E 449 
 .M94 
 Copy 1 
 
BALLOT BOX 
 
 AND 
 
 BATTLE FIELD. 
 
 TO VOTERS UNDER THE 
 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, 
 
 What we do by our agents, we do ourselves.' 
 
 BdKTON: 
 DOW & JACKSON'S PRESS. 
 1842. 
 

BALLOT BOX AND BATTLE FIELD. 
 
 TO VOTERS IN THE UNITED STATES 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The object of this essay is to establish the fol- 
 ^owin^ position: Each voter in the United 
 States government votes for the war-ma- 
 king POWER, AND acts AS PRINCIPAL IN SHEDDING 
 
 whatever blood is SHED BY IT. Each voter is 
 virtually the jailor and hangman — the war-maker and 
 commander-in-chief — and whatever robbery and 
 murder are committed by Congress and the Presi- 
 dent — by the army and navy — are done by him, and 
 he, individually, must render an account thereof to 
 the final Judge. 
 
 If the position be true, it is no slight matter to as- 
 sume the office of voter in this government. This 
 would make it paramount in dignity and importance 
 to all its other offices. When men vote, they are 
 not aware that every ballot is gory and dripping with 
 the hearts' blood of thousands — shed by him who 
 casts it into the box. Is it so ? Let us see. 
 
 The War-making Power. 
 
 What is it ? Power over human life to destroy it 
 for the benefit of the destroyers. We never kill our 
 enemies for their good. To suppose it possible is 
 an outrage on common sense. We cannot associate 
 a kind and loving regard for their welfare with kil- 
 ling them. 
 
Neither can we kill onr enemies to please God, 
 To suppose that our common Father can be pleased 
 to see His children killings each other, is to attri- 
 bute to Him that of which, if any human parent 
 were guilty, we should count him a monster of wick- 
 edness. Should a fatiier teach his children to kill 
 each other when, in their vieiv, the necessity of the 
 case demanded ; and then should countenance and 
 urge on ihe brotherly fight and slaughter in his 
 presence and approving smile ; what would be said 
 of him ? Humanity would cry out against him as an 
 unnatural father. Every human beinir can look to 
 the same God and say— MY FATHER. Should 
 this Heavenly Father say to his children — 'My 
 children, LOVE ONE ANOTHER; but there will 
 be occasions when it will be necessary for you to 
 fight and kill each other; of these necessary occa- 
 sions, you must be judges. I would have you, 
 therefore, arm yourselves, cherish and strengthen 
 the war-spirit within you, study the art of killing 
 each other; and then, v/hen you shall think neces- 
 sity demands, in a kind and brotherly way fall upon 
 and kill each other; and I, your common Father, 
 will be present to aid and encourage the fraternal 
 slaughter by my parental smile' — who could wish 
 to be called the child of such a Father ? The Fa- 
 ther of mercies pleased to see his children fighting 
 and killing each other! Children — brothers and sis- 
 ters, in a tender, affectionate way, fighting, dashing 
 out each other's brains, and tearing out each other's 
 hearts, to please and honor their common Father ! ! 
 
 NO. Men kill their enemies solely to benefit 
 themselves. The war-making power assumes that 
 this is right. 
 
 This power inculcates, also, the right to inflict 
 any injury short of death. If, to carry on human 
 government, we may dispose of /[/e as we see fit, 
 and for our good, in the same way, and for the same 
 end, we may dispose of all that belongs to life. He 
 
that has forfeited life, has forfeited all that belongs 
 to it. Property and liberty are nothing without life ; 
 and no g-overnment, based on the right to destroy 
 the latter, can ever inspire respect for the former. 
 Can those who steal men, dissuade others from 
 stealing cattle? Can those who kill men for their 
 own interests, persuade others not to enslave them 
 for the same end ? Can m3.n-killcrs abolish n)an- 
 stealing? What moral influence can he who wields 
 the siom'd have over him who wields only the lash^ 
 Property and liberty can never be regarded as sa- 
 cred under a government that assumes pou'er over 
 life. A war-making government can afford no pro- 
 tection to human rights; because, in assaulting life^ 
 the right on which all human rights de|)end, it 
 teaches its subjects and all others, that man may be 
 plundered of every right, and that for the interests 
 of the plunderers. 
 
