CONSTITUTION

OF THE AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY, AS AMENDED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, MAY 13, 1829.

Among the many sanguinary customs which have afflicted the world, no one has involved more crime and calamity than public war, and no one has been more repugnant to the spirit and precepts of the Christian religion; consequently no object of philanthropy can be more deserving the attention and patronage of all who bear the Christian name, than that of abolishing the practice of settling national controversies by a recourse to the sword. Experience having shown, that National Societies, for philanthropic objects, are eminently useful, the subscribers agree to form a National Peace Society, on the following principles:

Article L-The object of the Society shall be to diffuse light respecting the evils of war, and the best means of effecting its abolition.

Article II-The funds of the Society shall consist of annual subscriptions, life subscriptions, donations of individuals, contributions of auxiliary societies, and Christian churches and congregations.

Article III.-The payment of two dollars or more annually, shall entitle any person to membership-the payment of twenty dollars shall constitute a minister a member for life-any person who will pay thirty dollars, at one time, shall be a member for life, and any donor of fifty dollars or more, shall be an honorary member of the Society. Every annual subscription must be paid on or before the twenty-fifth day of December of every year.

Article IV-Every subscriber shall be entitled to receive, annually, such publications as the Society shall make the vehicle of its communications. Auxiliary societies, churches, and congregations, shall be entitled to the value of two-thirds of their contributions, in the tracts or periodical publications of the Society, at the wholesale prices. Any religious society that shall make its minister, or any other member of it, a life subscriber, shall, in like manner, be entitled to receive two-thirds of the value of the money it shall pay into the treasury; and females, who shall form associations to aid the Society, shall be entitled to the value of the money which they may contribute, in tracts, or periodical works of the Society when required.

Article V-The business of the Society shall be conducted by a Board of not less than twenty directors, who shall have power to supply such vacancies in their number, as may occur by death or resignation-to appoint such officers, agents, or assistants, as they may deem necessary to appoint their own meetings, and special meetings of the Society, directing as to time and place; and to manage the funds and all the concerns of the Society, and to add to their numbers. :

Article VI-At the annual meeting, the Directors and Treasurer shall exhibit their reports, and the Directors shall be chosen for the ensuing year, who shall appoint the time and place of the next annual meeting.

Article VII.-The presiding officer of the Society, or any person having his proxy, together with the Secretary and three other members, shall constitute a quorum to do business.

Article VIII-Auxiliary Societies shall be entitled to be represented at the meetings of the Society by one Delegate, for each year in which they may pay ten dollars, or more, to the funds of the Society. Should they pay sixty dollars, they shall be entitled to be represented by two Delegates, and auxiliaries paying one hundred dollars, or more, shall be entitled to add one member to the Board of Directors, and also to send one Delegate to the meetings of the Society for every hundred dollars paid.

Article IX.-The object of the Society shall never be changed; but, in other respects, the foregoing articles may be amended, and others added, at any regular meeting, which shall be duly notified, provided three-fourths of the members present shall concur in the amendments, or the article or artieles proposed to be added.

America presents her symbol of peace to the world; Europe offers her olive; Asia half resolves to give up her cimeter: and degraded Africa is breaking the weapons of war.

VOL. II. No. I.

MAY AND JUNE, 1834.

WHOLE NO. 19.

NOTICE.-Circumstances of unexpected occurrence have prevented an earlier

issue of the present Number of the Calumet. Measures are in train to prevent the recurrence of a similar delays and that the usual times of publication may not be deranged, the next Number will be put to press immediately.

SIXTH ANNIVERSARY

OF THE

AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY.

The sixth anniversary of this society was held under peculiarly pleasing auspices. Those who have witnessed the slow and toilsome steps of its ascent to public favor from the period of its formation, could not but be gratified by the spectacle of the full and deeply interested assembly which honored its celebration on this occasion. The meeting was held at the Chatham-street Chapel, at 4 o'clock, P. M., on Tuesday, the Hon. S. V. S. Wilder in the chair. An animating report, detailing the progress of peace principles during the last year, not only in our own country, but throughout the world, indicating a rapid revolution in public sentiment in regard to the morality and the policy of war, was read by the Corresponding Secretary, R.M. Chipman, Esq.

