Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1854-04-28
Duration of the war.

Let our younger readers carefully note the
visible signs and preparations for war Let
them entrI in thar diaries the regiments they
saw ~ route for the East the day they b,dc
good bye to the uncle or brother they were
never to sec again, when they first heard of the
Char's bluf answer to our summons, the q uecn
Message to Parliament, the addresses IN reply,
and 1t they Chauccd TO witness II, the process
sion yesterday 10 the Palace to present those
addrusscS nor can we omit the first Sunday
when they he rrd the prayer for time of war Used
IN our churches. Let them store these things
in their memories, and ponder over them, for,
though It may be only few years, IN all hu-
man probability 1t will be many, before they
viii see the end Of which this is the beginning.
Sixty years ago with great ardor and tcmerlty,
we rushed into wer with n people whom we
had learned to hate and dcspise, standing at
that tune alone among nations, beaten by us
out OF their colorics and dependencies, pent up
within mountains and seas, and under the per-
petual surveillance of our fleets. Nevertheless,
that war, so begun, with SO much enthusiasm,
and with such confidence OF right on our part
that hardly pulpit but what sounded tile alarm,
lasted near quarter of a century, filling Eu-
rope with disaster and convulsng the whole
habitablc world. We have now to deal with a
continent rather than State, and with large
section of the human race rather than people
With our own numbers more than ever finite,
and with materials, labor, and man himself
yearly more appreciated, we contend with a
cheap and incxtIaustible multitude. We wage
war with Government whose domestic system
is dcsro,sm md whose forsgn policy is con-
quest. In tie former it has refused TO improve
in the latter it has scarcely known a check
Sixty years ago II was imagined that the indig-
nation and the selfishness of all Europe would
concentrate all her armies against devoted
France, tie one common foe. Now there are
thousands of miles of frontier aud an unap-
proachnble and unknown interior to be attack
cd. Our foe contains within her bosom c
seedplot of nations, and still harbors the origin
ais of the very tribes that used to menace and
conquer the civilized world. When some ono
observed the other day that it had been long
toreseru that 1t must come TO this, and that we
were only accepting task that otherwise would
have fallen on our successors and proved above
their strength, that implies not merely the great
ness of the efforts required of Us, but the length
Of time during which they will probably have
to be sustained. A few great blows, aided by
fortune and by some return to sanity in tho
councils OF Russia, may perhaps bring the wal
to an early termination. That is no uncommon
resolution of the difficulties which despotiC
violence Is apt TO bring on the world But il
cannot be disguised that the vnstness of the
| Powers involved in the present war, the deptl
of the causes which have provoked It, and tic
importance of the principles at llsuc, all portehC
a contest as long and as changelul as any tina
have darkencd the annals of the world.
As usual, and AS seems 10 be the fate of thi.
country, ours will be not SO much tho painful
endurance, as the costly maintenance of active
hosllItIes. We take public and active par
III the affairs of the world at large, and we holt
! 1t our vocation to do So Relying on our powe
and our compnrltve immunity, we beirlend thu
! injured and chas,lSe the oppressor Once Ell
| gagged in these generous, though sometime
gratultous lnterierences our honor forbids us Il
reccdC, and we find ourselves pledged to cru
sadcs in support of the common liberty AM
Justice, and our own national honor. That i
our case now. There Is little Likelihood of ou
own shores being invaded, or our comnerc
| seriously damaged. We shall even wage tn
distant war with caution, skill, and with ever
appliance that modern art and an neXhaustbl
Treasury can supply, The courage and th
discipline OF our soldiers, and the steady ludg
ment of our commanding officers may probabI
save us from painful rcverses. We have lttl
fear that mothcIs and sisters, and those sti
dearer, who have Just suffered the pangs {
separation, will hear of such unqualified an
unrcdeemed disaster as that of Cabul and som
incident, IN the continental war. OF final vic
tory we will allow no doubt. But what W
have to expect ls a protracted, difficult cost
war, costing large mortality rather than muc
blood, and entaillng IN the nation large IL
crease of expenditure, as well as sad chec
to that long course of social Improvement
which we confidently believed ourselves
be embarked.