 This power takes no account of the guilt or inno- 
 cence of its victiuis. It kills those whom it ac- 
 knowledges to be guilty of no crime ; and often for 
 doing what it admits it is their right and duty to do. 
 It sometimes enters into a compact to kill men for 
 ■what, by its own decisions, is 'obedience to God.* 
 It kills men for doing what the killers them- 
 selves would do in like circumstances. It 
 says to the enemy, we will send a spy into your 
 camp, and if you catch and hansf him, you are mur- 
 derers; but if you send one into ours, and we can 
 catch him, it would be our duty to hanu iiim, and 
 thus retaliate. It says to the Indians, We will enter 
 your country, seize your crops, cattle, houses, and 
 lauds, and appropriate them to our own use; and 
 this is right — but if you attempt to do so to us, it is 
 onr right and duty to destroy you. It says to the 
 Africans, We will steal and enslave you — but if you 
 attempt to steal and enslave us, we will kill you. 
 It says to the slaves. If we were in your circuriv 
 stances, we would regain liberty by blood — but if 
 you attempt to do so, we will shoot you down. 
 
Thus the war-making power sets at naught every 
 principle of justice and humanity. At pleasure, and 
 for no violation of moral principle, it breaks human 
 necks, chops off human heads, tears out human 
 hearts, and blows to atoms human bodies. This 
 power is truly described by WM. GOODELL. It 
 is, he says — 
 
 ' Diametrically opposed to the existence of liber- 
 ty' — 'the perfection of despotism' — 'necessarily 
 subversive of law ' — ' unlimited, despotic, lawless ' — 
 'the origin of piracies, highway robberies, house- 
 breaking, duellings, lynchings, mobs, bowie-knives, 
 daggers, and the assassin's dirk' — '^ opposed to the 
 supremacy of God' — 'to the equality of men' — 'to- 
 accountability to a common tribunal.' * To say that 
 God has authorized human governments to wield 
 military power, is to say that He has absolved them 
 from all allegiance to Him, that He has abdicated 
 His throne in their favor, and that the subjects of 
 such governments have no duties to their Creator 
 which are paramount to their duties to their fellow- 
 men who rule over them.' 
 
 Such are the nature and necessary fruits of the 
 war-making power. It recognizes no moral govern- 
 ment — no God. Victorv', its standard of right ; de- 
 feat, of wrong. It regards and treats men as beasts, 
 and necessarily tends to make them so. In its esti- 
 mation, man has no reason, no conscience, no souL 
 The worse the man, the more ferocious and brutal, 
 the better the warrior. As men become humanized, 
 they cease to fight; as they become christian, they 
 are wjifitted to kill, but fitted to die. 
 
 If a man consents to vote in this government, there 
 are some things against which he has no right to 
 vote. No man can honestly accept the ofBce of vo- 
 ter, and then vote against the existence of the gov- 
 ernment. The war-wuking power is essential to its 
 existence. No voter can consistently or honestly 
 vote against that power. When he^totes for a Con- 
 
gressman or President, he must vote for them as 
 they are defined by the Constitution. As there de- 
 fined, Congressmen and the President are men in- 
 vested, by the nation, with power to make war. 
 Take away this power, and the offices cease to ex- 
 ist. The Constitution is all changed. The govern- 
 ment is abolished. If the right of suffrage granted 
 by the government for its maintenance be a boon, 
 no man can honestly accept that boon, and use it to. 
 destroy the government. 
 
 Office of Congressman. 
 'AH legislative power herein granted shall be 
 vested in a Congress of the United States.' (Con. 
 U. S. Art. I. Sec. 1 ) The war-making power is an 
 essential ingredient of this oSice. ' Congress shall 
 have power to declare war, grant letters of marque 
 and reprisal, raise and support armies, provide and 
 maintain a navy, provide for calling forth the militia 
 to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrec- 
 tions and repel invasions, and provide for organizing, 
 arming and disciplining the militia.' (Con. U. S. 
 Art. 1. Sec. 8.) 
 
 Thus this office is created and defined by the 
 Constitution, and whoever votes for a Congressman 
 must vote for all that is essential to it as here de- 
 fined. The Constitution assumes that the war-ma- 
 king power is conferred and sanctioned by God, 
 and every time a man votes for Congressmen, he 
 says that military defence is a chnstian act. 
 
 Congress, having power to make war, is author- 
 ized to'^do each particular thing, necessary to carry 
 it on: to sack and burn towns and cities; to throw 
 cannon balls and bombshells into nurseries and 
 kitchens ; to destroy harvests, desolate countries, 
 and drive women and children out to starve and 
 freeze ; to make widows and orphans ; to enslave 
 and whip; to steal, rob and murder. The Constitu- 
 tion might as well specify these things and empower 
 Congress to do them, as to say, 'Congress shall have 
 power to declare war.' 
 
6 
 
 Office of President. 
 
