This is the country of which we have now possession, and of which a
numerous party pretends to wish that we had murdered thousands for the
titular sovereignty. To charge any men with such madness approaches to
an accusation defeated by its own incredibility. As they have been long
accumulating falsehoods, it is possible that they are now only adding
another to the heap, and that they do not mean all that they profess.
But of this faction what evil may not be credited? They have hitherto
shown no virtue, and very little wit, beyond that mischievous cunning
for which it is held, by Hale, that children may be hanged!
As war is the last of remedies, "cuncta prius tentanda," all lawful
expedients must be used to avoid it. As war is the extremity of evil, it
is, surely, the duty of those, whose station intrusts them with the care
of nations, to avert it from their charge. There are diseases of animal
nature, which nothing but amputation can remove; so there may, by the
depravation of human passions, be sometimes a gangrene in collective
life, for which fire and the sword are the necessary remedies; but in
what can skill or caution be better shown, than preventing such dreadful
operations, while there is yet room for gentler methods!
It is wonderful with what coolness and indifference the greater part of
mankind see war commenced.
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