War actually generates a spirit of anarchy and rebellion which is destructive to liberty. When the inhabitants of a country are engaged in the peaceable employments of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, anarchy and rebellion seldom happen. When these useful employments flourish, abundance flows in on every side, gentleness and humanity cast a smile over the land, and pleasure beams in almost every countenance. To turn the attention of a nation from these honest employments to _that of war_ is an evil of unspeakable magnitude. The great object in times of war is to rouse up what is styled the spirit of the country,--which, in fact, is nothing but inflaming the most destructive passions against its own peace and safety. If you infuse into a nation the spirit of war for the sake of fighting a foreign enemy, you do that which is often most dangerous to its own liberties; for if you make peace with the common enemy, you do not destroy the spirit of war among your own inhabitants; pride, discontent, and revenge will generally agitate the whole body, so that anarchy and confusion will fill the land, and nothing but a despotic power can restrain it; and often absolute despotism is too feeble to withstand it, and the only remedy is again to seek a common enemy. Nations have sometimes waged war against other nations because there was such a spirit of war among their own inhabitants that they could not be restrained from fighting, and if they had not a common foe they would fight one another. So when a nation once unsheathes the sword, it cannot easily return the sword again to the scabbard, but must keep it crimsoned with the blood of man until "they who take the sword shall perish with the sword," agreeably to the denunciation of Heaven. To inflame a mild republic with the _spirit of war_ is putting all its liberties to the utmost hazard, and is an evil that few appear to understand or appreciate. No person can calculate the greatness of the evil to transform the citizens of a peaceful, industrious republic into a band of furious soldiers; and yet the unhappy policy of nations is to cultivate a martial spirit that they may appear grand, powerful, and terrific, when in fact they are kindling flames that will eventually burn them up root and branch.