 'The executive power shall be vested in a Presi- 
 dent.' (Art. II. Sec. 1.) 
 
 ' The President shall be commander-in-chief of 
 the army and navy of the United States.' (Con. U. 
 S. Art. II. Sec. 2.) 
 
 Whatever other duty may be involved in this of- 
 fice, military command is one. This duty is speci- 
 fied. The Presidential office is the highest military 
 office of the nation; and tiie incumbent, whoever he 
 be, must be 'commander-in-chief of the aririy and 
 navy,' and take the following oath to perform the du- 
 ties of that station : 
 
 'I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully exe- 
 cute the office of President of the United States, 
 and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect 
 and defend the Constitution of the United States.* 
 (Con. U. S. Art. II. Sec. 1.) 
 
 Thus, in both these offices, the war-making- power 
 s an essential element of existence; and no man 
 can fill tiiem without consenting to be vested with 
 it. No matter v/ith what motives he accepts the of- 
 fice—though it be solely to use his influence to 
 discard the war-making power from the government, 
 stiil, he must consent to be invested with it, and 
 swear to use it in given cases, so long as the Con- 
 stitution remains as it is. May a man consent to be 
 invested with power to do an evil, and swear to do it, 
 even for the purpose oX abolishing that evil.' With 
 power to lie, in order to abolish lying ? 
 
 Mat not a Man consent to be vested with 
 THIS Power, AND resolve never, to use it.' 
 
 The Constitution provides against this, and lays 
 Congressmen and the Pre.sident under obligations 
 to make war in certain specified cases. 
 
 'The United States shall protect each of the 
 States against i/JV^/s?*on ; and, on application of the 
 Legislature, or of the Executive, against domeslic 
 violence: (Con. U. S. Art. III. Sec. 4.) 
 
Here two cases are specified, in which every 
 Concrressman and President is sworn to make war. 
 Those offices were created by the people mainly for 
 the purpose of niilitary defence ajrainst 'foreign in- 
 vasion and domestic violence;' and, should these 
 occur, and the incumbents of those offices refuse to 
 make war, they would be guilty of perjury. 
 
 Besides, how can a man consent to be clothed 
 with power to do what he thinks wrong? He who 
 would do it, proves himself dishonest. He pledges 
 himself to his constituents that, if they will elect 
 him, he will never make war; then consents to be 
 vested with war-making power, and swears that he 
 will use it in given cases! He consents to be vest- 
 ed with power to do what he acknowledsfes to be 
 wrong, and swears to do it, and then gravely as- 
 sures us that he never intended to do it ! Such a 
 man is unworthy any trust. 
 
 Congressmen and the President Agents of 
 THE Voters. 
 These officers were created, and their powers and 
 duties defined, by a convention of forty men, half ot 
 whom were m^n-stealers, and all of them ivdn-kill- 
 ers, assembled in Philadelphia in 1787, chosen and 
 sent there to frame a government. They framed the 
 present Constitution, and submitted it to the voters 
 for their adoption. The voters adopted it. So that 
 these offices, with their military powers and duties, 
 were created and defined by the voters ; and every 
 time they meet at the polls to vote, for Congressmen 
 and a President, they adopt them, with all their es- 
 sential elements, as iheir own- They elect men for 
 the purpose of making war in the cases specified, 
 and thf\v require them to swear that they will do it 
 — and lead out the forces by land and sea, to fight 
 to repel invasions and suppress insurrections. The 
 voters wish to resist tliese evils by arms and blood, 
 and they employ and pay Congress and the Presi- 
 dent to do it as their agents. 
 
8 
 
 JVoiv the ads of an agent are the acts of the employ- 
 er. We do the deeds which we employ others to do, 
 By my ag-ent I build a house. Though I strike not 
 a blow with my own hands, it is my work. To steal, 
 rob or murder by the hands of others, is the same as 
 to do them with our o<vn. However guilty our 
 agents may be, our guilt is the same as if our own 
 hands had done the deeds. No matter whose hands 
 strike the blow — if our hearts conceive it, the guilt 
 is primarily and principally ours. 
 
 Slaveholders wish to drive the Seminole Indians 
 from Florida, that their fugitive slaves may no long- 
 er find refuge among them. They harass them, de- 
 stroy their crops and stock, on purpose to provoke 
 them to retaliate. The Indians retaliate. Slave- 
 holders raise the cry of Indian massacre, and apply 
 to Congress and the President for protection. These 
 officers being employed by the electors for this 
 very purpose, butcher men, women and children till 
 they are exterminated. Who is responsible ? Not 
 only the officers and soldiers, Congress and the 
 President, but primarily and above all, the electors. 
 They create and sustain these war-making offices, 
 and the robbery and murder committed on the hunt- 
 ed Seminole are their own work. 
 
