With such a cause, at the present moment, we cannot hesitate. In the words of Patrick Henry, which, on the eve of our earlier Revolution, sent a thrill through the Continent, "we must fight, I repeat it, Sir, we must fight,"--not with fire and sword, not with weapons of flesh, but with earnest words, with devout aspirations, with sincere and determined souls. Thus shall we conquer that opposing power, which, through the agency of both the old political parties, now seeks to trample down the rising struggle for Freedom. Faithfully yours, CHARLES SUMNER. TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE FREE-SOIL MEETING, FANEUIL HALL. The nomination of Mr. Sumner to Congress in Boston was like a forlorn hope. The vote stood 7,726 for Mr. Winthrop, 1,460 for Mr. Hallett, and 2,336 for Mr. Sumner. At the Presidential election, the week before, the vote was 8,427 for General Taylor, 2,997 for General Cass, and 1,909 for Mr. Van Buren. WAR SYSTEM OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS. ADDRESS BEFORE THE AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY, AT ITS ANNIVERSARY MEETING IN THE PARK STREET CHURCH, BOSTON, MAY 28, 1849. That it may please Thee to give to all nations unity, peace, and concord.--THE LITANY. What angel shall descend to reconcile The Christian states, and end their guilty toil? WALLER. Quæ harmonia a musicis dicitur in cantu, ea est in civitate concordia.--CICERO, _De Republica_, Lib. II. Cap. 42. Una dies Fabios ad bellum miserat omnes, Ad bellum missos perdidit una dies. OVID, _Fasti_, Lib. II. 235, 236. Cum hac persuasione vivendum est: Non sum uni angulo natus; patria mea totus hic mundus est.--SENECA, _Epistola_ XXVIII. Illi enim exorsi sunt non ab observandis telis aut armis aut tubis; id enim invisum illis est propter Deum quem in conscientia sua gestant.--MARCUS AURELIUS, _Epistola ad Senatum_: S. Justini _Apologia I. pro Christianis_, Cap. 71. War is one of the greatest plagues that can afflict humanity: it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge, in fact, is preferable to it. Famine and pestilence become as nothing in comparison with it.... Cannons and fire-arms are cruel and damnable machines. I believe them to have been the direct suggestion of the Devil.... If Adam had seen in a vision the horrible instruments his children were to invent, he would have died of grief.--MARTIN LUTHER, _Table-Talk_, tr. Hazlitt, pp. 331-332. Mulei Abdelummi, assaulted by his brother and wounded in the church, 1577, would not stirre till _sala_, or prayer, was done.--PURCHAS, _Pilgrims_, Part II. Book IX. Chap. 12, § 6, p. 1564.