Belligerent

“ Art. 7.—A neutral power is not bound to prevent the exportation or transit, for the account of either belligerent, of arms, munitions of war, or, in general, of anything which may be useful to an army or a fleet.
Art. 8.—A neutral government is bound to use the means at its disposal to prevent, within its jurisdiction, the equipping or arming of any vessel, which it has any reasonable suspicion of being destined to act as a cruiser or to join in hostile operations against a power with which it is at peace. ”

“ When belligerents, even in the most angry excitement of feeling, are arrayed against each other, it is but proper that their chieftains should preserve toward each other that comity which might render them approachable, and thereby avert great human suffering and the effusion of human blood. ”

“ But, at the last moment, three days after this, i.e, on the 28th March, a Cabinet Council was held, and it was decided to adopt the French view of the matter, and accordingly an Order in Council appeared the next morning in which the following words occurred: "In order to preserve the commerce of neutrals from all unnecessary obstruction, Her Majesty is willing, for the present, to waive a part of the belligerent rights appertaining to her by the law of nations;" and a similar declaration was issued by the French Emperor. ”

“ No purely mercantile transactions are considered a violation of neutrality. Six years before the American Civil War, President Pierce, in his message to the Thirty-fourth Congress, first session, made the following statement:—“The laws of the United States do not forbid their citizens to sell to either of the belligerent powers articles of Sale of arms and ammunition by neutrals. contraband of war, or to take munitions of war or soldiers on board their private ships for transportation ”

“ And when we consider that the carrying trade of almost every nation is, in peace, carried on by itself, and that England is almost the only nation which has a carrying trade over and above the requirements of its own commerce, it is obvious that this claim to carry belligerents^ goods is not a claim for the retention of a privilege which the neutral enjoyed in peace, but for the acquisition of an advantage which the neutral never even pretended to in peace. ”

“ Judge, then, the condition I must be in, knowing the cruelty and merciless disposition of those savages, should I fall into their hands. To escape which dreadful misfortune, having my gun loaded in my hand I threatened them with death if they should not desist. But how vain and fruitless are the efforts of one man against the united force of so many and of such merciless, undaunted, and blood thirsty monsters as I had here to deal with. ”

“ The swords, always the swords! Thus the best of things turn to evil through abuse and hot-headedness! Yes, the sword, resistance, revolt carried to the point of martyrdom whenever your rights are violated by force! ”

“ With the howl of demons, the last mad, defiant impotent howl of baffled but still determined traitors, exposed to history, to nations, and to themselves, whipped, naked, and hungry, on they came cursing, firing, riding like the ‘Light Brigade’ ‘into the gates of death, into the mouth of hell.’ No hurrying, no excitement, and yet no hesitation in the fort and batteries, but steadily the shell, case, grape, and canister flew, with the swiftness of lightning and the precision of fate straight in the faces of the infuriate mob. ”

“ To tame his youth, his lofty crest down goeth,
His threats he feareth, and obeys the rein
Of thralldom base, and serviceage, though loth,
Nor can his sharp teeth nor his armed paws,
Force him rebel against his ruler’s laws.
LXXXIV
Fame as a winged warrior they beheld,
With semblant fierce and furious look that stood,
And in his left hand had a splendent shield
Wherewith he covered safe their chieftain good,
His other hand a naked sword did wield,
From which distilling fell the lukewarm blood,
The blood pardie of many a realm and town,
Whereon the Lord his wrath had poured down. ”

“ We do hereby declare unto all that whosoever stretcheth forth their hands against us ... by shedding our blood actually, either by authoritative commanding, such as bloody counsellors ... especially that so-called justiciary, generals of forces, adjutants, captains, lieutenants, and all in civil and military power, who make it their work to embrue their hands in our blood, or by obeying such commands, such as bloody militia men, malicious troopers, soldiers, and dragoons; likewise such gentlemen and commons who, through wickedness and ill-will, ride and run with the foresaid persons ... ”

“ It is as if they [85] could not, even for one evening, forget the struggle for existence, and as if they regarded a dinner or a dance as an engagement with the enemy; a brisk assault to carry by storm some place that has long stood a regular siege—a lively skirmish in which everything that comes to hand is a weapon for either attack or self-defence. ”