 Suppose I am a planter, and want a hundred 
 slaves, and send men to Africa to steal them and 
 bring them to me. I, meanwhile, sit on my planta- 
 tion, and move not a hand or foot in the matter. 
 The piracy is done by my agents. But who acted 
 as principal? Whatever guilt may attach to my 
 agents, the guilt of the whole as really belongs to 
 me as if it had been done by my own hands. I am 
 the chief pirate, and all human tribunals would try 
 me as principal ; my agents, as accessories. This 
 is self-evident — for were there no slaveholders, 
 there would be no men-stealers. 
 
 So the slaveholders are, and ever have been, the 
 principals in the African slave trade. The United 
 
9 
 
 States punishes the traffic with death. On whom 
 does the sentence fall ? Only on the agents. The 
 slaveholders, the real pirates, escape — while the 
 agents are hung. If any are to be hung, the slave- 
 holder ought to hang first, for he is the moving 
 cause of the dark and direful trade. 
 
 Of the eighteen millions in the United States, 
 only two millions and a half are voters. These con- 
 stitute the sovereignty or governing power of the 
 nation, and hold absolute, uncontrolled, discretion- 
 ary power over the property, liberty and lives of the 
 rest. Their will is law, and to it all must yield, or 
 die. At their request, I accept the office of ' com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army' — and 'solemnly swear 
 faithfully to execute the duties of the office.' The 
 slaves assert their rights by an appeal to arms. I 
 and the voters, whose agent I am, have declared 
 that it is their duty thus to obtain and defend their 
 rights — that ^resistance to tip'ants is obedience to God^ 
 Yet my constituents are pledged to support slave- 
 holders in their tyranny ; and one express object, in 
 appointing me their 'commander-in-chief,' is, that 
 in case the slaves should obey God, and resist their 
 oppressors, to lead forth the army and destroy them. 
 VVhen I took the office, (which, in this light, can 
 be viewed only as the office of a murderer,) I as- 
 sured the voters, with an oath, that 1 would execute 
 their pleasure in this matter. I direct the army 
 against the slaves struggling for liberty, and slay 
 thousands whom the whole war-making world pro- 
 nounces innocent. Who murdered these innocents? 
 The voters, who chose me to be their military chief- 
 tain. 
 
 Nat Turner and his compeers, in imitation of 
 Washington and the revolutionary heroes, appealed 
 to arms to free themselves from a bondage, 'one 
 hour of which,' as Jefferson says, ' is fraught with 
 more misery than ages of that which our fathers 
 arose in rebellion to oppose.' The President, ac- 
 
- 10 
 
 cording to the orders of his constituents and his oath 
 of office, directed the army ajrainst them, and slew 
 them. Who murdered Nat Turner? The voters 
 acted as principals in the bloody tragedy. The 
 rest were mere agents — willing ones indeed— yet 
 tools. 
 
 How IS EACH Voter Guilty of the Whole ? 
 
 Suppose I steal a man with my own hands. Here 
 my guiJt is obvious — I have no associates. I em- 
 ploy another to steal him. Here, too, my guilt is 
 plain. But I have an associate — my agent. I am 
 principal. Ten of us unite and e;nploy another to 
 steal a man. Here, also, my guilt is evident. I 
 have nine associates as principals, and one as agent. 
 But my guilt is not lessened by having ten asso- 
 ciates. As to criminality, I stand where I did when 
 I, alone, employed the agent, and when I did the 
 deed with my own hands. The only difference is — 
 now there are ten principals, instead of one, all equal- 
 ly gi'i'ty- Each of the ten, together with the agent, 
 is guilty of the whole transaction, the same as if he 
 had done it with his own liands. Had there been 
 millions, instead of one or ten, to employ the agent, 
 each would have done the deed, and been ffuilty of 
 the whole. My guilt can never be diminished by 
 the number engaged with me in any villany. If I 
 vote for a military chieftain, or for the captain of a 
 band of pirates, I am responsible for all that my 
 agent does in his official capacity, though millions 
 voted with me. 
 
 Men are not responsible to God as organizations^ 
 but as individuals. TliouL^h millions unite anfl elect 
 the same agent to do the same deed, yet each is as 
 responsible for the whole as it he acted alone. Men 
 must account to God, not by sectarian or national 
 compacts, but by individuals. 'Each one must give 
 account of himself to God.' 
 
