Breach of the peace

“ To watchers of the present conflict it seems an intolerable thought that, after the fighting is done, we should once more return to a condition of “armed peace,” with jealous, distrustful, and revengeful Powers piling up armaments and plotting singly or in groups against their neighbors until Europe is plunged into another war more terrible, more bloody, and more costly than this. ”

“ A war such as this, unknown in history, must be continued to the final and definite victory. Whoever dreams of peace or desires it—at this moment—is a traitor to his country and yields it to the enemy. ”

“ Rest assured that he will find some means to avert bloodshed and yet preserve his See and the empire."
"War is inevitable!"
"Obey the Pope and trust in God. Beware how you take upon yourself to plunge the nation in war—to tear down the sacred barriers of peace—and open the floodgates for a thousand evil passions to deluge Germany with crime and blood! Can you foresee what may occur—what a month may develop—what new political combination the master mind of Gregory may devise for our preservation?" ”

“ Down to die.44 A conquest can be a praiseworthy thing, and there are times when war becomes the powerful basis of peace, and ruin the very means of reconstruction. If, for example, a high-minded sovereign marshals his troops to block the onset of the insurgent and the aggressor, or again, if he takes the field and distinguishes himself in a struggle to unify a divided state and people, if, in brief, he is waging war for a righteous purpose, then this seeming wrath is mercy itself, and this apparent tyranny the very substance of justice and this warfare the cornerstone of peace. ”

“ They must take up arms, remembering that on their side were triumphs and the spoils of victory, on the side of the enemy, the crime against the law of nations in the assassination of the ambassadors and the massacre of the colonists at Fidenae in a time of peace, a broken truce, a seventh unsuccessful revolt - remembering all this, they must take up arms. ”

“ Every nation is fighting in self-defence, every nation is fighting to destroy the tyranny of armaments, every nation is fighting to show that unprovoked aggression cannot be practised with impunity. Every nation pays homage to peace by maintaining that its enemies began the war. ”

“ It appears strange that you should expect any from us, who have only been defending our just rights against your invasions. We want peace. Restore to us our country, and we shall be enemies no longer. ”

“ We long, indeed, for the cessation of this war, and, kindled by the flame of divine love, we burn for entrance on that well-ordered peace in which whatever is inferior is for ever subordinated to what is above it. ”

“ Not many years have passed, since the cruelties of war were filling the world with terrour and with sorrow; rage was at last appeased, or strength exhausted, and, to the harassed nations peace was restored with its pleasures and its benefits. ”

“ A nation built in blood must ever fight,
Or lose its name and power. 'Tis not all
To conquer once; an enemy subdued
Waits but a happy chance for further feud.
XXXII.
Nor will the nation nurtured by the sword,
If undisturbed by subjugated foes,
Remain in peace and rest; one murmured word
Of discontent will plunge it in the throes
Of fratricidal warfare; and not long
That word remains uncalled for by some wrong.
[Pg 20]
XXXIII.
The page of history is blotted o'er
With tales of bloodshed. Not a single nation
Exists, but spent its greater life in war. ”

“ The war, among its many evil lessons, has inculcated the gospel of impatience and of force. "When you want a thing, take it from some one, and if he resists, knock him down." It is the doctrine which destroys human societies [Pg 97] as it destroys the peace in men's own hearts. ”

“ The spirit of prosecuting this war should be to accomplish a lasting peace,—not to make treaties, but to punish their violation. While justice and mercy should characterize the acts of our government, there should be no weakness, no imbecility. ”

“ Let rebels feel that we are terribly in earnest. Let heavy blows be struck, and struck without delay, and let there be no exhibition of concession or conciliation, till the enemy sue for peace upon the terms the country proclaims. ”

“ The so-called armed peace that prevails at present in all countries is a sign of a bellicose disposition, that trusts neither itself nor its neighbour, and, partly from hate partly from fear, refuses to lay down its weapons. Better to perish than to hate and fear ”

