Henry Ward Beecher Quotes
There are times when self defense is a religious duty.
Beecher’s church raised funds and bought new Sharpe’s Rifles for the anti-slave residents of the West.
Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887, Clergyman & Writer, Statement when abolitionists were attacked and murdered in Kansas, Quoted on PBS John Brown, January 26, 2004
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Note that Mormon doctrine requires that peace be offered 3 times before even a righteous war is begun. Under this doctrine, preemptive war would not be permissible, but diplomacy must be tried first and that by offering genuine peace. It is hard to apply this doctrine to the War on Terror, where there is no “other side” to negotiate with and the dispute is existential for democracy and freedom. The parenthetical references are to Mormon Scripture.
He was criticizing the George W. Bush administration for attacking Iraq, a country which had not attacked the United States or Americans abroad while America did not attack those terrorists and countries which had killed Americans. For example, Hezbollah which blew up the Marine Barracks in Lebanon and the naval ship Cole.
This appears to be the first American utterance of a longstanding doctrine of foreign policy.
In 1856 Kansas was at war over slavery. Kansas was to enter the Union with the resident men voting to determine whether it would be a slavery state or a free state. At first pro-slavery forces sent men into Kansas to increase the pre-slavery vote. The abolitionist anti-slavery forces outside of Kansas did the same, and had more money to finance anti-slavery settlers. Soon the pro-slavery forces, realizing that they would be outnumbered turned to violence and began to intimidate abolitionist settlers to return from whence they came. Soon abolitionists were killed and the anti-slavery men retaliated. Soon real war broke out but terrorism was the modality on most attacks as the purpose of the pro-slavery men was to frighten the abolitionists—many of whom were religious pacifists—into leaving the state. Brown and some other abolitionists retaliated with terror of their own, but Brown was rabid. He and his sons, attacked 5 pro-slavery fighters at Pottawatomie Creek, but Brown personally hacked off their limbs with a broadsword and left the bodies to intimidate and terrorize many of the pro slavery people. Brown was such a fanatic that he, in this infamous quote, claimed that his killing and butchery was “justified under the circumstances.” The phrase “Bleeding Kansas” came from the violence and terrorism in this period.
Henry Ward Beecher was an American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker, known for his support of the abolition of slavery, his emphasis on God's love, and his 1875 adultery trial. His rhetorical focus on Christ's love has influenced mainstream Christianity to this day.
