invited Sumner to deliver the oration. Webster made John Adams say,
"When we are in our graves, our children will celebrate the day with
song and story, with oration and pageant, and the explosion of cannon,
and greet it with tears of joy and exultation." But unfortunately the
speeches of that time had degenerated into false rhetoric, full of
insincerity. In his oration, Sumner left the beaten track and plunged
into an unknown way. His theme was the crime of war. He attacked his
city and his country for spending millions upon fortifications in the
harbour. He affirmed that the best protection of a nation was not dead
stones but living patriots and heroes. He called the roll of the great
wars of history, and found only one or two, like our Revolution, that
were really justifiable. He defined war as the temporary repeal of all
the ten commandments, and an enthronement of all the crimes.

In retrospect we know that Sumner overstated his case. His argument
against physical force would forbid the police in great cities, the
militia on the frontier, and would leave communities exposed to the
ravages of brigands on land and pirates by sea. But for the most part,
Sumner's argument in favour of peace was sound. To-day all civilized
countries are coming to recognize war as a blunder, since questions of
justice cannot be settled by brute force.

When we consider that France is an armed camp, Germany and Austria
countries of bristling bayonets, that three years at the most critical
epoch of the boy's life are consumed in a camp exposed to all manner of
temptations and dangers, at the very time when the youth should be
mastering his trade or his profession, war seems the capitalization of
all the possible follies and wastes. The peasants of Europe plough, each
carrying a soldier upon his back. The brick-mason builds, but staggers
up the ladder with a heavier load than bricks,--the soldier upon his