Our own country, after all our boasting and great experi ence, are not free from this dreadful contagion. Schools are forming throughout our land, to rear up children in the knowledge and love of arms.-The wilderness for thousands of miles is explored for the purpose of building forts and places of military strength, at a most intolerable expense,~ for carrying on a spirit of avarice and speculation, influence and patronage; and not the least among the rest, to aid in extirpating the only true and absolute proprietors and lords of the soil, from that inheritance which God in his mercy has provided for them.

The present mania for another Indian, if not foreign war, ought to be highly alarming to the people of the United States, and if no other obstacle can be raised against so great an evil, at least the ardent prayer of every christian should be incessant at the throne of grace, and join as one man in that earnest petition, "Give Peace in our time, O Lord."

I have great confidence in him, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, that the time is drawing nigh, (though much distress must first come,) when all the nations of the earth shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and the earth shall be covered with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the seas, and every nation, language, and tongue shall hail the coming Immanuel.

Present me, dear Sir, in the most respectful manner, to your worthy Society, and believe me to be with great esteem and the most fervent prayer for their sucecss,

Reverend and Dear Sir,

Yours most affectionately,

ELIAS BOUDINOT.

NOTE. The foregoing letter will command the respectful attention of the serious and benevolent Christian. Dr. Boudinot is so well known, that it is hardly necessary to remark, that he was once the President of the American Congress, the highest officer then in the United States; that he has been the President of the American Bible Society,

from its first organization; that he has long been distinguished and revered for his philanthropy and piety; that he is far advanced in years, and now, as from the borders of the grave, he expresses his sentiments in relation to war, and the objects of Peace Societies. Those who are disposed to glory in war, and to deride the efforts for its abolition, would perhaps do well, severally to put the following questions to their own consciences:Have I a better claim to the character of a true Patriot, a genuine Philanthropist, a real Christian, a wise and good man, than the venerable Elias Boudinot? May it not be imputed to a defect in me of that love which seeketh the good of all and worketh no ill to its neighbour, or to the neglect of due reflection, that I have been disposed to apply the names of patriotism, virtue, and glory, to the spirit of military ambition, hatred, revenge, and war?

N. B. After the preceding letter and remarks were in type, the Newspapers announced the death of Dr. Boudinot. While we condole with his numerous friends and the friends of humanity and religion, on the remov. al of this distinguished and excellent Christian, we rejoice that the solemn event was delayed till he had given, as a dying man, his impressive testimony on the subject of war. For "by it he, being dead, yet speaketh,” and will long continue to speak; and we cherish the hope that many thousands will profit by his admonitions.

It was not intended to publish any part of the letter which occasioned the one from Dr. Boudinot; but as it contained an allusion to the expect ed event, which has now occurred, perhaps it is not improper to insert the following extract, which was the last paragraph :—

"From the Catalogue and other pamphlets which I shall send, you may learn the character and objects of the Society that has elected you an Honorary Member. It is sincerely hoped that this testimony of respect will not be unacceptable to you in the decline of life: and you may rest assured, that, when you shall have bid adieu to this warring world, many of the members of the Massachusetts Peace Society will derive pleasure from a belief, that another of their brethren, who had served his generation by the will of God, has been admitted to the regions of undisturbed and everlasting peace."

While the unreflecting multitude bestow their wanton adulations on profane duellists and bloodstained butchers of their species, let it be the care of Christians to admire and imitate the virtues of the friend of God and man-the image of the Prince of peace.

SIR,

LETTER FROM THE HON. MR. JEFFERSON.

Monticello, October 1, '19.

