Constitution of the
Oberlin Peace League


January 14th, 1850


Preamble


Believing the gospel to be peculiarly a mission of peace on earth, good will towards men, and believing that war in all its aspects is subversive of all that is good in society, and directly at variance with the teachings and practice of our Great Example, Jesus Christ; we, as Christians and philanthropists feel obligated by our calling, by our relations to each other and to the whole brotherhood of man, by the providence of God, and the signs of the times, to give ourselves heartily to the work of hastening the promised day when nation shall no longer lift up sword against nation, nor learn war any more; when the battle bow shall be cut off, and God, through Christian nations, shall speak PEACE to a heathen world.

We, therefore, for the more efficient accomplishment of the above purposes, do hereby organize ourselves under the following constitution.


Articles


1.  This society shall be called “The Oberlin Peace League.”

2.  The objects of the Oberlin Peace League shall be to abolish utterly the custom of international war and to promote universal peace among the nations of the earth.  The League proposes to promote these objects by holding forth the truth respecting the cost, the folly, the manifold evils, and the sinfulness of war; and also the desirableness and practicability of universal peace; by employing all appropriate means to induce our general government to take right action on this subject; and by extending pecuniary aid to active and useful laborers in this cause.

3.  The business of this society shall be conducted by a board of Managers (including a chairman, secretary, and treasurer); any five of whom shall constitute a quorum.  To be chosen annually.

4.  Anyone can become a member of this society by adopting Burritt’s League of Universal Brotherhood and signing this preamble and constitution.

5.  This society shall hold a regular meeting on the second Monday of each month, and special meetings at the call of the board of Managers, or of its chairman.

6.  This constitution may be altered or amended at any regular meeting of the society, by a concurrence of two-thirds of the members present.


The following officers were elected as a board for business:  I. Jennings, Chairman; D. M. Ide, Secretary; H. A. Pease, Treasurer; Wm. Dawes, Alfred Beecher, John Jones, H. Hill, H. Cowles, S. Hull, I. Mattison, Wm. Warren, G. N. Allen, N. W. Hodge, Edmund Smith, and A. Dresser.


Resolutions


1.  War is the great desolator of human society – ruinously taxing the toil of the civilized world, age after age, to pay its bills; transferring the productive strength of nations from useful to worse than useless occupations; begetting indolence and pride; generating almost every species of vice with fearful power; terribly stimulating the maddest, most infernal passions of the human heart – to say nothing of its mangling of the human heart – to say nothing of its mangling of human flesh, and of its untimely and terrible sacrifice of human life, crowding millions from the field of maddened mutual slaughter to the bar of eternal Justice and to the murderer’s dreadful doom.

2.  The cause of international peace is the cause of philanthropy and of humanity, and must combine in its promotion the cheerful and earnest efforts of every intelligent friend of human well being.

3.  The prevalence of universal peace is essential to the progress and triumphs of the gospel, it being necessarily true that the spirit and tendencies of war are directly antagonistic to the spirit and success of real Christianity.

4.It becomes the friends of peace to study well and understand thoroughly the strongholds and supports of the practice of war as they exist in vitiated public sentiment, in false maxims, in preparations already made, and in the strength of ancient and established usage.

5.  As the practice of war has in all ages has been sustained by kindling and feeding the fires of international antipathies, hence, the opponents of war should cultivate the spirit of universal brotherhood.

6.  Inasmuch as the repulsive features and real nature of war have been artfully concealed and superseded by utterly false notions of military glory, prowess and honor, therefore we should apply an antidote to the war spirit by showing up the sophistry of these vicious sentiments, bringing out the truth, and making it manifest that real glory consists in being like God, and not like Satan.

7.  Inasmuch as international war and unlimited preparations for it have always been defended on the plea of necessity, it is essential that the friends of peace should show the futility of this plea, proving that the spirit of war and preparations for it create this necessity – that in the present state of the civilized world, arbitration and negotiation are infinitely more potent than war to secure the rights and interests of nations, and that we need only to correct public sentiment on these points and wars might cease at once – all the swords of earth be wrought into plowshares, and men learn war no more.

8.  Inasmuch as civilized wars and preparations for war fortunately cost money, it is wise that the friends of peace, to the extent of their power, should cut these sinews of war – should show the world how much war and its preparations actually cost – should encourage the producing and tax paying classes to repel this burden, and induce capitalists to refuse to loan their money as the price of blood.