 Each voter is the Congress, the President, the 
 commander-in-chief, the constable, jailor and hang- 
 
11 
 
 man ; the army and navy; and when the Seminoles 
 and Cherokees are plundered and murdered; tlie fu- 
 gitive slave taken buck to chains and tears; the 
 slave-il'ade carried on ; the slaves shot down for do- 
 ing what the nation declares is 'obedience to God;' 
 these deads are done by the two and a half millions 
 of voters ; and each voter is principal in these acts 
 of villany and outrage. Each voter breaks all the 
 necks that are broken by the government ; and does 
 all the shooting and stabbing done by it. 
 
 How can any follower of the Prince of Peace 
 identify himself with the Federal Government as a 
 voter 1- He must vote for war, and for all its bloody 
 essentials. His heart is full of love to enemies — of 
 a love that seeketh not her own — that is gentle, 
 kind, forgiving, long-suffering; the martial spirit 
 has given place to the spirit of Jesus, and his hands 
 can never execute a deed of violence and blood 
 which the kind and gentle spirit within him can 
 never conceive. How can a spirit, thus baptized 
 into Christ, go to the ballot-box and vote for a power 
 that is 'unluTiited, despotic, lawless,' and 'opposed to 
 the supremacy of God.' In doing so, he votes for 
 'piracy, highway robbery, duellings, lynchings, 
 mobs, bowie-knives, daggers, and the assassin's dirk.' 
 Can a man vote for war, and pray that all wars may 
 cease ? Can he vote for swords and guns, and pray 
 that all deadly weapons may be beaten up? He 
 might as well pray for temperance, and vote for 
 drunkenness — as well pray for liberty and vote for 
 slavery, as pray for peace and vote for war. To vote 
 for Congressmen and President, as these offices are 
 defined, is to vote that the peaceful kingdom of the 
 Son of God is a lie, for it is voting against its essen- 
 tial spirit and fundamental principles. A man might 
 as well be a robbgr or an assassin, as a voter for the 
 war-making power. 
 
 We have been a nation sixty years, and engaged 
 in war with England, Algiers and the Indians, twen- 
 
1^ 
 
 ly years ; and against Humanity, in the person of 
 the slave, during the whole time of our national ex* 
 istence— defying God, hunting, hanging, buying and 
 selling his image. The government has butchered 
 over one million in war, unaccused, and unconvicted 
 of any crime. God has created human beings in 
 his own likeness, and crowned them with glory and 
 honor. The voters, who constitute the Federal 
 Government, have stood with the uplifted axe of 
 execution to cut their heads off, or with rifle and 
 blood-hound to hunt them down. 
 
 A dread responsibility rests on each man, when, 
 in the face of all the facts respecting the nature and 
 necessary tendency of the war-power, he sanctions 
 and sustains it by voting for a war-making Con- 
 gress and President. Their hands and garments 
 are dripping with innocent blood. It is no less hos- 
 tile to the spirit and precepts of Christianity, and to 
 the existence and well-being of society, to vote for 
 a war-making Congress and President, than for 
 kidnapping and murder. You can as innocently 
 vote for the latter as for the former. 
 
 Had the Constitution said, ' Congress shall have 
 power to abolish marriage and establish concubi- 
 nage—to abolish liberty and establish slavery — to 
 abolish Christianity and establish paganism^to de- 
 throne God and establish atheism,' would you vote 
 for Congressmen ? Especially when you consider 
 that they must swear to use this power and do these 
 deeds in specified cases ? But when the Constitution 
 confers on Congress 'power to declare war, issue 
 letters of marque and reprisal,' &.c., it authorizes 
 it to do all these, and more. Had the Constitution 
 enumerated the i^ems essential to the existence and 
 conduct of war, and then said — ' Congress shall 
 have power to do these,' you could no more vote for 
 a Congressman than for the unutterable anguish and 
 horror of the slave-ship and slave-auction, or ihe 
 blood and carnage of piracy. 
 
13 
 
 All preparations for war, in this nation, are begun 
 at the ballot-box. Voting is the first step ; and ev* 
 ery course of action begun there, if resisted, must 
 end on the gallowsor the battle-field. A bullet is in 
 every ballot; and when the ballot is cast into the 
 box, the bullet goes in with it. They are insepara- 
 ble, as the government is now constituted. Every 
 voter, as he casts in his vote, says — 'This is my 
 will — if you resist it, I will kill you*' Every ballot 
 contains a threat of death; and he, who casts it, 
 pledges himself to aid the government to execute it 
 The ballot-box is the first step — the gallows or bat- 
 tle-field the last ; and whoever takes the first, must 
 lake the last. There is no consistent or honest stop^ 
 ping place between. Every man who consents to 
 express his will in a ballot, pledges himself to exe- 
 cute it on the gibbet or the battle-field* 
 
 Nor can you escape this conclusion by saying — ' 
 you are in the minority. This is a government of 
 the majority ; and when a man consents to receive 
 and exercise the right of suflTrage under it, he con- 
 sents that the majority shall rule, and pledges 
 himself to aid in executing the will of the majority. 
 Whether he votes with the majority or not, by con- 
 senting to vote at all, he becomes responsible for 
 what it does. 
 
