Page:Tolstoy - Pamphlets.djvu/106

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
TWO WARS
9

end only when there is an end of all war, is a new, self-sacrificing, holy war, founded entirely on love and reason, which was long ago proclaimed {as Victor Hugo expressed it at one of the congresses) by the best and most advanced—Christian— section of mankind against the other, the coarse and savage section. This war has recently been carried on with especial vigour and success by a handful of Christian people—the Doukhobortsi of the Caucasus—against the powerful Russian Government.

The other day I received a letter from a gentleman in Colorado—Jesse Glodwin—who asks me to send him ". . . a few words or thoughts expressive of my feelings with regard to the noble work of the American nation, and the heroism of its soldiers and sailors." This gentleman, together with an overwhelming majority of the American people, feels perfectly confident that the work of the Americans—the killing of several thousands of almost unarmed men (for, in comparison with the equipment of the Americans, the Spaniards were almost without arms)—was beyond doubt a "noble work"; and he regards the majority of those who, after killing great numbers of their fellow-creatures, have remained safe and sound, and have secured for themselves an advantageous position, as heroes.

The Spanish-American War—leaving out of account the atrocities committed by the Spaniards in Cuba, which served