Page 1 of 12
Hide Transcription
Hide Metadata

Letter from a Belgian citizen soldier to Abraham Lincoln, September 20, 1861

Brussels 20 September 1861

Citizen President,

In the press of Europe I have read that your thoughts turn to conscription. Do you know what conscription is? Conscription is the advanced guard of standing armies and standing armies the instruments of tyranny. Whether for the form of dictatorship, of royalty, or of empire. May Providence preserve you from commiting such a mistake. Your ancestors without conscription, without standing armies have chased the stranger from your soil and freed the country, and you are not able without this conscription and without these standing armies to drive out slavery. To serve the native land and to die for it is the duty of every citizen. Organize yourselves as do the Swiss either as I have the honor to propose to you or in some other like manner; but don't fall into conscription and to standing armies, if you do not wish to relinquish your rights and your liberties. You have no need to lose them in order to tear out from among the glittering stars of your banners the ignoble stain which covers them, the slavery of the blacks. To put an end to that you have only to proclaim

Letter from a Belgian citizen soldier to Abraham Lincoln, September 20, 1861