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VOL. II., NO. 21.
PINEHURST, N. C, MAR. 17, 1899.
PRICE THREE CENTS.
DR. EDWARD EYERETT HALE
Lectures on the Peace Circular
of the Czar of Russia.
The Village Hall Filled by an Interested
Audience Last Monday Evening.
fence! ami no longer from its brazen portals
The bl.iKt of War's great organ shakes the skies!
lint beautiful as songs of the immortals
The holv melodies of love arise.
Longfellow.
Lust Monday evening the Village Hull
yvas well tilled with our villagers who
gathered to hear Rev. Dr. Edward
Everett Hale lecture on "The Peace Cir
cular of the Czar of Russia.' The lect
ure proved very instructive and enter
taining and the doctor held the close at
tention of hi audience throughout the
evening. Below we publish the lecture
in full for the benefit of those of our
readers who were unable to be present:
"To all people." "Durable peace."
"The present moment." Whose are
these words? Is this some dreamy poet
swinging on a rainbow? Is this some
coward lover wanting to play with
Xea-ra's hair? It is the leader of the
largest army in the world. "Let us have
peace," as the great soldier of America
said. It is the sovereign of the largest
territorial dominion in the world. It is
the Czar of Russia. "The present mo
ment," he says. What is the present
moment? It is the moment when that
nation which best represents modern life
has crushed by a single blow the only
state which was left to represent bigotry
and tyranny and savagery. America has
crushed Spain, and is arranging the
terms of permanent peace between the
new and the old.. The miserable blun
der of King Jaines the Fool of England,
alter Elizabeth had crushed the Spanish
Annanda, has been atoned for, and that
business has been finished. The new has
asserted itself, and feudalism is at an
end. Today has spoken, and yesterday
nowhere.
This moment, then, is the moment to
insure durable peace, "the present mo
ment." The czar's proclamation is carelessly
spoken of as simply a proposal for dis
armament. It is criticised with sneers,
abuse, ridicule, or indifference, mostly by
people who have taken the precaution
ut to read it. In truth, however, it be
gins: "The preservation of universal
peace and the reduction of armaments
'nake the ideal to which all governments
should direct their efforts." It ends
with a prayer that these efforts may be
united in one focus. That is the striking
"'Sure of the appeal which the czar
"lakes for a formal consecration of the
Principles of right, on which rest ,the
security of government and the progress
of the peoples.
The czar takes pains to show that now
for twenty years every important treaty
has affected to seek this object "gener
al pacification," or, in a more literal
rendering, "the peace-loving tenden
cies." He now proposes a conference of
all the powers of the civilized world,
great and small, to occupy itself with
this object so generally desired. I am
not sure but I should best advance my
purpose now if I took your time in read
ing the whole of his appeal. I will read
the beginning and the end. It begins
with these words, of which 1 have al
ready cited some :
"The preservation of general peace and
the possible reduction of the excessive
armaments now pressing upon all
nations make the ideal towards which
the endeavors of all governments should
be directed.
"His Majesty the Emperor, my august
master, has been won over to this view.
"Convinced that this lofty aim accords
with the essential interests and legiti
mate views of all the powers, the Im
perial Government believes the present
moment to be the favorable time to seek
by an international council the most
practicable means of insuring real and
durable peace to all peoples; and, above
all, of limiting the ever-increasing de
velopment of the present armaments."
And it ends thus : "Filled with this
idea, his Majesty has been pleased to
order that I propose to all the govern
ments who have accredited ministers at
his court the meeting of a conference
which should occupy itself with this
great problem.
"This conference, by the help of God,
would be a happy presage of the century
now about to begin. It would converge
in one focus air the efforts of all the
states which sincerely desire that the
great conception of universal peace
should triumph over the elements of
strife and discord. It would at the same
time, by formal union, cement an agree
ment among the nations on those princi
ples of equity and right on which rest
the security of governments and the prog
ress of peoples."
Observe, now, these are the words of a
man or of men who have read the import
ant treaties of twenty years. liiese
men tell us that all these treaties emDouy
some wish or plan for permanent peace.
In quite wide conversation with many
npnnle who ridicule them, I have not met
0 P,.Snn who has taken the precaution
to follow that example in reading these
treaties. ,
i a., ,Pt p.verv dav persons who make
the reply . dictated by the somewhat
hatv slang of our tune, anu aie
to say, "The czar lies."
I am not, myself, in the habit of as
cribing the worst motives to any man
when he professes other motives. If, as
the Prayer Book has it a man pro to
and call himself a Christian, I call hnn
so, too. And, if an emperor tells me
that twenty years have taught him this
or that, I believe it is so till some one
can prove the contrary. But in this case
we need not discuss his motives. Hap
pily, the conference proposed by him has
been agreed upon by all the great
powers addressed. Lord Salisbury's
magnificent letter is even stronger than
the czar's in its statement of a great
necessity and a noble hope. If the czar
has bent from his throne, as I am asked
to believe, to mumble out a coward's lie,
it is but one instance more where Satan
has served the servants of the Lord.
