David Dodge - War Inconsistent with the Religion of Jesus Christ

Moreover, the nations who first engage in the contest always widen the breach between themselves by war.

It is much easier settling difficulties between individuals or nations before actual hostilities commence than afterwards. Mankind are not apt to be any more mild and accommodating in a state of actual warfare. Besides, new difficulties constantly arise. The passions become inflamed, and charges are often made of violating the established laws of civilized warfare, which laws, however, are generally bounded only by the strength of power. If one party makes an incursion into the other’s territory and storms a fortified place and burns the town, the other party must then make a desperate effort to retaliate the same kind of destruction, to a double degree, on the towns of their enemy. Retaliation, or “rendering evil for evil,” is not only allowed by Mahometans and pagans, but is an open and avowed principle in the doctrine of self-defense among professed Christian nations; not only is it sanctioned by the laity, but too often by the priests who minister in the name of Jesus Christ.

Both of the contending parties generally seize on each other’s possessions wherever they can get hold of them, whether on the seas or on the land. The barbarous spoliations on each other stir up the passions of the great mass of their inhabitants, until they esteem it a virtue to view each other as natural and perpetual enemies, and then their rulers can prosecute the war with what they call vigor.

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