“ And now, at the end of my work, I offer yet a new plan for ending war—namely, that the friends of peace and justice shall insist on a demand that every declaration of war shall be regarded as a sentence of death by one people on another ”

“ Upon these emotional reagents all the heroism and endurance and cowardice of humanity in war is based. And when the shouting and the tumult dies the survivors sometimes find themselves incredible of their survival in a world excitedly muttering the shibboleths of peace,—peace, where there is only a truce. ”

“ What shall a just peace be? If it must be tempered with mercy, to whom shall we show mercy—to the foe whom we have beaten, or the coming generation of Americans whom that foe has done all he could to betray and ruin? ”

“ Nay, from the experience of this hour I draw the auguries of Permanent Peace. Not in any international strife, not in duel between nation and nation, not in selfish conflict of ruler with ruler, not in the unwise "game" of War, as played by king with king, do we find the origin of present commotions, "with fear [423] of change perplexing monarchs." It is to overturn the enforced rule of military power, to crush the tyranny of armies, and to supplant unjust government,—whose only stay is physical force, and not the consent of the governed,—that the people have risen in mighty madness. ”

“ Why upset themselves and their pleasures by remembering the little upturned hands on the duckboards, or the bodies lying in the water in the shell-holes, or the hell and bloody damnation of the four years and odd months of war, or the men and their commanders who pulled them through from a bloodier and worse damnation and set them up to dictate a peace for the world? ”

“ Has no one informed you that if it should please the leader of the barbarians to change his blockade into an assault, it is more than probable that we should be unable to repulse him successfully? Are you still deaf to our deliberations, when your palace may to-morrow be burnt over your head, when we may be staved to death, when we may be doomed to eternal dishonour by being driven to conclude a peace? ”

“ The land is filled with widows and orphans; and mourning, lamentation and woe, have spread through all its extent. Oh! for a return of peace! When will the calamity be past? If some envoy from European power would lift up his voice, and in the name of humanity protest against the wrongs which we suffer, what relief would it afford! And if our enemy, whether yielding to necessity, or a sense of justice, should authorize a proclamation of peace to go through the land, how would our hearts leap for joy! ”

“ And, if it has been, it only adds another melancholy proof to those with which history already abounds, that hard and unconscionable terms, extorted by the power of the sword and the right of conquest, serve but to whet and stimulate revenge, and to give old hostilities, smothered, not extinguished, by the pretended peace, greater exasperation and more ferocity. A truce, thus patched up with an unfortunate people, without the means of existence, without bread, is no real peace. ”

“ There may be terrible events, and unparalleled calamities yet awhile on the earth, but Bahá’u’lláh assures us that erelong, these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come.” War and strife have become so intolerable in their destructiveness that mankind must find deliverance from them or perish. ”

“ Thus the agitation, in one nation, for disarmament, unpreparedness and a patched up peace, while the other nations are armed and embittered, not only renders the situation of the one people critically perilous, but actually cripples its power to serve the cause of world peace and humanity. ”

“ When they had brought warfare to the perfection of destructiveness, all wars would cease; terror of death would be the universal guiding motive of communities and individuals. Then would the god of peace have voice through the whole world, for he would have his mentor in every human breast in every assembly, the knowledge that any strife must end in the annihilation of all those who take part in it. ”

“ If we could make a peace without dishonor, could we make one that would be safe and lasting? We could have an armistice, no doubt, long enough for the flesh of our wounded men to heal and their broken bones to knit together. ”

“ When to-day in certain circles I meet with case-hardened misconception of the peace movement, when they try to show me the obvious naturalness and historical necessity of the scourge of war by arguments at which wrath and discouragement threaten to take possession of me, all I need to do, that my wrath may subside and my courage rise, is to think back to my own past. ”

