Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Politics volume 4 .djvu/297

Rh Turkish soil, only "to protect the Christians," to "have access to the holy places where our blessed Lord was born and slain, and buried too;" so that all Christian people might fulfil the prophecy, and "go up to the mountain of the Lord." The Latin proverb says well, "All evil begins in the name of the Lord." This was no exception.

This brief quarrel, which costs mankind two thousand million dollars and ten hundred thousand lives, was a War of Politicians, not at all of the People. It began only with despots: there was no ill-blood between the nations. Had Nicholas asked the Russians, "Will you go and plunder Turkey in the name of Jesus of Nazareth?" the People would have said, "Not so; but we will stay at home." The war came from no sudden heat. Nicholas had foreseen it, planned it, and in secret made ready at Sebastopol the vast array of means for this wicked enterprise; had laid his gunpowder plot long years before; and, at the right time, this imperial Guy Faux fired the train which was to blow up an ancient empire, and open his way to the conquest of the Western World, No more liberty, if that scheme succeed! Yet the statesmen of France, Austria, Prussia, England, were privy to the intentions of this re-actionary, who sought to put back the march of human-kind: they were accessory to the purpose, though they knew not the hidden means. The war was the result of causes long in action, which produced this waste of life and its material—the "proximate formation" of men—as certainly as grass-seed comes up grass. Here are the practical maxims of all despotism: No Higher Law of God above the selfish force of the strong; no natural rights of the weak; all belongs to the violence of power!

In open daylight, two things went before this European waste of life: (1.) The corruptions of the Ruling class: one of the most learned men in Christendom declares, that, since the downfall of the Roman State in the fourth and fifth centuries, Europe's controlling men have never been so corrupt, so mean and selfish, as are now the kings, nobles, and priesthood. (2.) The servility of the class next below the high aristocracy, who tolerate and encourage the inflicted wrong, hoping themselves to share the profit that it brings.