 Members of the American Peace Society* 
 Can these, without acknowledged wrong, sustain, 
 by their votes, the offices of Congress atid President? 
 They say in their Constitution, Art. 2d, that ' All 
 War is contrary to The spirit of the gos- 
 pel.' In explaining this, in 1838, the Society says, 
 
 * We consider it (the above expression) as designed 
 to assert that all national wars are inconsistent with 
 Christianity, including those supposed or alleged to 
 be defensive.'' 
 
 In their tenth annual report, in 1838, they say— 
 
 * The custom of war is incompatible with the genius, 
 precepts and aims of Christianity* The whole 
 
14 
 
 war system is founded in guilt and blood, is 
 utterly wrong in its origin, its principles, and its 
 means.' 
 
 Of course, according to the American Peace So- 
 ciety, to vote for war-power is to vote against the 
 'genius, precepts and aims of Christianity,' and to 
 vote for what is 'founded in guilt and blood, and ut- 
 terly wrong in its origin, principles and means.' 
 And according to the decision of tlie same Society, 
 every Congressman and President is sworn to act 
 ' contrary to the spirit of the gospel,' and to oppose 
 the 'genius, precepts and aims of Christianity' — for 
 they are sworn to make war in specified cases. Can 
 they innocently sustain these offices by their votes'^ 
 
 Friends. 
 
 Persons are excluded from the Society of Friends, 
 for making swords and guns for the army — for train- 
 ing in a militia company — for holding the offices of 
 constable, sheriff or hangman — for trading in goods 
 known to be obtained by privateering. 
 
 But, after all this, Friends vote for a war- 
 making Congress and President ! They disown 
 a man if he joins a militia company and votes for a 
 corporal; but a man may become a constituent part 
 of a war-making government, and vote for the ' com- 
 mander-in-chief o\ i\\e army and navy,' and remain a 
 member in good standing, and be entitled to sit on 
 the uppermost seat as a minister or elder ! Verily, 
 they '■choke at a gnat, and swallow a camel.' If a 
 Quaker declares war himself, and leads forth the 
 army, he is disowned ; but he may vote for others 
 to do these things, and nothing is said. If he kills 
 men with his own hands, he is doomed, but when he 
 does it by proxy, all is well, especially if the proxy 
 be not a brother Friend. 
 
 The American Peace Society and the Society of 
 Friends, while they vote for a war-making Congress 
 and President, are practical enemies of the cause of 
 Peace. They pray and talk for peace, and vote 
 
15 
 
 and act for war— like those who say men should not 
 steal, yet they steal. They say war is wrong-, yet 
 rote for it. The report of such peace-men is not be- 
 lieved. 
 
 OBJECTIONS. 
 Must Elect the best Men. 
 
 An office is created. It will be filled, and the ef- 
 fect of the office on the community will depend on' 
 the spirit and principles of him who fills it. There' 
 are two candidates — the one adorned by every vir- 
 tue, the other stained with every vice. My vote' 
 would decide the election. Shall I vote? Not till I 
 know the nature and duties of the office ; for in 
 voting- for either candidate, I also vote for the office 
 with all its essentiaV powers and duties; Is it a man- 
 enslaving and a man-killing office ? Is it a war- 
 making- office? In voting-, must I vote for 'power to^ 
 declare war' — a power which is a practical denial of 
 Christianity— which is necessarily destructive of all 
 order and security, and the source of all crimes P 
 If the candidate were an angel of purity and wis- 
 dom, and if by voting I could keep out one allied to 
 fiends in temper and wickedness, I could not vote. 
 I could not hold the office myself, and, of course, 
 could not elect another to it. I could not employ 
 another to do what it would be wrong for me to do. 
 
 I must look at the office first, and ask — Are its 
 powers such as I can rightfully sustain, and its duties 
 such as I can innocently perform? This must be 
 settled first. Talk not of the qualities of the candi- 
 date^ but of the nature of the office. I cannot vote 
 for a war-making office, while I profess to be a dis- 
 ciple of the Prince of Peace; and to be governed 
 by his spirit and laws. 
 
