joshua Pollard Blanchin

ART. III. — LEAGUE OF UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD.*

THE movement to which we now call the attention of our readers is, perhaps, unknown to many of them, and probably comparatively few have given it serious attention. It does not come within the pale of party politics, and the newspapers of the day are silent about it; it enters not the field of theological controversy, and the pulpit and the religious press announce it not; but the Pledge on which the League is founded has been signed by about thirty thousand persons in the British islands and America, and has thus acquired an importance not to be overlooked. Viewing its past rate of progress, therefore, we only anticipate a public interest in it, which must ere long be felt. It claims, also, to be considered a religious movement, whose principles are founded on the Gospel, and hence is entitled to notice in our pages.

Presuming our readers have but little information on this subject, we think it not amiss to give a brief statement of the origin and operations of this philanthropic combination. The name of Elihu Burritt, or, as he has been called, the Learned Blacksmith, is famous. He acquired celebrity by the acquisition of over thirty languages while working at the anvil, and in this character of a linguist he is yet chiefly known to the political and literary public. But his future eminence will rest on a higher aspiration, for which he has, in a great measure, deserted the dictionary and the grammar. A lecture delivered by him in Boston, in June, 1843, exposing the folly of preparation for war, attracted the attention of the friends of peace in that city, who immediately engaged him in their cause, to which he has since been principally devoted. He became a member of the Executive Committee of the American Peace Society; edited the "Advocate of Peace" for 1846; issued from Worcester, his place of residence, a multitude of small papers, extensively republished, under the titles of “Olive Leaves" and "Bonds of Brotherhood"; and is still the chief editor of the "Christian Citizen," published at Worcester, the only weekly paper devoted principally to the peace.

cause of

*First Quarterly Report of the Corresponding Secretary of the British Branch of the League of Universal Brotherhood. Read by ELIHU Burritt at the Meeting of League Delegates at the White Hart, Bishopsgate StreetWithout, London, October 13th, 1847. Christian Citizen, Worcester, Mass., 1847, Nos. 49 - 52.

1848.]

History of the League.

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In the summer of 1846 he departed for England; and there, in concurrence with those friends who sympathized with him, formed the "League of Universal Brotherhood," of which he was appointed Secretary; and we now give from the Report his own account of its commencement, and the introduction of the Pledge. Our first extract shows the conception of the plan.

"The plan of a League of Universal Brotherhood, then, was suggested by the inception and issue of the Friendly International Addresses interchanged between the people of England and the people of the United States during the Oregon controversy. Your Secretary, pro tem., who had the happiness to procure a wide publicity for these Addresses in the United States, embarked for England on the 16th of June, 1846, in the very packet which brought to this country the news of the amicable settlement of the question referred to. As an humble member of an active Peace band in America, it was the chief object of his errand to propose to the friends of Peace on this side of the Atlantic an expansion, or a new application, of the principle involved in the Friendly International Addresses; or, in other words, to associate permanently the friends of humanity in both hemispheres, for the prevention of all dangerous international controversies; to propose an international organization upon one integral plat-form, which should not only embrace the whole basis of the Peace Society, but that of the Antislavery Society, and of every other association for the elevation of man and the equalization of human happiness."

A little farther on we have the origin of the Pledge.

"On the evening of the 29th of July, the pledge received its first signatures in Pershore, a small town in Worcestershire. Here, on his way to London, whither he was travelling on foot, your Secretary accidentally met a company of twenty individ uals in a private room, to whom he presented the pledge in its original and manuscript form. After a discussion of its principles, which lasted from six o'clock until nearly midnight, in which every person present took a part, seventeen of the number present attached their names to the covenant of brotherhood, with a full and serious sense of the responsibility of the transaction, which was manifested in a season of religious devotion, with which the company separated."

Still farther on we find its confirmation by the sanction of some names which, we trust, are familiar to our readers. "On the evening of the 6th of August, at a meeting of the VOL. XLIV. -4TH S. VOL. IX. NO. III.

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Delegates to the World's Temperance Convention, held in the Freemason's Hall, London, Joseph Sturge introduced the proposition of a League of Universal Brotherhood, and read the Pledge. Your Secretary followed him with an exposition of the principles and objects of the Association, and about sixty gentlemen, from different parts of the kingdom, together with several of the Delegates from America, enrolled their names as members on that occasion. Among these were Dr. Campbell, editor of the Christian Witness; James Silk Buckingham and John Bell, of London; Joseph Sturge, of Birmingham; Lawrence Heyworth, Liverpool; Samuel Bowley, Gloucester; Robert Charlton and Joseph Eaton, of Bristol; Robert W. Fox, Exeter; Jonathan Priestman, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and others of like standing in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland."

The Report then proceeds to detail at length the subsequent journeys, meetings, lectures, etc., by which the Pledge was more extensively recommended, and numerous signatures obtained to it, and the formation of local League Societies, which were afterwards united in concert with a central one. The account of the formation of this central organization is thus stated in the Report.

