The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1857-12-04
Heroes Of w or.

,<ar the next day NE heavy pressure - 49,.
st....nss .ne. the cslumns ef oar paper VIII not
.ar,t 81 ,Asir reeeptisa afser the hosf Asnss.
Heroes Of war.
eaxn., t~entv years ago, Peace Societies were
49, n soms parts OF this country and moro re-
csnt1v rffhu Burritt has made an inedectuAl effort
= r~vivs the cause. The Russian war and the In.
st.n Disturbances have extinguished ell Immediate
nroepects Of the millennium, and the passion for
svapowdcr and glory h ~ strong ~ ever.
NevertAeless, war, In the calm view Of reason
and Of humanity, h - nonsensical and brutal As
ever That one animal should rend another; shs'
twelve, o. . hundred. or ten thousand nru1es
sAeuld tear each Others quivering flesh, snd mp
esch otAsr's hot bEood-this exhibition Of pssea'
orce and ferocity need not awaken the spec'ai ma
mirssioa Of spiritual and immortal minds .ne
lion, king Of beasts, 10 no doubt great "srt'o''
ana whom beheld In me steel engrav'ng-Wnen
ma muscles HE proves, his long name, ms broad
hsavy breast, his bloodshot eyes ana prooigioas
roar are described In elegant letter press, which
re read by the brilliant gas, before glowing nre'
-s.h cnrtsius drawn--Leo 10 9 hero whom We re.
spect. and an entertaining companion. But II this
Lee we're alive, aud upon the back porch Of our
domica, growing in his deepest bass, and gently
tanning at the hall door for admission to the fami
IN
neixhboring forest, and helping himself one night
to sheep, another, to the young lady's riding
horse, another, to the young lady herself we
should cease to invest this tawny monarch with SO
much romance; to cherish such respect Tor his
xaior. TO have such faith in his magnanimity -
We should conclude and justly, too, that the most
Flooding and pacific mule, who ever hauled tobac-
co or a plough, under the superintendent OF ne
gro driver wss much more valuable member Of
society than this Julius Cesar Napoleon Bona-
uarte OF the desert with his savage instincts and
sstf nctjye habits We should not hesitate to take
down IN and put to death this red-eyed end yell
Iow-;naned burglars We should then consider him
this fourfooted type of human heFoism, who like
his human prototype can kill and rob and lay
waste, but is good for nothing else whose
carcass cannot be made into decent steaks, and
whose skin is of little use, save when it enables
some very absurd donkey, whom the vulgar admi-
ration Of lions has made discontentad with his o~
hambe lot, TO dress himself upin soldiers clothes,
aud make the world laugh at his iinbecility and
pEetensions.
Now, with all respect for the art military, we
confess that, saving and excepting when it is en-
pioyed in the defence of freedom, independence
aud jnstice-such 3 cause that Of the American
Revoluton-it does not seem TO us that its exces-
sire popularity reflects infinite credit either upon
the powers of the human understanding or the in
stinets of the heart. Always excepting the right
eousness of good cause and considered in and OF
itself the Leonine vocation cannot present over
towering attractions to intellectual and disinter-
ested minds. The common idea Of a hero is a blue
coat, gilt bdttons, white breeches, with perhaps
red stripe; or, a red coat and white breechH> p
sword, moustache, q cooked hat, aud a ieS.ner,
the whole accompanying and setting of an animal
who would rather fight than eat who sleeps in
trench; lives from choice in powder magazine;
eats grape shot and drinks human gore, and whose
only prayer on the of battle is, Lord, my
soul, if have a SOUL" qualification, the propric-
ty of which, in his case, no one cal iSpute. Yet
after this hero. with drum aud iir, he crowd stand
agape the children run franticaIiy, and he divide.
with wstermelous the empire of African hearts,
Yet, ef what earthly use is the mere hero-not the
citizen soldier upon whom republics rely for pro
tection--but such as compose large standing ar
mics. OF what advantage such to mankind
unless it be useful to thin off the human race t,
commit murder by Wholesale, to burn down cities
destroy large quantities of wheat and corn, annihi
late commerce and industry in any formf We d.
not look upon the ehinch bug, the joint worm, tn
s-ssshopper, with more respect for their destruc
tfc qualities; yet, as the Brahmins create shrine
to the deities who preside small pox and mur
der, so civilized people fail down and worship tn
army worm, which not only ruins the crops b..
kills both man and beast, and every feathers
thing, which spreads moral miasma well as phy
sical death about its path, and is itself fit 70
nothing, produces nothing, creates nothing, and !
good for nothing, its flesh being unfit to eat afte
death, and not equal to guano in manuring tn
earth that it has so grevously desclated.
Now compare one OF the world's heroes, an Alex
ander, Cesar, or Napoleon, with such man a
George Washington; We say such man, for t
call him soldier IL like calling Jove the Thundere,
Joys whom even the heather might have know
~ the good the Bsnefcient, the creative PrincipI
dslishting in sunshine and mercy, and only sen,
iur his thunder bolts when human iniquity an
wrong had exhausted even the long suffering y,
thence of Heaven. No, we will not call Washing ton
soldier, though .Anong the varied attributes of =,
intellect there was military skill enough to co,
duct the infant colonies through . seven yea,
=, -gainst the most powerful empire Of the cart
/, ..,i,ual independence; but q hero, q solitar,
upapproached and unapproachable hero; a ma
"A great Of soul as Of will, of understanding an
of purpose; u man without vanity, without prid
without passion, Without elfshness that h
was born without these, but that he had met an
conquered them all in the great battle of life Ion
before he girded sword upon his thigh, and
achieving his own freedom, from ambition, and il
terest, had given the best guarantee for the prese
walton of that independence his Yalor achieved
and which Napoleon or a Cesar would have sacr
feed upon the alter of their personal aggraudIz,
ment. Oh, pure aud venerable name! Oh. fam
as rare as it is effulgeLt Oh, Washington. no,
the heart pines and sckens when it looks anon
the ablest statesmen and the brayest soldiers G
the earth for the fantest reflection of thy gran
and harmonious character, for aught, but greed
rapacity, the lust of place and power; when
hears the wolves and the jackalls bowling for bei
prey beneath the very SHADE of Mount Vernon
and feels that in that Wondering coffin, lies tn
worlds one Washington.