In the course of the meeting, a letter, addressed to the members of the society convened at its anniversary, was read, from William Ladd, Esq., detained on account of ill health, expressing his lively sympathy with them on the present occasion, and closing with the offer of $300 per annum, for five years, or as long as might be necessary, as a part of the yearly sum of $2,000 to be raised by the friends of peace, for the support of an editor and a travelling agent, to be engaged in promoting the objects of the Society. The letter was read, and supported in some very eloquent remarks, by the Rev. Dr. Cogswell, of the American Education Society.

The following resolutions were offered by different gentlemen, who accompanied them with appropriate remarks:

1. Resolved, that the cause of peace demands a more vigorous effort on the part of the Christian community, as an auxiliary to the multiplied benevolent operations of the present age.

2. Resolved, that the American Peace Society acknowledge, with unfeigned gratitude to God, the past and efficient labors of their general agent, William Ladd, Esq., and his proffered assistance in extending the interests and operations of this society; and that, relying on the divine blessing, they will endeavor to accomplish the object of his design.

Prof. C. Dewey, of Pittsfield, Mass., moved the acceptance of the Report. The prospect, he said, was cheering. The subject was beginning to arrest attention. One grand obstacle, however, was yet to be overcome. There was a vague, indefinite notion, not unfrequently expressed, and more frequently indulged, that Christianity, somehow, when it universally prevailed, was to produce peace. Therefore, there was no need of attending to the subject of peace in any other way than to make efforts to spread Christianity over the earth, by preaching the gospel, and by multiplying copies of the Bible. But, said Prof. D., is this the way men reason on other subjects? Do they say that because Christianity, when obeyed, will necessarily secure civil rights, therefore the subject of civil rights never need be discussed, in view of divine truth, and that nothing is wanting but the multiplication of Bibles and missionaries? Do the friends of temperance reason in this manner? Will they disband their temperance societies, and annihilate their temperance publications on this principle? Was the slave trade abolished by such a view of things? Will slavery ever be abolished in this way? No, Sir! The interesting scenes witnessed this day (alluding to the annual meeting of the Ame"rican Anti-Slavery Society in the morning,) have taught us a different lesson; and what is it? Why simply this-what common sense should have told us long ago—that Bibles and missions, and even Christianity itself, can never abolish any unholy practice, until that practice itself is distinctly held up, in all its odious features, and exposed to the public abhorrence, in its pure and heavenly light. He was glad to hear of the change alluded to in the Report. Nothing but dependence on God, and on the truths of his word, as directly applied to human conduct, could be of any avail.

Rev. Elon Galusha, of Utica, seconded the resolution, because he believed the principles of the report identified with the best hopes of the human race. Until the objects it contemplated were accomplished, the world would remain not only a field of blood, but of abomination. Every spot of ground saturated with the blood of hostile armies, had proved a hot-bed of vice in

every form. War, in its first origin, had secured to itself the eternal displeasure of Heaven. Satan was the first to unfurl the ambitious standard. "Whence come wars and fightings? Come they not hence, even of your own lusts?" Not from your reason. War was the substitution of force for reason, of passion for argument. Would it be said that nothing but brute force could control men? He would answer by asking whether Cæsar or Brutus were more powerful than Demosthenes or Cicero. The doctrine of peace is the doctrine of the Bible and of Heaven. It is the doctrine of the Prince of Peace; and, glory to God in the highest, it shall yet triumph upon the earth, with good-will to man.

