Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 18 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 18 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
As peace is assured, the traditional sensibilities of nations will
disappear. Their frontiers will no longer frown with hostile cannon,
nor will their people be nursed to hate each other. By ties of constant
fellowship will they be interwoven together, no sudden trumpet waking
to arms, no sharp summons disturbing the uniform repose. By steam, by
telegraph, by the press, have they already conquered time, subdued
space,--thus breaking down old walls of partition by which they have
been separated. Ancient example loses its influence. The prejudices of
another generation are removed, and the old geography gives place to
a new. The heavens are divided into constellations, with names from
beasts, or from some form of brute force,--as Leo, Taurus, Sagittarius,
and Orion with his club; but this is human device. By similar scheme is
the earth divided. But in the sight of God there is one Human Family
without division, where all are equal in rights; and the attempt to
set up distinctions, keeping men asunder, or in barbarous groups, is
a practical denial of that great truth, religious and political, the
Brotherhood of Man. The Christian’s Fatherland is not merely the nation
in which he was born, but the whole earth appointed by the Heavenly
Father for his home. In this Fatherland there can be no place for
unfriendly boundaries set up by any,--least of all, place for the War
System, making nations as hostile camps.
At Lassa, in Thibet, there is a venerable stone in memory of the
treaty between the courts of Thibet and China, as long ago as 821,
bearing an inscription worthy of a true civilization. From Eastern
story learn now the beauty of peace. After the titles of the two august
sovereigns, the monument proceeds: “These two wise, holy, spiritual,
and accomplished princes, foreseeing the changes hidden in the most
distant futurity, touched with sentiments of compassion towards
their people, and not knowing, in their beneficent protection, any
difference between their subjects and strangers, have, after mature
reflection and by mutual consent, resolved to give peace to their
people.… In perfect harmony with each other, they will henceforth be
good neighbors, and will do their utmost to draw still closer the
bonds of union and friendship. Henceforward the two empires of Han
(China) and Pho (Thibet) shall have fixed boundaries.… In preserving
these limits, the respective parties shall not endeavor to injure each
other; they shall not attack each other in arms, or make any more
incursions beyond the frontiers now determined.” Then declaring that
the two “must reciprocally exalt their virtues and banish forever all
mistrust between them, that travellers may be without uneasiness, that
the inhabitants of the villages and fields may live at peace, and
that nothing may happen to cause a misunderstanding,” the inscription
announces, in terms doubtless Oriental: “This benefit will be extended
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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