Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1861-07-11


II might not be wise TO claim that the pro-
bable lease of life for our soldiers is any lon
ger than for the Secessionists, but il certain
ly looks as if ours would have the credit Of
dying more modestly. Indeed, the men of
the Free States, as was the won't Of their an
cestors, have made up their minds to this
fight with slow reluctant which would have
been almost provoking but for the astonish-
ing promptness which marked their action
when once begun. 1t is interesting to no.
tice how clearly the future is sometimes fore
seen by foreigners, while still veiled from the
persons most concerned. Thus twelve years
before the battle of Bunker's Hill, the Due
de Choiseul predicted and prepared for the
separation of the American colonies from
England. One month after that, the Con-
tinental Congress still chung to the belief that
they should escape division. And so,
some seven years ago, the veteran French
advocate Guepin, in most able essay sug-
gested BY. the Burns affair in Boston,
prophesicd civil war in America within ten
years. "Cne grande lutte s'dpprete done, !"
he wrote "a great contest is at hand"
Thus things looked to foreigners, both in
people were yielding only step by step to the
ihS'ioupiO SuilClb WHlC1 oWCpJ cNculS dlUuB.
1t is the penalty Of caution, that it some
times appears, even to itself, like irresolu-
tion or timidity. Not foolish charge has
been brought against Northern energy in
this contest, that was not urged equally in
the time OF the Revolution. The royal
troops thought Massachusetts, as easy to sub
due as the South Carolinans affect to think,
and expressed it in almost the same lan-
guage Whenever it comes to blows, he
that can run the fastest will think himself
best Oft. " The revolutionists admitted that
the people abroad have too generally got
the idea that the Americans are all towards
and poltroons. A single regiment, it was
generally asserted, could march triumphant
through New England The people took no
pains to deny it. The guard in Boston cap
tured thirteen thousand cartridges at stroke.
The people did not prevent it. A citizen
was tarred and feathered in the streets by
the royal soldiery, while the band played
Yankee Doodle" The people did not in-
tertere. John Adams writes, there is a
great spirit in the Congress, and that we
must furnish ourselves with artillery and arms
and ammunition, but avoid war, if possible,
If possible At last, one day, these de-
liberate people finally made up their minds
that 1t was time to rise,-and when they
rose, everything else fell In less than
year afterwards, Boston being finally evacu-
ated, one Of General Howe's mortified Off
GERS wrote home to England, in words which
might form a Complete Letter Writer for
every army-officer who has turned traitor,
from Beauregard downward, bad times,
my dear friend. The displeasure / feel in
the small share have in our preeant iasig-
niticancy is SO great, that do not know the
thing so desperate would not undertake, in
order to change our situation.
1t is fortunate that the impending gener-
al contest has also been recently preceded
by local one, which, though waged under
circumstances far less favorable to the North,
yet afforded important hints by its results
1t was worth all the cost of Kansas to have
the lesson she taught in passing through
her ordeal. 1t was not the Emigrant Aid
Society which gave peace at last to her bor
ders, nor was it her shifting panorama of
evanescent governors it was the sheer phys
ical superiority of her Free State emigrants,
after they took up arms. Kansas afforded
the important discovery as some Southern
officers once naively owned at Lecompton,
that Yankees wouM fight" Patient to
the verge Of humiliation, the settlers rose at
last only to achieve a victory so absurdly
rapid that it was almost a new disappoint-
ment; the contest was not so much series
OF battles as succession of steeple-chases,
Of efforts to get within shot,-Missouri,
Virginia, andSouth Carolina invariably dis
appearing over one prairie-swel, precisely
as the Sharp's rifles OF the emigrants ap.
peared on the verge of the next. The
shareholders had immense advantages many
of the settlers were in league with them tc
drive out the remainder; they had the Gen.
eral Government always aiding them, more
or less openly, with money, arms, provisions
horses, men, and leaders they had alway:
the Missouri border to retreat upon, and the
, Missouri River to blockade. Yet they fail
ed so miserably, that every Kansas boy a
last had his story to tell Of the company O
rutlians whom he had set scampering by tn,
casual hint that Brown or Lane was lurkin.
in the bushes. The terror became such /,
superstition, that the largest army which
ever entered Kansas-three thousand men
by the admission Of both sides-turned bacl
before a redoubt at Lawrence garrisoned b,
only two hundred, and retreated over tn
border without risking an engagement.
1t is idle to say that these were not fai
specimens Of Southern companies. The,
were composed of precisely the same mater
al as the flower of the Secession ARMY
flower it have. They were members of tn
\ first families, planters sons and embry,
Wigfalls. South Carolina sent them forth
like the present troops, with toasts and boast
and everything but money They had off
GERS of some repute; and they had enthus
asm with no limit except the supply of whis
KY Slavery was divine, and Colonel Bu
4 ford was its prophet. The city of Atchiso
was before the close of 1857 to be made tn
{ capital OF a Southern republic. Kansas wa
to be conquered; "We will make her Slav
State, or form chain of locked arms an
hearts together, and die in the attempt.
Yet in the end there were no chains, eithe
of flesh or iron, chains, and little dying
but very liberal running away. Thus ende
the war in Kansas 1t seems impossibl
that Slavery should not make in this case
rather better fight, where all is at stake. :
BUTT is well to remember that no Bordt
Ruffan Of Secession can now threaten MOI
i loudly, swear more fercely, or retreat MOI
rapidly, than his predecessors did then.
One does not hear much lately of tn;
+ pleasant fiction, so abundant year or tN
, ago, that North and South really only nee,
ed to visit each other and become better a
quainted. How cordially these endearin
3 words sounded, to be sure, from the lips
Southern gentlemen,as as they sat at Northel
4 banquets and partook unreluctantly Of Mort
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