 In the heat and strife of a contested election, men 
 look away from the powers and duties of the office 
 for which they vote, to the character of the candi- 
 date. I would direct attention to the nature of the- 
 
16 
 
 office first. I would have men see what they vote 
 for, and what they sustain, when they vote for Con- 
 jrressmen and a President. No matter what may be 
 the immediate result, if in voting- for these offices I 
 sustain the war-making; power, which has ever con- 
 verted human beings into beasts of prey — made man 
 the foe of man — arrayed the children of a common 
 Father against each other in deadly feud, and made 
 the earth a mere slaughter-house for man — then I 
 may not vote. 
 
 But ive must have the best men to Jill these offices. 
 So it was once said of the rum-seller's office. Re- 
 spectable and sober men must be chosen — none oth- 
 ers were considered fitted to deal out intoxicating 
 drinks. So praying deacons and consecrated elders 
 were sought out and licensed to sell rum. These 
 could sell it, and make drunkards prayerfully, and in 
 a consecrated way. It would never do to put impi- 
 ous, swearing, prayerless men into a rum-seller's 
 office. But total abstinence has taught a better les- 
 son—that unprincipled and wicked men should be 
 left to fill unprincipled and wicked offices. Drunk- 
 ards to fill a drunkard-making office. The office 
 itself will sooner be put down. 
 
 So, as long as the offices of Congressman and 
 President are war-making offices — savage and mur- 
 derous in their nature and duties — let the most des- 
 perate ruffians and murderers be chosen to fill them, 
 if any, for such bloody-minded men are already fitted 
 to perform their murderous duties, and such will 
 more speedily bring the offices themselves into dis- 
 repute. Never attempt to gild a bloody and murde- 
 rous office by a virtuous incumbent. Would you elect 
 a kind and benevolent man to the office of a slave- 
 driver? Would you appoint an honest man captain 
 of a pirate ? A christian to head a band of midnight 
 assassins ? Christ to sit on the throne of hell, and do 
 the devil's work ? No more should you elect a fol- 
 lower of the Prince of Peace to a loar-making office. 
 
17 
 
 Let none but murderers bo cliosen to a murderers 
 office. 
 
 But the offices exist, and unit he filled, and Ave shall 
 be greatly affected by the manner in which they are 
 filled. Is it not our duty to try to have them filled 
 hy true and goocv men ? The fact that any man know-, 
 inor the nnture and duties of a Congressman or Pres- 
 ident, will consent to hold these offices is, of itself, 
 sufficient evidence that he is not a good and true 
 man. A crew of pirates or a band of assassins, 
 might offer the same reason to justify themselves 
 in voting for a captain to head them in their villany. 
 The offices indeed exist. But who created them ? 
 The very raffians who plead their existence as a rea- 
 son why they should vote tor some persons to fill 
 them. We might as well say the office of a corpo- 
 ral, brigadier or hangman exists, and will be filled, 
 and we will elect men who will do tlie fighting and 
 hanging piously, devotionally, and in a holy way. If 
 men will create war-making offices and fill them, 
 let us see to it that our hands are not stained with 
 innocent blood. 
 
 Must vote for the SLAVE. 
 
 Suppose the abolition of slavery throughout the 
 world depended on a president election, and that my 
 vote would throw the scale for abolition. Shall I 
 vote? Not, if by voting, I must sanction a power 
 ' that is diametrically opposed to the existence of 
 liberty — the perfection of despotism' I may not 
 vote for the ' war-system that is founded in guilt, 
 and blood, and utterly wrong in its origin, its princi- 
 ples and means' — even to abolish slavery. 
 
 It would indeed be a trying case. Millions before 
 mine eyes writhing under the horrors of the chattel 
 principle, and by dropping a bit of paper into the 
 ballot-box, I can instantly relieve them ! Who that 
 has any flesh in his heart could refuse ? But sup- 
 pose that in order to vote, I must become a member 
 of a social compact or government, based on the 
 
18 
 
 right to kill men at will, and for its own benefit, au^ 
 must vote for the war-making; power — a power op- 
 posed to Christianity, to the Prince of Peace, to the 
 brotherhood of man, to the fraternity and supremacy 
 of God — shall I vote? I must violate the law of love, 
 if I do ; and the irreatest wron^r 1 could do to the 
 ■cause of human freedom would be to violate that 
 law to abolish slavery. By its violation, the slave is 
 a slave. Shall I violate it to relieve him? Never 
 — till we are allowed to do evil that good may come. 
 Till men cease to be brethren, and tire divested of 
 moral nature and responsibility; till God ceases to 
 be our Father and lawgiver — till Christ ceases lobe 
 ourexample — till it ceases to be our duty to love 
 and foririve our enemies— or till love and forgive- 
 ness can be thrust into our enemies with swords and 
 bavonets — I cannot vote for a war-making Congress 
 and President, even to deliver a world from oppres- 
 sion. 
 
