TO EDITORS-the Advocate is sent in the hope that they will in their own columns use its contents, in whatever way they may think best, to diffuse as much light as possible on the subject to which it is devoted, and thus help form a public sentiment that shall gradually supersede war by introducing better means for the settlement of national disputes. TO MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL the Advocate is occasionally sent without charge. We hope it will be welcome, and lead them to examine and advocate the great cause which it pleads. Sent gratis to every member of the Society, to contributors of one dollar or more a year, to every minister who preaches annually on the subject, and takes up a collection for the cause, and also to the Library or Reading Room of every College and Theological Seminary, to be preserved for permanent use. PUBLICATIONS BY THE SOCIETY THE ADVOCATE OF PEACE, monthly, or a double number in two months, making a volume in two years, at $1 00 in advance for two years. Prize Essays on a Congress of Nations, 8vo., pp. 706. Book of Peace, 12mo., pp. 606. The Society's Tracts, bound, Peace Manual, by Geo. C. Beckwith, 18mo., pp. 252, . Manual of Peace, by Prof. T. C. Upham, 18mo., pp. 212,. The Right Way; a Premium Work on Peace, by Rev. Joseph A. Collier. $8.00 75 100 25 25 20 16 25 Review of the Mexican War, by Hon. Wm. Jay. 12mo., pp. 333, 50 50 25 The War-System, by Hon. Charles Sumner; with Judge Underwood's Report on Stipulated Arbitration. 8vo., 80 pp.... ..... 20 Plea with Christians for the Cause of Peace. 8vo., pp. 32. ($250 per 100,) 5 2 2 .......... Le Monde; or, In time of Peace prepare for War, by Hon. Amasa Walker......... FORM OF BEQUEST. -I give and bequeath to the American Peace Society, incorporated by the Legislature of Massachusetts, the sum of dollars, to be paid in months after my decease, for the pur poses of said Society, and for which the receipt of its Treasurer for the time being shall be a sufficient discharge. Be very careful to give the Society its exact name, and have the Will drawn in the way, and attested by the number of witnesses, required by the laws of your State, or your purpose will very probably be defeated. POSTAGE.-In Mass. 3 cents a year; elsewhere in U. S. double this. The law allows no more. GEO. C. BECKWITH, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, to whom may be sent all communications designed for the Society. English Liberality to Peace... Peace compatible with Government. Training the general mind to War. Popularity of War..................... THE ADVOCATE OF PEACE. JANUARY AND FEBRUARY, 1861. THE ENFORCEMENT OF LAW A PEACE MEASURE. We find, even among men of intelligence, not a little misconception respecting the true sphere and aim of our cause. Peace they seem to regard as a vague term for whatever can subserve the good order or general prosperity of either individuals, families or communities. If there is wrong done or attempted anywhere, it is expected, as a sort of universal remedy, to prevent or repair the mischief. If a family, a school, or a neighborhood, is embroiled; if pirates infest the seas, or villains commit robbery or murder; if a mob prowls through a city, or a rebellion, like that of Shay in Massachusetts, of Dorr in Rhode Island, or the present secessionists in South Carolina, lifts its bold, bloody front, the cause of Peace is required, as a part of its special mission, to meet the case, and thus furnish a sort of general antidote or cure for nearly all social evils. Such modes of reasoning betray a strange ignorance of the whole subject. Peace a catholicon for the general disorders of society'? No; for the cure or control of evils like these, we must look, not to Peace, but to Government, as embodying the expedients and powers specifically requisite for the protection of society. It comes not within the province of Peace to prevent or punish crime in general. If any wrong is done in society, any of its rights or interests put in peril, we have provision to meet the case in a right enforcement of the laws. They were made, and are to be executed, for this specific purpose. Here is the remedy prescribed by God, and applied by man, to prevent or 166 The Enforcement of Law a Peace Measure. [Jan. cure such evils. It is a question, not of Peace, but of Government; and the thing specially needed in such cases, is obedience to law, or a due enforcement of its penalties. If your child or your pupil disobeys, and thus disturbs your family or your school, what you want is, not a homily on harmony and good feeling, a lullaby to coax or soothe the offender asleep, but a prompt, decisive demand of submission to your authority. The support of government by enforcing its laws, or inflicting its penalties, is in such cases the proper, if not the only sure, means of securing peace. So everywhere. If an incendiary fires your city or village, do you send a company of peacemen to ply him with their gentle and loving words? No; you would send the police, or a bevy of constables, to arrest him, and bring him to justice. There is no other way at the time of dealing with such men. Would you call this a hard process? Very true; but it is the process which God himself prescribes, as “a terror to evil-doers, a revenger to execute wrath (inflict punishment) upon him that doeth evil." "The way of transgressors must be hard; and it is the ordering of infinite wisdom and love to make it so. Now, it is not the proper province of our cause to deal with such cases as these. It is a question, not of peace, but of justice in the execution of law. Government is designed to meet just such cases; and what society needs, and must sooner or later have, is an effective enforcement of its authority. Its laws, by whomsoever violated, whether by few or by many, by an infuriated mob, or a whole province deliberately planning and organizing rebellion, must be put in execution as the specific means provided by society to guard its common rights and interests. Here, then, is the province of Government, which was made on purpose to keep peace by a prompt, energetic exercise of its authority. Is not this just the way, as all experience proves, to keep peace between families or communities? So on the largest scale. It was Gen. Jackson's firmness in upholding the authority of our National Government, and his inflexible purpose to enforce its laws at all hazards, that restrained Nullification in 1833; and had the same hand held the reins when Border Ruffianism attempted such abominable outrages in Kanzas, it would doubtless have averted nearly all the enormous evils that ensued. So of the wholesale nullification that now assumes the form of Secession at the South. It is, in its origin and its essential character, a question of obedience to government; and a judicious, Jet |