"In the Bond of Brotherhood' for July, a Conference of Delegates from the different League Societies was invited to be held on the 13th of that month, for the purpose of considering the plan and propriety of organizing the British Branch of the League. In accordance with this invitation, about forty persons, mostly representing different local Branches, assembled in the Hall of the White Hart, Bishopsgate-Without, on the evening of the above-mentioned day.

"Joseph Sturge, Esq., was called to the chair, and opened the proceedings of the meeting with a short speech, commending the objects for which it was called. Elihu Burritt read a report, embracing an exposition of the principles, spirit, and objects of the Association, and facts relating to its progress in England and America. In conclusion, he submitted the following suggestions:

"1. That, as the different representatives of the local Leagues in Great Britain, we now assume a national organization, by the election of a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Corresponding Secretary, a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Standing Committee of twelve, all constituting an Executive Board for the general supervision of the British League.

"2. That the Quarterly Meetings of Secretaries and Delegates of all the local Leagues in Great Britain be held in London, for the purpose of hearing reports, and considering plans for future operations, both at home and abroad.

1848.]

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"3. That each Quarterly Report, together with extracts from communications from different countries, relating to the movement, be published in a periodical not exceeding sixteen pages, royal 8vo, entitled The League of Universal Brotherhood'; and which shall be furnished to the Secretary and any other members of any local League in the British dominions, and in America, or wherever the English language is spoken, at a price not exceeding 3d. per number or one English shilling per

annum.

"4. That Great Britain be divided into twelve districts, each assigned to a member of the Standing Committee residing therein, who shall provide for the holding of a public League meeting once a year in said district, which delegates from all the League Branches therein shall be invited to attend. That these district meetings shall be held in rotation, so that, while they are annual to the several districts, they shall be monthly to the nation. "After a rather lengthened discussion, these resolutions were passed by the Convention."

Near the close of the Report, an account is given of operations for the extension of the League to the continent of Europe, in many places of which it has been favorably received.

In the mean time, the Pledge had been sent by the indefatigable Secretary to the United States, and has here received a great number of signatures. A convention of the signers, and all persons friendly to the object, was held in Boston on the 26th and 27th of May, 1847, which organized a general American Branch of the League, and appointed officers in like manner to that of the English.

The only, but an indispensable, condition of membership to this League is signature to the Pledge, which, of course, embodies in a condensed form all the essential principles of this great association, and is in these words :

"PLEDGE. Believing all war to be inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity, and destructive of the best interests of mankind, I do hereby pledge myself never to enlist or enter any army or navy, or to yield any voluntary support or sanction to the preparation for or prosecution of any war, by whomsoever or for whatsoever proposed, declared, or waged. And I do hereby associate myself with all persons, of whatever country, condition, or color, who have signed, or shall hereafter sign, this pledge, in a 'LEAGUE OF UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD,' whose object shall be to employ all legitimate and moral means for the abolition of all war, and all the spirit and all the manifestations of war, through

out the world; for the abolition of all restrictions upon international correspondence and friendly intercourse, and of whatever else tends to make enemies of nations, or prevent their fusion into one peaceful brotherhood; for the abolition of all institutions and customs which do not recognize and respect the image of God and a human brother in every man, of whatever clime, color, or condition of humanity."

This instrument, it will be seen, has two distinguishable parts. First, the "pledge proper, designed to diminish and ultimately abolish war by the simple process of refusing to aid or support it, in obedience to a sentiment now very prevalent in England; and the pledge form is avowedly taken from the Temperance "Pledge," and, like that, is designed to fortify the resolution of the signers. In the second part, it quits the language of a pledge, and becomes only a declarative agreement of association with others in a "League of Universal Brotherhood," for the abolition of the restrictions, etc., which it designates; and the idea of this part was probably taken from the great Anti-CornLaw League, through which the popular voice had accomplished such a triumphant revolution in Great Britain. It contemplates a similar success by a similar association.

No doubt can be entertained of the efficacy, in putting an end to war, of a general refusal, by the people of civilized nations, to engage in military operations. War could not be carried on without the voluntary instrumentality of the soldier, and were the people of the nations at large resolutely disposed to such a refusal, the arm of despotism would be paralyzed, and we should have the easiest, most direct, and safest method of accomplishing the desired pacification of the world. But, unhappily, in despotic countries, the people dare not venture on such an opposition, and in those having freer constitutions, the mass of the people, proudly identifying themselves with the imagined glory of their country, and deluded by the exciting language of their statesmen and orators, are often rather the instigators than the opposers of war. These martial dispositions are undergoing a very perceptible change. The formidable number of signatures attached to this Pledge is no small evidence of a great advance of pacific sentiment in the public mind; though it is by no means a proof that this sentiment is deeply laid or well defined; for the language of the Pledge is captivating from the high tone of its philanthropy, and its accordance with the