Painful
to existing prejudice as this may be, we must learn to abhor it, as we
abhor similar transgressions by vulgar offenders. Every word of
reprobation which the enlightened conscience now fastens upon the savage
combatant in trial by battle, or which it applies to the unhappy being
who in murderous duel takes the life of his fellow-man, belongs also to
the nation that appeals to war. Amidst the thunders of Sinai God
declared, "Thou shalt not kill"; and the voice of these thunders, with
this commandment, is prolonged to our own day in the echoes of Christian
churches. What mortal shall restrict the application of these words? Who
on earth is empowered to vary or abridge the commandments of God? Who
shall presume to declare that this injunction was directed, not to
nations, but to individuals only; not to many, but to one only; that one
man shall not kill but that many may; that one man shall not slay in
duel, but that a nation may slay a multitude in the duel of war; that
each individual is forbidden to destroy the life of a single human
being, but that a nation is not forbidden to cut off by the sword a
whole people? We are struck with horror and our hair stands on end, at
the report of a single murder; we think of the soul hurried to final
account; we hunt the murderer; and Government puts forth its energies
to secure his punishment.
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