“ One man—alone, dismounted, inadequately armed—in the vast heart of an unknown country, tracked down by fleet-footed pitiless destroyers, stung to a frenzy of massacre by a twofold incentive—blood feud for a comrade slain, and the fanatical dictates—or supposed dictates—of the most merciless religion in the world. ”

“ In long ranks, like grass in the mower's swathes, the rebel warriors lay, with their grim faces, and glazed eyes, set in that terrible expression of ferocity which is always observed on the lineaments of those who have died from wounds inflicted by a stabbing weapon; and under them, or near them, in ghastly piles were heaped, scarce less in number, the corpses of their slaughtered conquerors. So equal was the havoc; so equal the value which the men had set on their own lives, and on those of their enemies. ”

“ Is it any wonder that soldiers flushed with victory, after one of the hardest campaigns ever endured by men, should indulge—some of them—in unwarranted atrocities after finding such evidence of barbarism, and while more than forty of their comrades were weltering in their own blood upon the field? ”

“ Without such particularity of procedure, an army going into an enemy's country would soon become a rabble or mob—war would soon become rapine—officers would soon lose all control of their men, and from thenceforth plundering, spoliation, and pillage would become the order of the day. ”

“ By hearth and wayside lurking, waits to throw,
Oppression taught his helpful arm to wield
The slayer's weapon: on the murderous field
The fiery bolt he challenged laid him low,
Seeking its noblest victim. Even so
The charter of a nation must be sealed! ”

“ Consign such conduct to the juvenile general and the untrained militia. It as little befits me to deal in commonplace as you to listen. You are warriors, or nothing, and what to such is more satisfying than to carve out his vengeance by the sword? Ah! Revenge, nature’s first gift and sweetest soother of the soul! Let your feet then be swift to the attack since ever is the attacker the bolder! ”

“ From beneath their feet rose always the subterranean rumbles of revolt. Violent death ever stalked in their midst; bomb and knife and bullet were looked upon as so many fangs of the roaring abysmal beast they must dominate if humanity were to persist. ”

“ Scrambling over the bulwarks, they fairly hewed their way into the mass of brown men, hacking, stabbing, shooting, cursing, cheering—a line of grim-faced fighters sweeping forward as remorselessly as death. ”

“ What apprehension dared not to suspect, what fancy could not dream of, no eye had ever beheld and no tongue ever uttered, blazes before us: the passions dart in rays resistless from the centre. Fear, terror, conviction, wrestle with dignity and courage in the centurion; convulse brutality, overwhelm violence, enervate resistance, absorb incredulity in the guard. ”

“ No imagination can conceive the uproar and din of such an assault upon a populous city—a horrid mingling of the vociferated commands of the officers, and the shouts of the advancing and victorious enemy, with the screams of terror from affrighted women and children, and the dreadful groans and imprecations from men dying maddened with unsatisfied revenge, and biting the dust in agony of despair. ”

“ A wise dispensation, whose object we may see, removed the best and greatest soldier of the war—sorely stricken by the hands of his own devoted men, in the darkness; the routed enemy was given, by this unequaled misfortune, and by fast falling night, opportunity for partial reorganization. ”

“ Aroused in Thunder, awful they appear, With proud Deliverance stalking in their rear: While Tyrant Foes their pallid Fears betray, Shrink from their Arms, and give their Vengeance way; Sec, in the unequal War, OPPRESSORS fall, The Hate, Contempt, and endless Curse of all. ”

“ And the dark hill shall bristle with sabre and spear,
While one tyrant remains to forge manacles here.
IV.
The riderless war-steed careers o'er the plain
With a shaft in his flank and a blood dripping mane,
His gallant breast labours, and glare his wild eyes;
He plunges in torture—falls—shivers—and dies.
V.
Let the trumpets ring triumph! the tyrant is slain,
He reels o'er his charger deep pierced through the brain ”