9.  We rejoice in the success already achieved by the friends of peace, in their efforts to revolutionize public sentiment on this subject, and to combine and array it on the side of peace, and against war.

10.  In our judgement a world-wide gathering of the friends of peace, in the capacity of a Congress of nations, has shown itself by experience to be eminently effective in creating a public sentiment favorable to the cause of peace; and that hence it seems to us desirable that these gatherings should be repeated.  Therefore, we hail with joy the call for a Congress to meet at Frankfort, Germany, during the present season.

11.  We petition the Congress of these United States to enter immediately into negotiations with all the civilized powers, proposing and urging that they should each and all bind themselves by mutual treaty to submit all international differences, which cannot be settled by negotiation, to friendly arbitration and in no case resort to the sword.

12.  As the strength of the cause of peace lies intrinsically in its moral character and bearings, it is of the highest importance that it should be prosecuted in the spirit of humble reliance upon God.  In this connection we would respectfully and earnestly urge upon all Christian ministers and churches to give the cause of universal peace their unbroken and energetic support.


Synopsis of Remarks Made


Resolution 1 – War Indicted.  In support of this indictment the mover urged the confessions of warriors; the testimony of those historians who have sought rather to vindicate and glorify war than to rebuke and denounce it; and the common consent of the civilized world.  He referred to the social misery of the masses in all the great European nations, pressed by taxes to the very verge of starvation; to these taxes and national debts as caused by war; to the millions who should be producers, made by war the very worst consumers and destroyers; to the soldier cut off from the precious influences of home, the needed restraints and safeguards begotten by the family relation, and subjected in youth to the reeking corruption of life in camp; to the same soldier in the field, trained into an instrument of butchery, compelled to smother both his compassion and his conscience, and encouraged to whet his passions into demoniac fury against brethren whom he should love, or as the case may be, against helpless innocents whom he should protect; and finally going in masses from the scenes and the passions of mutual slaughter (O how unprepared!) to the murderer’s certain doom!  And is mutual butchery a fit work for brothers?  Is it good to go with one’s hand and heart red with a brother’s gore, into the presence of a common and righteous Father?

Resolutions 2 and 3 – The cause of peace and its relations.  Humanity and philanthropy seek the welfare of the race; so does the cause of peace.  The gospel enjoins love to enemies; war enjoins that you deem the men of other nations as enemies – then, hate them; and then harm and even butcher them to the extent of your skill and power.  Can there be more direct antagonism than that which obtains between the gospel of Jesus and the spirit of war?  Can the former advance except as the latter recedes?

Resolution 4 holds in general that the men of peace need to understand their work, and adapt their measures and efforts accordingly.  The remaining resolutions are specifications under this general idea.

Resolution 5 – War says in the words of the wounded Lieut. Page, “Give the Mexicans hell;” in the words of Lord Nelson, “Hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil;” or like Hamilcar, it swears the youthful Hannibal to eternal hostility against the Romans.  Peace sends her olive branch to men of every clime, and loves to hail in every man a brother.

Resolution 6 – Strip war of its feathers, its tinsel, and its exhilarating music.  If men must fight, let them go as the executioner should to the scaffold, sad and solemn, as if a mournful necessity compelled them.  Let the poet and historian cease to laud the heroes of war, and to make that seem glorious which is truly man’s deepest shame.  Power and skill to butcher brethren!  Let this be deemed Satanic and not God like – let its moral obliquity overshadow and eclipse its physical glory!

Resolution 7 – The plea of necessity for war is set aside by the testimony of all history.  War redresses no wrongs, but aggravates and multiplies them a thousand-fold.  After all the fighting, negotiation makes peace.  Now let nations only say so, and negotiation could keep the peace far more easily than it can restore it after the exasperation and injuries of war.  Truth is mightier than the sword.  The great nations of the age are advancing in civilization and knowledge; the press is in motion; public sentiment must rule the cabinets and counsels of monarchs; therefore, let the immorality, the folly and the mischief of war be only appreciated, and war will cease.

Resolutions 8 to 12 – The Oberlin Evangelist noted that ‘very interesting’ remarks were made by Bros. H. Cowles, I. Mattison, Dresser, Morgan, Wright, Smith, Taylor, Dawes, McBride, and others but did not elaborate.