Miscellaneous Back Matter [pp. 472A-RD06]

PRIVATEERS AND PRIVATEERING.
Christians fight against Pagans. The religious wars of Europe
since thle Refoibrmation, have been conducted in total disregard
of the dictates of Ihumnanity and of the laws of nations. Even
as late as the days of the English Protectorate, (Crom'well nmurdered his prisoners or sold themr into slavery. Probably his
conduct might have been justified on the general principles of
the publicists, for he thereby quelled and exterminated rebellion and saved the effusion of blood. Striking terror into an
enemy by acts of cruelty and ilnhumanity is a measure frequently resorted to by tyrants, under the pretext that such
asets arc necessary to inspire fear, arrest rebellion, save the
effusion of blood, and to ipreserve peace. If there were no
other law of war than that to be found in the books of the publi(ists, each conqueror would be an exterminator of the conquered.
But in truth there is a higher law: the law of humanity, im
p l ant ed in every lhuman bosom, the powe r of u nrle sisting weakness over conquering strength, the imploriing appeal of helpless
w+or-ai to ruioged man, the frantic terror of weak and harmless
children; it is these thirngs that melt and unman the roughest
soldier in the hour of victory. It is a gross libel on hliuman
nature to say that calculations of selfish interest indu(e us to
spaie the vweak, the dependent, tlhe Iunresistin,. D)id ever a
soldier refrain firom burning thle property of an unarmed private man, or spare the life ot'a woniln or child, because he [lad
rea-d the laws of' war, and there learned that it was not soiund
policy to destroy private property, or to kill women and ehildrenr. No! God has placed a monitor in his bosom, which
melts his hard heart and stays his cruel haild. lie has sa.id
" TiJou shalt not break the bruised reed!" tie lihis given power
to strength over weakness. tie has given us compound natures,
in which selfishness and anti-selfishne,ss war against each other;
and the latter feeling always predominates with well-ordered
natures when the prisoner, tilhe woman, the chl-ild( or the slave
submissively appeals for mercy. This, arnd this alone, is at tlhe
foundaltion of the laws of wac. We spare the w(eak, defeneeless and unresisting, because God and nature dictate to LIs to
do so. SuLch is "the weakness of strength," the power of
anlti-selfishness
National law, as found in the books, is a contemptible ema,nationt of the selfish system of political economy, and is not
worth thle p)lace it occupies in our libraries.
Savages are cruel and unsp)aring, in war, not from calculations:
of policy, but because their natures are depraved, brutal and
degenerate. The savage state is an unnatural state, for it, is
not natural for man to maltreat the weak and downfallen, nor,to eat his ifellow beings.
It is a popular belief, most probably a popular error, that the
word "setrvus" (slave), in Latin, is derived from " servo," "}
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