AMERICAN ADVOCATE OF PEACE. THIS publication is issued on the first days of June, September, December, and March. It will contain at least 48 pages to each number. Price to subscribers One Dollar a year, payable on the delivery of the first number. This work is devoted: 1st, and chiefly to extended discussions of the most important topics connected with the cause of Peace; 2d, to brief Critical Notices of current publications as they come within the application of our principles, with the design of promoting in this respect, in a Christian country, a pure and Christian Literature; 3d, to Intelligence concerning the progress of pacific principles and the civil and political affairs of nations. In conducting this publication, it will be the object to avoid exclusive views of doubtful questions, and every thing in regard to which there is not reason to believe a substantial harmony of opinion may be created among enlightened and intelligent men. The necessity and lawfulness in the present state of society of employing force to sustain the execution of the Laws and to maintain social order, is allowed. The question of defensive war will be left to every one's own determination. We state this, to avoid misconception of our aims. Besides advocating the cause of peace on the broad ground of Christian obligation, we wish to present to the candid consideration of statesmen and governments, the economical and political aspects of the subject, and to direct their attention and interest to the advantages and practicability of settling national differences by some mode of peaceful adjustment. Our attention will also be directed to the amelioration of criminal law, prison discipline, the maratime code, and similar subjects of civil improvement, interesting to the philanthropist. The present number is unavoidably delayed, and comes out with disadvantages attending a first number. Hereafter it will be issued punctually; and we expect in the next and succeeding numbers to gratify our readers with contributions from some of our most able and distinguished writers. CONTENTS OF No. II. FROM THE BEQUEST OF ADVOCATE OF PEACE. No. II. SEPTEMBER, 1834. ARTICLE I. INFLUENCE OF WAR ON DOMESTIC LIFE. BY THOMAS C. UPHAM, PROFESSOR OF INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY, IN exhibiting the evils of war, more attention has generally been paid to the immediate horrors of the battle field, than to the less marked and more remote evil, which have been felt from this source in domestic life. So many attractions, addressed both to the sight and the imagination, throng around the memorable spot, where large armies meet and engage in battle, that, notwithstanding the inexpressible horrors of such a scene, men seldom turn away to contemplate the insulated objects of interest, scattered here and there in the distance. How many have dwelt with excited imaginations, and with a sincere feeling of deep commiseration, on the carnage of Austerlitz and Waterloo, to whom it never occurred to turn to the distracted sister, mourning in her distant home over her fallen brother; or to the mother weeping in solitude over her beloved son; or to the wife, lamenting, with inexpressible grief, the untimely death of her husband! We propose, therefore, in the remarks which are to follow in this article, to indicate some of the unpropitious bearings of War on domestic life. And in doing this it is hardly necessary to remark, that in domestic life we are to look for a large share of what yet remains of earthly quiet and happiness. The philanthropist and the Christian find much in the present state of things to perplex their faith, to create doubt, and to fill them with despondency; but when they turn their eyes to the domestic circle, especially when it is blessed with the presence of the serious and benign spirit of religion, they gladly acknowledge that there is one bright and illuminated spot in the surrounding darkness. But the horrors of war, dreadful and intense as they are on the field of battle, are experienced, with less display indeed but with still greater intensity, in these distant abodes of peace and happiness. The soldier dies upon the field of battle; and however great may be the anguish he experiences, it is generally soon over; but the desolate hearts of his parents, and of his wife and children, are filled with sorrow and hopelessness and lamentation for years. But these things are not made matters of history; in the emblazonment of the achievements of the battle field they are entirely passed over and forgotten; it seems to be no part of the business either of the ephemeral gazette, or of the more serious and permanent page of history, to keep a record of tears that are shed in private, and of hearts that are bleeding and broken in retirement. But they ought never to be forgotten by the philanthropist, the Christian, the friend of the human species. That the piercing and overwhelming evils, which are now referred to, are not imaginary, every child and parent, every one, who sustains the various domestic relations, has the testimony in himself, in the instinctive suggestions of his own bosom, whether he has actually experienced the evils in his own person or not. In the time of the American Revolution, a young gentleman by the name of Asgill, a captain in the English service, though only nineteen years of age, was selected by lot, by the Americans to whom he had fallen prisoner, to be put to death in retaliation for some atrocities committed by the enemy. When the news reached England, his mother, Lady Asgill, with her whole family, was thrown into the deepest distress and sorrow. In her inexpressible affliction she had recourse to the sovereigns of France, through the medium of the minister Count de Vergennes, although France |