fifty 
Four Forty or Fight’—that is, if 
England did not concede every inch 
of the territory we claimed, we 
would settle it by war. But just at 
that time England concluded a war 
with China, and had a strong army 
and navy disengaged, and we wisely 
compromised, surrendering one-half 
of our claim. Had reason and jus- 
tice prevailed similarly with Mexico, 
we should not have had what Gen- 
eral Grant said he regarded as one 
of the most unjust wars ever waged 
by a stronger against a weaker na- 
tion. It was unnecessary and un- 
justifiable. 
‘““We have had time for sober 
second thought about our declara- 
tion of war against Spain. Recently 
published documents of Ambassador 
Woodward to President McKinley 
state that Spain was ready to grant 
all reasonable demands of the 
United States. The yellow _ press 
and Congress wanted war, the 
President opposed it. The Presi- 
dent was a good man, but weak. 
Had he been as strong as he was 
good, war might have been averted; 
but after the destruction of the 
Maine, he yielded the issue to Con- 
gress, which hastily declared war 
against a weaker nation—seventy 
millions against sixteen millions. 
Spain proposed an _ international 
R EE Z HE 
court of inquiry to investigate the 
cause of the destruction of the 
Maine, but it was 
army and navy did not want to 
wait. We are now making an in- 
vestigation ourselves —an_ illustra- 
tion of the saying, ‘Hang a man, 
then try him.’ Will you say that 
this war was either necessary or 
justifiable ? 
‘In every one of our foreign 
wars, the war was begun by our- 
selves. They all illustrate what 
could be shown as well by the his- 
tory of other nations—that war is 
neither necessary nor justifiable. 
‘The best definition of democracy 
is that phrase of Lineoln’s: ‘Gov- 
ernment of the people, for the peo- 
ple, by the people.’ The increase of 
popular government is world wide. 
It is rising in despotic countries like 
Turkey and Persia; it has just made 
Portugal a republic; already a de- 
cree has issued from the the throne 
in China, calling for its first parlia- 
ment in 1913; India is filled with 
unrest of people claiming a share 
in government; the House of Lords 
in England has just yielded up its 
privileges to the representatives of 
the people in the House of Commons. 
‘The rise of the people is no less 
apparent in the United States. It 
is seen now in the demand that 
there shall be no privileged classes, 
in the revolt against bosses and in- 
dependence of party and machine, 
in control of primaries, in the initia- — 
tive and referendum, in _ trade 
unions, in free trade and reciprocity. 
When government was in the hands 
of the few, in despots or kings or 
privileged classes, the people had 
nothing to say about war; but it is 
the people who bear the cost and 
who are slaughtered. The glory is 
for few, the sufferings for the many. — 
The people are against war, and 
with the increase of popular govern- 
ment there will be decrease of war. 
The men with the ballot will abolish 
the bullet. 
“‘T need not dwell upon this self- 
evident argument, but we know 
that education is increasing through- 
out the world. China has just 
adopted modern education and new 
schools will spring up all over that 
greatest empire. Think of the con- 
stantly increasing sums of money 
spent for education in our country. 
Now this is a vast force that tends 
for peace, and it strengthens the 
previous force of democracy in the 
same direction. For a democracy 
without education might be a ‘mo- 
boeraey,’ and it is fortunate that 
education is increasing along with 
popular government. 
rejected. The 
