WAR PREPARATIONS IN A TIME OF PEACE.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

It is sometimes said, by persons yet in the leading-strings of inherited prejudice, and with little appreciation of the true safety of the principles of Peace, that all these comprehensive preparations for war are needed for the protection of the country against enemies from abroad. Wishing to present our cause, without raising any superfluous question as to what have been called "defensive wars," on which there are varieties of opinion among the opponents of War, let me say in reply--and here all can unite--that if these preparations should be so needed at any time, according to the aggressive martial interpretation of the right of self-defence, there is much reason to believe it would be, because the unchristian spirit in which they have their birth, and which lowers and scowls in the very names of the ships, had provoked the danger--as the presence of a brave in our houses might challenge the attack which he was hired to resist.