Women have nothing to gain by war, and the laboring man only a soldier's grave, or wasted health, with his sacrifices speedily forgotten or ignored b… - Belva Ann Lockwood

No thoughtful person, no humane person, believes in war, which destroys everything and creates nothing but hatred. We believe and teach peace and arbitration in the home, in the church, in society, in the State, and between nations. We believe in the sanctity of human life, the inalienable rights of individuals, in justice, in equality and fraternity. Our Government has already settled many serious difficulties with the various nations of the world by arbitration and by treaty, without resort to war and without bloodshed, and the expense of all of them combined has not been one-tenth that of the War of the Revolution.

Our Congress, without any danger of war unless we provoke one by meddling, are continuously making appropriations for war ships to strengthen our Navy, in order to protect long stretches of sea coast, that no nation has the remotest idea of attacking, or to protect our foreign commerce, which has recently grown so small that one would need a microscope to discover it. These large naval appropriations furnish very good jobs for the young men who graduate at Annapolis; and glory for the Secretary of the Navy, who is usually anxious to magnify himself and his office. So the money of the people is spent for a costly vessel that will usually stand the strain of one peaceful cruise at sea, providing there are no storms, and then go to the dry dock for repairs. These appropriations are not only useless, but positively harmful, for they at once alarm our European friends, and incite them to a greater increase of their military and naval appropriations.

A recital of their wars constitutes the largest portion of the history of Christian nations; while the strides that they have made in commerce, in manufactures, and the arts, constitute the least.