Principles of Freedom | Page 9

with fictitious
glory the carnage of the battlefields; we have shouted of wading
through our enemies' blood, as if bloody fields were beautiful; we have
been contemptuous of peace, as if every war were exhilarating; but,
"War is hell," said a famous general in the field. This, of course, is
exaggeration, but there is a grim element of truth in the warning that
must be kept in mind at all times. If one among us still would resent
being asked to forego what he thinks a rightful need of vengeance, let
him look into himself. Let him consider his feelings on the death of
some notorious traitor or criminal; not satisfaction, but awe, is the
uppermost feeling in his heart. Death sobers us all. But away from
death this may be unconvincing; and one may still shout of the glory of
floating the ship of freedom in the blood of the enemy. I give him
pause. He may still correct his philosophy in view of the horror of a
street accident or the brutality of a prize-fight.

IV
But war must be faced and blood must be shed, not gleefully, but as a
terrible necessity, because there are moral horrors worse than any
physical horror, because freedom is indispensable for a soul erect, and
freedom must be had at any cost of suffering; the soul is greater than
the body. This is the justification of war. If hesitating to undertake it
means the overthrow of liberty possessed, or the lying passive in
slavery already accomplished, then it is the duty of every man to fight
if he is standing, or revolt if he is down. And he must make no peace
till freedom is assured, for the moral plague that eats up a people whose
independence is lost is more calamitous than any physical rending of
limb from limb. The body is a passing phase; the spirit is immortal; and
the degradation of that immortal part of man is the great tragedy of life.
Consider all the mean things and debasing tendencies that wither up a
people in a state of slavery. There are the bribes of those in power to
maintain their ascendancy, the barter of every principle by time-servers;
the corruption of public life and the apathy of private life; the hard
struggle of those of high ideals, the conflict with all ignoble practices,
the wearing down of patience, and in the end the quiet abandoning of
the flag once bravely flourished; then the increased numbers of the
apathetic and the general gloom, depression, and despair--everywhere a
land decaying. Viciousness, meanness, cowardice, intolerance, every
bad thing arises like a weed in the night and blights the land where
freedom is dead; and the aspect of that land and the soul of that people
become spectacles of disgust, revolting and terrible, terrible for the
high things degraded and the great destinies imperilled. It would be less
terrible if an earthquake split the land in two, and sank it into the ocean.
To avert the moral plague of slavery men fly to arms, notwithstanding
the physical consequence, and those who set more count by the
physical consequences cannot by that avert them, for the moral disease
is followed by physical wreck--if delayed still inevitable. So, physical
force is justified, not _per se_, but as an expression of moral force;
where it is unsupported by the higher principle it is evil incarnate. The
true antithesis is not between moral force and physical force, but
between moral force and moral weakness. That is the fundamental
distinction being ignored on all sides. When the time demands and the

occasion offers, it is imperative to have recourse to arms, but in that
terrible crisis we must preserve our balance. If we leap forward for our
enemies' blood, glorifying brute force, we set up the standard of the
tyrant and heap up infamy for ourselves; on the other hand, if we
hesitate to take the stern action demanded, we fail in strength of soul,
and let slip the dogs of war to every extreme of weakness and wildness,
to create depravity and horror that will ultimately destroy us. A true
soldier of freedom will not hesitate to strike vigorously and strike home,
knowing that on his resolution will depend the restoration and defence
of liberty. But he will always remember that restraint is the great
attribute that separates man from beast, that retaliation is the vicious
resource of the tyrant and the slave; that magnanimity is the splendour
of manhood; and he will remember that he strikes not at his enemy's
life, but at his misdeed, that in destroying the misdeed, he makes not
only for his own freedom, but even for his enemy's regeneration. This
may be for most of us perhaps too great a dream.