 Slavery can never be voted down by voting for 
 war-making power, for slavery itself is but the nat- 
 ural and necessary fruit of this power. It is ab- 
 surd to talk of voting against slavery by voting for 
 ivar; for whoso votes for war, or military defence, 
 votes for ^slavery. Suppose the Constitution had 
 said — ' Congress shall have power to steal sheep,' 
 and 'the President shall be commander-in-chief of 
 a band of sheep-stealers ; ' or had it said — ' Congress 
 shall have power to steal men,^ and ' the President 
 shall be commander-in-chief of a band of men-steal- 
 ers;' would you vote for sheep-stealing or man- 
 stealing power to abolish sheep-stealing or man- 
 Stealing? You might as well vote for power to 
 abolish Christianity, in order to suppress Infidelity. 
 Truth can never be established by investing Con- 
 gress with power to tell lies. Temperance could 
 never be promoted by investing Congress with 
 power to make drunkards. Theft can never be 
 abolished by voting for murder. Liberty can never 
 
19 
 
 be protected by investing" Congress and the Pre- 
 sident with power to kill men; a lesser right, by au- 
 thorizing the destruction of a greater. To prevent 
 a man from going nine miles, would you authorize 
 him to go ten ? To prevent a ruffian from knocking 
 his victim down, v/ould you authorize him to kill him ? 
 If the ruffian has power to A:z7/, he, of course, will 
 feel at liberty to knock' down. It is as absurd and 
 irrational to authorize a government to kill men, to 
 prevent men frxDm being enslaved; or to empower 
 them to make ivar, to abolish slavery. 
 
 Slavery is based on violence; it can never be abol- 
 ished by violence; the throne of violence can never 
 be demolished by violence; till drunkenness can 
 abolish drunkenness ; slavery, slavery ; and till Beel- 
 zebub can cast out Beelzebub. ' They that take the 
 sword, shall perish by the sword.' ' Whoso shed- 
 deth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' 
 Blood begets blood ; violence, violence. 
 
 I would remJer safe my own life, and the lives of 
 others. So I surround myself and all others with 
 deadly weapons; and study the art of killing men, 
 and teach it to all around me. I miglUas well guard 
 ao-ainst intemperance by drinking nmi, and urging 
 all others to drink it. What is it that endangers 
 human rights, property, liberty and life ? VIO- 
 LENCE.. So to guard these rights, we base the 
 government on violence — invest Congress and the 
 President with the right to commit violence — fill 
 the land with the means of violence, and compel the 
 people to study how to do violence to each other! 
 It is downright infatuation ! 
 
 Those who plead their regard for the slave, to 
 justify voting for a war-making Congress and Pres- 
 ident, deceive themselves and others. They cannot 
 have a true and efficient regard for the slave when 
 they vote for blood and carnage to procure his re- 
 demption. No man can have a true and hearty de- 
 sire to relieve hunted and imbruted humanity, and 
 
50 
 
 vote for the war-system which he acknowledges to 
 be 'founded in guilt and blood, contrary to the ge- 
 nius, precepts and aims of Christianity,' and for a 
 power wlii(.-h he declares to be the origin of ' rob- 
 beries, piracies, bowie-knives and the assassin's 
 dirk.' No man can love the slaves who will violate 
 a known and acknowledged rule of right to free 
 them. 
 
 But if we hod a-ny regard for justice and humani- 
 ty, we should never appeal to the syinpnihies of a 
 man to induce him to violate his conscience, nor 
 would our sympathies for the slave ever tempt us 
 to deviate from the law of truth and right to procure 
 his deliverance. Our consciences and sympathies 
 would draw the same way. We should abstain from 
 voting for a "a ar-making Congress and President be- 
 cause we feel for the slave. Our sympathy for out- 
 raged humanity would forever hold us back from the 
 ballot-box in a war-making government. We should 
 as soon cut a man's throat to save him from choak- 
 inir, or blow his brains out to cure the headache, as 
 vote for war to abolish slavenj. Those who do vote 
 for a war-making Congress and President to abolish 
 slavery, vote to kvll men to prevent them from be- 
 inor STOLEN. They Vote for MURDER to prevent 
 THEFT!!! H. C. WRIGHT. 
 
 Philadelphia, Aug, 20, 1841. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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