“ Thus, while rebels were waging a barbarous war, marshaling savage Indians to join them in the slaughter, while rifled cannon-balls were battering down the walls of our forts, and the iron-clad hand of monarchical power was being invoked to assist in the destruction of our government and the dismemberment of our country, while a tremendous rebel ram was sinking our fleet and threatening the cities of our coast, we were still dreaming of peace. ”

“ We use the words “or threat” because sometimes a nation, directly its means of resistance—its forces—were overthrown, has hastened to make peace before its territory was actually invaded. Such timely surrender is merely a recognition of the inevitable consequences. ”

“ No State at war with another shall adopt such modes of hostility as would necessarily render mutual confidence impossible in a future peace—such as the employment of assassins or poisoners, the violation of a capitulation, the instigation of treason, and such like. ”

“ For four and a half years it was they who bore the brunt of the war, they who sacrificed their sons and their substance. In the future it is they to whom the states will look for the further sacrifices in blood and treasure which will be necessary in the struggles which they evidently anticipate. ”

“ Splendor of arms, of banners, of equipages, of ceremonies, and the elaborate forms of intercourse with enemies through conferences, armistices, treaties of peace, &c., having tamed the savagery of war into connection with modes of intellectual grandeur, and with the endless restraints of superstition or scrupulous religion,—a permanent light of civilization began to steal over the bloody shambles of buccaneering warfare. ”

“ We see it in the preparations of war, and the framing of treaties of peace among strong nations. The world is in commotion, and the hearts of men fail them for fear of the impending storm that threatens to enshroud all nations in its black mantle. ”

“ But we have now been mercifully spared for nearly forty years from any general or continued war. Ten years more of almost unbroken peace, or of peace broken only in the remoter dependencies of the empire, have passed over us. ”

“ They pillaged the properties of each other, burning each others’ homes and houses, slaughtering men, women and children, imagining that such warfare and bloodshed was the means of drawing near to God. ”

“ Finally, as the spirit of democracy rises and the spirit of war declines, the vision of universal peace begins to crystallize. While to many it may seem that this must always remain a vision, the real seers of the world do not doubt that, when the awful conflict in Europe is ended, the warring nations, viewing their dead and their devastated countries, will welcome a plan which promises an end of such disasters. ”

“ Is it not possible—I ask, is it not possible—that victors and vanquished alike most share responsibility for the atmosphere that created the war, and for the inhuman powers which made it so sudden, so prolonged, and so terrible? ”

“ Till all nations receive the Bible in its integrity and own it as their only rule of policy, till kings reign for Christ and lay their crowns at His feet, a lasting peace is an idle dream. Treaties will no more bind nations that lie under the influence of unsanctified passions, that chains him who dwelt among the tombs, and within whom dwelt a legion of devils. Till other and better days come, the best cemented peace is only a pause—a truce—an armistice ”

“ And thus agitation at this time was calmness, perfect halcyon peace, in comparison with the confusion, the chaos, the tremendous storm of indignation, opposition, and persecution, that afterwards arose and hurtled around him. There are no wars so bloody as civil wars; there are no feuds so deadly as family feuds; there are no enemies so bitter, so cruel, so unrelenting, as those of our own blood, when they are enemies! Others may spare, but they will never spare! Others may in time become sated with vengeance, but they never! ”

“ But of inevitable destruction — of loss inflicted on the peasant by the merely imperative requirements and operations of contending armies — it will materially hasten the advent of such peace, if we ascertain the increasing pressure during our nominally mollified and merciful war. ”

“ You may call it peace; but it will be war in disguise, ready to break forth in perpetual, chronic, bloody battle. Such an extended inland border, over which Slavery and Liberty scowl at each other, will be a constant temptation, not only to enterprises of smuggling, but to hostile incursions, so that our country will be obliged to sleep on its arms, ready to spring forward in self-defence. Every frontier town will be a St. Albans. [409] Military preparations, absorbing the resources of the people, will become permanent instead of temporary, and the arts of peace will yield to the arts of war. ”