Rev. Mr. Hickok, of Litchfield, Conn. adverted to the fact, that one common aim bound together the various kindred associations of Christian benevolence, and that no one of them could be taken away without marring the symmetry, and disturbing the operation of the whole. The cause of Peace, from its connection with all the other objects of Christian effort, had peculiar claims upon us. It was vain to hope that war would vanish from the earth of its own accord, though the spirit of the Bible was directly opposed to it. Though this be admitted, yet men are slow to learn what reason and religion teach. The unaided influence of the Bible does not afford sufficient security of the final abolition of war. Arms and implements of war are still found collected in arsenals all over Christendom, and though Christianity positively condemns the practice, yet unless the general conscience be roused, and public attention directed to the subject, men will still be guilty of the monstrous inconsistency of praying and fighting at the same time. The prevalence of peace is peculiarly friendly to the other objects of pious effort, by removing the obstacles in the way of their success. Take the preaching of the gospel, for instance. Can the gospel be successfully preached amid the din of arms? Are revivals of religion witnessed in camps? Are schools or seminaries of learning seen to prosper in the midst of military enterprises? Do away wars, and all these begin to flourish. So again, let the foreign missionary be able to say that wars and fightings have ceased among Christian nations, and what a mighty momentum is at once given to the spread of the gospel. Let it be once announced to the world that the confused noise of the warrior, and the garments rolled in blood have passed away, and the labors of missionaries would be crowned with more than apostolic success.

A. Stuart, Esq. of Utica, N. Y. made some forcible remarks on the popular fallacy in regard to the peace enterprise, that it was impracticable--that it was, in fact, little else than a benevolent impossibility. He then concluded by adverting to the amazing contrast that would be exhibited in the aspect of human affairs, were all the energies, moral, physical, and political, that are wasted upon war, laid out in wise schemes of internal improvement and other measures bearing upon the substantial welfare of the race.

SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY.

GENERAL VIEW.

The American Peace Society having now completed the sixth year of its labors, the Board of Directors would once more give to the Society and the Christian public an account of their proceedings, of the progress made in the cause of peace, and of the prospects for the future.

Sorrow mingles with the congratulations of this occasion. Since our last Report, two of the Board, the Rev. Nathan Parker, D. D., of Portsmouth, N. H., and the Rev. Ebenezer Porter, D. D., President of the Theological Seminary, Andover, Mass., have gone to their reward. The Rev. Professor Rostan, our late Secretary for Foreign Correspondence, having returned to France, expired of the cholera in December last. The Hon. William Wirt, also, who was one of the Committee for awarding the prizes for the two best Dissertations on a Congress of Nations, has left the nation in tears. We regret that the General Agent, whose health received a severe shock by his labors and efforts connected especially with our last anniversary, is not sufficiently restored to allow him to meet with us to-day. We regard it as a matter for great thankfulness, that his valuable life is spared, and that, warned as he is, that he must do whatsoever his hand findeth to do, before the night cometh wherein no man can work, his zeal for advancing the cause of peace on earth and goodwill to man, is rather increased than diminished.

STATE OF THE NATIONS OF CHRISTENDOM.

At these seasons, it is customary for us to look abroad over the earth, and survey the political relations of the Christian nations, in reference to the progress of pacific principles.

The fears that Russia would extend her power over the land of the waning crescent seem measurably subsided. Probably, her armaments were rather designed to perpetuate slavery at home, than to extend it abroad; but her great military establishments have furnished pretexts for other governments to raise great forces, by which the people are, at once, impoverished and enslaved. It appears that Spain has gone over from the despotic to the liberal party, and that she will help to counterbalance the great triple alliance of the North. If she can preserve peace, she will be free. Should she again get involved in war, her course will be retrograde in the path of freedom, for it is the schoolmaster, and not the soldier, that frees a nation; and they do not flourish together. Portugal will probably follow the fortunes of Spain. But it is vain to attempt making a people free until they are fitted for freedom. Religion and intelligence are the main pillars in the temple of Liberty; and war is destructive to both. Let peace continue for a few more years