I have duly received the memorial you have been so kind as to forward me, with the letter of September 20, desiring my opinion on the proposition to suppress privateering in time of war... Of that, my opinion is recorded in the 4th article.ct the instructions of Congress of May 7, 1784, to their ministers commissioned to enter into treaties of amity and commerce with the several powers of Europe, which were drawn by me while in Congress; and in the treaty with Prussia, quoted by you, which I drew also, as one of those commissioners: but the suggestion was originally from Dr. Franklin. But there is a time for man to retire from the business of the world, when he should suspect his declining faculties, and cease to trust and expose them. That time is come with me; feebleness of body and relaxation of mind admonish me to seek repose, and to retire from all public concerns, which I have accordingly done for years. I leave cheerfully to the existing generation measures which are to affect themselves alone, and I am sure they will be wisely directed. I must be permitted therefore to decline giving any new opinion on this subject for the public, who, without such presumption in me, will know well what to do with it; assuring you at the same time of my high respect and consideration.

TH: JEFFERSON.

P. S. As the Instructions are not in the printed journals, I inclose you an extract of that article from an authenticated copy in my hands, dated May 7, 1784, a year earlier than the letter quoted in the memorial, and from a still earlier suggestion of Dr. Franklin, either to congress or otherwise, which I do not recollect.

Art. 4th of the instructions of Congress May 7, 1784, to the ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States, at the Court of Versailles for treaties with the several powers of Europe.

"That it be proposed, though not indispensably required, that if war should hereafter arise between the two contracting parties, the merchants of either country then residing in the other shall be allowed to remain nine months to collect their debts and settle their affairs, and may depart freely, carrying off all their effects without molestation or hindrance: and all fishermen, all cultivators of the earth, and all citizens or manufacturers, unarmed and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages, or places, who labour for the common subsistence and benefit of mankind and peaceably following their respective employments, shall be allowed to continue the same, and shall not be molested by the armed force of the enemy, in whose pow. er by the events of war they may happen to fall; but if any thing is necessary to be taken from them for the use of such armed force, the same shall be paid for at a reasonable price and all merchants and traders exchanging the products of different places, and thereby rendering the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of human life more easy to obtain and more general, shall be allowed to pass free and unmolested; and neither of the contracting powers shall grant or issue any commission to any private armed vessels, empowering them to take or destroy such trading ships, or interrupt such commerce."

REMARKS.

This letter from Mr. Jefferson does honor to the American Congress of 1784, and shows that philanthropic principles were adopted in the very infancy of our republican government. It does honor to Dr. Franklin, as the mover of a plan for circumscribing the horrors of war and diminishing the motives for an appeal to arms. And it also does honor to Mr. Jefferson; for while he avows himself as the writer both of the instructions of Congress to their commissioners, and also of the celebrated article in the treaty with Prussia, be candidly assures us, that "the suggestion was originally from Dr. Franklin."

Though Mr. Jefferson declines "giving any new opinion on this subject," he has frankly told us what was his opinion thirty five years ago, when his " faculties" were in full vigor; and he does not intimate that any change of views has occurred either by longer experience and observation, or “declining faculties." He is entitled to our thanks for the information he has given relative to some facts which were not generally known.

We devoutly hope that the present rulers of our country are not less enlightened nor less philanthropic, than a Congress of the last century; and that similar instructions will again be given to all our Ministers at foreign courts. Should the humane proposition, which originated in the American Congress, be revived and pursued, the time may soon arrive when it will be regarded as a greater benefit and a greater honor to our nation, than all our sanguinary exploits, by sea or land, since 1784. War and warriors will not always be the GLORY of Christian countries. Men however, who have heretofore been engaged in war, believing in its necessity and justice, while they deplored its effects, and who were not dependant merely on fighting valor for their fame, but were in their general characters virtuous and useful, will still retain the esteem of the wise and candid. As the world becomes more enlightened, greater allowances will be made for the prejudices of education, in estimating the characters of men of former generations.

CUMMINGTON PEACE SOCIETY.

THIS respectable Society was organized as a Branch of the Massachusetts Peace Society, Sept. 3, 1819.

OFFICERS.

NEHEMIAH RICHARDS, Esq. President.

Maj. R. DAWES,

AMOS COBB, Vice Presidents.

SETH PORTER Jun. Treasurer.

CYRUS FORD, Corresponding and Recording

The Members of this Society, already reported, are 49. Their names will be given in the next annual Catalogue.