“ Yet guests but ill-entreated; for they lack their shields of war, No spear in the hand they carry and with no sax are girt. Lo, these are the dreaded foemen, these once so strong to hurt; The men that all folk fled from, the swift to drive the spoil, The men that fashioned nothing but the trap to make men toil. ”

“ And soon the great company came sweeping in, swords clattering and armour glittering in the sunshine, rough soldiers laughing carelessly as they rode past the frightened faces. And at their head a cruel, evil-looking man who glared from side to side, as if he were a wild beast seeking his prey. ”

“ Suppose these rebels are right--and, dammy, but I think they are--and suppose our King's troops are roundly trouncing them--and I think they are, too--do you mean to say you'd draw sword and go a-prowling, seeking for some obliging enemy to knock you in the head or hang you for a rebel to your neighbor's apple-tree? ”

“ It is absolutely necessary that the warriors should rid themselves, as soon as possible, of the blood they have shed, or the shades of their victims would pursue them incessantly, and disturb their slumbers. ”

“ But nothing could check their fury: with loud cries and flashing weapons they fell upon the enemy, who, burthened by their prey and wearied by their very outrages, could ill resist men fighting to avenge their desolated hearths. ”

“ The scowl of the opposing parties, the blanched cheeks, the knit brows, and the grinding teeth, not pretermitting the deadly gleams that shoot from their kindled eyes, are ornaments which a plain battle between factions cannot boast, but which, notwithstanding, are very suitable to the fierce and gloomy silence of that premeditated vengeance which burns with such intensity in the heart, and scorches up the vitals into such a thirst for blood. ”

“ And the approach of danger restrain'd not their violent fury.
Soon into weapons were turn'd the implements peaceful of tillage,
And with dripping blood the scythe and the pitchfork were cover'd.
Every foeman without distinction was ruthlessly slaughter'd,
Fury was ev'rywhere raging, and artful, cowardly weakness.
May I never again see men in such wretched confusion!
Even the raging wild beast is a better object to gaze on.
Ne'er let them speak of freedom, as if themselves they could govern! ”

“ He felt, without knowing why, the lust of violence which comes to the soldier in battle who wants to run away until the moment when the first shot has been fired, and then—all fear and moral conscience gone in an instant—forges his path with shouts and oaths to where danger is greatest and death most sure. ”

“ Contempt for one's own comrades, for the troops of the enemy, and, above all, fierce contempt for one's own person, are what war demands of every one. Far better is it for an army to be too savage, too cruel, too barbarous, than to possess too much sentimentality and human reasonableness. ”

“ Better die as warriors bold, Than be hunted, tracked and sold; Living days in misery rife, For the coward’s bounty—life! Warriors, rally to the field; Teach the lordly foe to yield; Spurn his counsels—spurn his laws; Strike alone for freedom’s cause ”

“ Indeed, an evil day it was, the day thou mettest them, And after many a fight, thy spear is shivered, woe is me!
No rider, now that thou art dead, in horses shall delight Nor evermore shall woman bear a male to match with thee.
Hemmad this day hath played thee false and foully done to death; Unto his oath and plighted faith a traitor base is he. ”

“ We look back with contempt on the denunciations of the enemy, ‘which, sown in serpents’ teeth, have arisen for us in armed men,’ and we look with gratitude to our new-created host, which retorted the insult, and changed the invader into the invaded. ”

“ Shall the sight of armed men avail to prove violence, and shall their onset and attack not avail? Shall a man who departs quietly find it more easy to prove that violence has been offered to him, than a man who has fled from it? ”

“ Had cavalry charged them, inflamed as they were, the men of that mob might have fought back, dragging horse and rider down to be trampled under foot; but here were a mere handful of old men, boldly defying Fate, casting a gauntlet in the very face of Death himself, and moving, ever moving, toward the stand on which the latest impassioned destroyer stood, speechless and awed. ”

“ In one moment the faces of your friends—of your brothers, who bewailed your hurt, who tended you with such gentleness, will disappear, to be succeeded by the revolting, horrible, and triumphant faces of the mercenaries. At the best they will be brutal; at the worst, they, infringing every right of war and of people, will steep their base bayonets in your precious blood! ”