The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1861-07-25
war and It's Lessons.
BY HORACE GREELEY.

iHeHtUuS IdcG tHaG sue udS UcGH pIuuSeu
into war. War in its most savage, and
desolating form-that which divides and |
arrays nation against itself--is now fully |
upon us. Almost every day brings its
bulletin Of new conflict, whereof the
issue may be suspicious or adverse, but
the inevitable incidents are bloodshed,
destruction, wounds, and DEATH The
most insignificant skirmish, which scarce
ly arrests the readers eye as he glances
over his morning paper, carries desolahon
to some hearth and heart--perhaps to sew
eral such The novel reader or playeoer
melts at the contemplation of one tragedy;
but battle is the elimination OF hun
dreds, often thousands, of ira gedies, each
Of them separate heart break. The in
dividual and national miseries of hun
dred years of peace are compressed into
and intensified in single year of war.
This War had to be. There was no
escaping it bat by giving up the Ameri-
can Republic, in substance and essence
-.-the Republic Of the Fathers and Of
Freedom-and letting virtual despotism,
compounded of Slavery and Aristocracy,
be set up in its stead. The Slaveholding
Rebellion is revolt against the forms
not only but the spirit of the Constitu-
tion-against the fundamental idea Of our
Revolution-against the capacity and the
right of Man, as Man, to elfgovernment.
Not only does this rebellion alfim the pro-
priety Of overruling by the bayoret the
result of legal and peaceful election
and so reduce US, at once, if successful,
to the instability, insecurity, anarchy, and
impotence of the Spanish-American Re-
publics; it does this for the sole reason
that the rev Federal Administration is
more favorable to an equality of rights
between man and man than the conspir-
ators deem wholesome or safe. 1t is a
rebellion of the only privileged class in
the Republic to enforce demand that
their privileges shall be increased. Not
to meet and beat them is to admit that
Government is rightfully the monopoly
of caste, and that the sharpest sword
should dictate the law.
In the struggle thus forced upon US,
there is, then, there can be, no comprom-
ise and no cessation until one side or the
other shall have absolutely triumphed
The Nation must Vindicate its authority
unqualifedly, or it must cease to be, 1t
must crush out its domestic fees, or be-
come at once Lower Empire of corrup.
tion barbarlsm, and decrepltude. Never
was sword drawn in more righteous
cause than that now symbolized by the
Stars and Stripes. and never did an afro
cious conspiracy against Right and Law
more imperatively demand unqualified
suppression, in the interest alike Of Coun-
try and Humanity, than does that where
of Jefferson Davis is chosen head. And
that the issue will be auspicious to the
integrity and stability Of the American
Republic, we will not harbor doubt
But the signal punishment of reckless.
criminal ambition is by no means the only
lesson which this contest should teach.
It will not have yielded all its proper fruit
unless it imprints deeply on the hearts Of
our countrymen these lessons:
I. War is always and everywhere hor'
riblo calamity. A great generals recorded
as having humanely and truly observed
that, next to great defeat, a great victory is
most depIorable. Many lifelong warri
ors have been humale, Chaistian men
vet it is nevertheless true that partici-
patton in deeds of violence and carnage
tends to harden the heart. The ex-soldier
returned to his home aud his former peace
full avocatious may be sober industrious,
and every Tay exemplary; but his militia
ry experience viii not have tended TO
make him so. Where one will have been
made better BY the influences and expe-
riences of camp life, there is ssrong
probability that many will have been
made worse However promptly the war
may be fought out and ended, it is hardly
doubtful that new fiood-tide of demor
alization and intemperance will be among
its lamentable results.
II. The wastefulness and ruinous cost
of a great war have seldom been fully
realized. That our Government is now
rushing into debt at the rate Of nearly a
million dollars per day, is generally under
stood; but this is only the first item in
the heavy bill which is rolling up against
the authors Of this atrocious rebellion.
The destruction and consumption of stocks
and stores of timber, pcwder, lead, cart
ridges, firearms, etc, etc, laid up in navy
yards, armories, and arsenals in time of
peace, the burning of ships and other
property to save them from capture on
one side or prevent their use on the other,
are among the inevitable incidents of such
a struggle. But the rebels would seem
to have resolved to make this contest as
ruinous as possible by the wanton whole
sale destruction of canal dams, railroad
blidoes. ennines. cars, etc, etc, and of