[STIPULATED ARBITRATION, OR A CONGRESS OF NATIONS, WITH DISARMAMENT.]
Address to the People of the United States, February 22, 1850.
The history of the Peace Movement, recounted in the Address on the War System of the Commonwealth of Nations, terminates at the date of that Address, anterior to the Congress at Paris, called the Second General Peace Congress, on the 22d, 23d, and 24th of August, 1849. This Congress is briefly characterized in the Address below. There is a report of its proceedings, where may be read the able speeches and letters by which the cause was vindicated. It was arranged in Europe that the next year should witness a similar Congress, and Frankfort-on-the-Main was selected for the place of meeting, both from its central situation and the sympathy felt in the movement by leading minds of Germany.
In the United States a Committee was appointed, with Mr. Sumner as Chairman, to obtain a proper representation. The following Address was put forth by the Committee. But the question ceased to be pressed in Europe, under the influence of the prevailing reaction, while in our country it was overshadowed by Slavery, to which the general attention was now directed. It was often remarked, "One evil at a time"; and thus the Peace Cause was postponed.
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.
The month of August last witnessed at Paris a Congress or Convention of persons from various countries, to consider what could be done to promote the sacred cause of Universal Peace. France, Germany, Belgium, England, and the United States were represented by large numbers of men eminent in business, politics, literature, religion, and philanthropy. The Catholic Archbishop of Paris, and the eloquent Protestant preacher, M. Athanase Coquerel,—Michel Chevalier, Horace Say, and Frédéric Bastiat, distinguished political economists,—Émile de Girardin, the most important political editor of France,—Victor Hugo, illustrious in literature,—Lamartine, whose glory it is to have turned the recent French Revolution, at its beginning, into the path of Peace,—and Richard Cobden, the world-renowned British statesman, the unapproached model of an earnest, humane, and practical Reformer,—all these gave to this august assembly the sanction of their presence or approbation. Victor Hugo, on taking the chair as President, in an address of persuasive eloquence, shed upon the occasion the illumination of his genius,—while Mr. Cobden, participating in all the proceedings, impressed upon them his characteristic common sense.
The Congress adopted, with entire unanimity, a series of resolutions, asserting the duty of governments to submit all differences between them to Arbitration, and to respect the decisions of the Arbitrators; also asserting the necessity of a general and simultaneous disarming, not only as the means of reducing the expenditure absorbed by armies and navies, but also of removing a permanent cause of disquietude and irritation. The Congress condemned all loans and taxes for wars of ambition or conquest. It earnestly recommended the friends of Peace to prepare public opinion, in their respective countries, for the formation of a Congress of Nations, to revise the existing International Law, and to constitute a High Tribunal for the decision of controversies among nations. In support of these objects, the Congress solemnly invoked the representatives of the press, so potent to diffuse truth, and also all ministers of religion, whose holy office it is to encourage good-will among men.
The work thus begun has been continued since. In England and the United States large public meetings have welcomed the returning delegates. Men have been touched by the grandeur of the cause. Not in the aspirations of religion and benevolence only, but in the general heart and mind, has it found reception, filling all who embrace it with new confidence in the triumph of Christian truth.
Another Congress or Convention has been called to meet at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in the month of August next, to do what is possible, by mutual counsels and encouragement, to influence public opinion, and to advance still further the cause which has been so well commended by the Congress at Paris.
To promote the objects of this Congress generally, and particularly to secure the attendance of a delegation from the United States, in number and character not unworthy of the occasion, a Committee, representing friends of Peace throughout the country, various in opinion, has been appointed, under the name of "Peace Congress Committee for the United States." This Committee now appeal to their fellow-citizens for coöperation in this work.