V.  “Let us suppose a nation to abandon all means both of offence and of defence, to lay aside all power of inflicting injury, and to rely for self-preservation solely upon the justice of its own conduct, and the moral effect which such a course of conduct would produce upon the consciences of men. * * * * How would such a nation be protected from external attack, and entire subjugation?  I answer, by adopting the law of benevolence, a nation would render such an event in the highest degree improbable.  The causes of national war are, most commonly, the love of plunder and the love of glory.  The first of these is rarely, if ever, sufficient to stimulate men to the ferocity necessary to war, unless when assisted by the second.  And by adopting as the rule of our conduct the law of benevolence, all motive arising from the second cause is taken away.  There is not a nation in Europe that could be led on to war against a harmless, just, forgiving, and defenceless people.”

History teaches us that societies as well as individuals have been attacked again and again notwithstanding that they either would not or could not defend themselves.  Did Mr. White, of Salem, escape his murderers any the more for being harmless and defenceless?  Did the Quakers escape being attacked and hung by the ancient New Englanders any the more because of their non-resisting principles?  Have the Jews escaped persecutions throughout Christendom any the more because of their imbecility and non-resistance for some centuries past?  Poland was comparatively harmless and defenceless when the three great European powers combined to attack and destroy the entire nation, dividing between themselves the Polish territory, and enslaving or driving into exile the Polish people.

    “Oh, bloodiest picture in the book of time,
    Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime!”

We need not multiply examples under this head; all history is filled with them.

Let us to-morrow destroy our forts and ships of war, disband our army and navy, and apply the lighted torch to our military munitions and to our physical means of defence of every description; let it be proclaimed to the world that we will rely solely upon the consciences of nations for justice, and that we have no longer either the will or the ability to defend ourselves against aggression.  Think you that the African and Asiatic pirates would refrain, any the more, from plundering our vessels trading to China, because we had adopted “the law of benevolence?” Would England be any the more likely to compromise her differences with us, or be any the more disposed to refrain from impressing our seamen and from searching our merchant-ships?  Experience shows that an undefended state, known to suffer every thing, soon becomes the prey of all others, and history most abundantly proves the wisdom and justice of the words of Washington—­“IF WE DESIRE TO SECURE PEACE, IT MUST BE KNOWN THAT WE ARE AT ALL TIMES READY FOR WAR.”