The czar's word once spoken cannot be
unspoken. This conference has been
called, and will be held. What Isaiah
looked forward to will come to pass.
What Henry IV. died for will come to
pass. What William Penn begged for
will come to pass. What Immanuel
Kant demanded will come to pass. That
is to say, sixteen men, representing six
teen nations, with authority given them
to confer on what is possible, will enter
one room, to make for the next century
some plan for the maintenance of per
manent peace. So many rays will be
"united in one focus."
There is, as I intimated, a tragic
interest, as one remembers that
we were almost at this point three
ceuturys ago. This great proposal
of the czar's recalls, at once, the memory
of what Henri Quatre and Sully and
Elizabeth and Burleigh called the "Great
Design." Successful at every point,
Henry, at the head of France, proposed
the "Great Design." It was a design by
which the fifteen states of Europe should
unite in one permanent council for the
mutual preservation of peace. I never
heard any one say that Henry swung on
rainbows-or played with fancies. Men
say he is the greatest monarch of three
centuries, Frederic and Napoleon not ex
cepted. I do not hear men call his min
ister Sully a dreamer or a lazy poet.
Rather I hear him called the first states
man. of five centuries. These men pre
pared the "Great Design." They sub
mitted it to Elizabeth just after she had
crushed the Armada. She and her
ministers, such men as Burleigh and
Walsingham, agreed to it, and improved
it. They proposed it to the other states
of Europe, with the eloquence of
sovereigns who had armaments behind
them. All but one of these states fell
into the "Great Design." Yes, and
Henry was no such dreamer, but he
meant to compel by force the Emperor of
Germany to fall into line with the rest.
It was at that moment that tyranny and
bigotrv used their only weapon, and the
dagger of Put vail lac pierced the heart
which was throbbing with the hope of
universal peace for Europe.
It is not amiss to go back three centur
ies to learn that a design like this is not
unfamiliar to statesmen and to soldiers.
But in America we need no such exam
ples. America is the great example.
The United States of America U the
great peace society of history. Thirteen
little States unite. Because they unite,
in one century's time they make the
strongest empire in the world. What is
the secret of their peace, of their pros
perity? There are forty-six States, after
a century, knit together as one, "made
perfect in one," as the Saviour pray ed,
K luriju tninm, as our fathers chose
our motto. For one hundred and ten
years with one yvretched exception,
which is not an exception these States
have been at peace. Think of it! Thir
teen bankrupt, yvar-yvorn, jealous little
provinces stretched, starving, along the
sands of the Western Atlantic. Thirteen
Stales, different in origin, in interest?, In
religion, in commerce, in habits of life,
in education. Why do they not quarrel
and fight, as the little states of Germany
have done, as the provinces of France
and Spain, as the duchies of Italy, al
yvays warring and wrangling? Why for
one hundred and six years peace, abso
lute peace?
Why, there have been questions of
boundary, since my own memory, such
as have convulsed Europe and South
America a hundred times in two centur
ies, such as are breeding war in the
world to-day. Betyveen Massachusetts
and Rhode Island, betyveen Iowa and
Missouri, have been such questions.
And yet men have already forgotten that
they ever existed. Why do yve not know
of yvars about them, as those which con
vulsed Italy till our own time? Because
the wisdom of the Fathers, in the provi
dence of God, under the gospel of .Jesus
Christ, created a permanent tribunal, a
supreme court, which should hear all
such questions, and decide them without
appeal to arms. A supreme court, su
preme, indeed! Higher than president.
Higher than senates and assemblies.
Higher than governors or councils or
separate States. It speaks. Men hear,
and they obey.
It is to the Infinite credit of the law
yers of the world that they see the possi
bilities of a supreme court which shall be
the arbiter thus in the quarrels of na
tions. I think yve owe to Henri or to
Sully the phrase the "lifted States of
Europe." It is to the great, lawyers of
our own time that yve owe practical
plans, the possibilities for the perman
ent tribunal, the supreme court of Chris
tendom. Of twenty plans for a permanent tri
bunal which will be laid before this con
ference, where at last such plans can be
considered, that which noyv has the
highest sanction is that wrought out by
the Bar Association of this State. It
yvas drawn up by a special committee of
the distinguished lawyers of the city of
Xeyv York after careful consultation.
They intrusted the draft of their proposal
to Mr. W. Martin Jones, of Rochester,
and Mr. Walter S. Logan, of Boston.
It received the indorsement of the whole
committee, most or all of whom are