Abbeville press. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1860-1869, 1861-06-07


for the North, but nothing that we could
say would lie justficatioTo of civil war;
The anachronism Is dreadful. Battles be-
tween such combatants, and in such a
cause, will be the most unnatural a9d in
credible of conflicts. Free, enlightened,
self educating, and selfgoverning Ameri-,
cans, will be slaying each other like the
very Indians whom they supplanted on tile
soil-like the very savages whose bores lie
buried under barrows the monuments Of
civil war in days when nothing better
was known.
1t lis mournful thing to reflect upon
too mounfal indeed to allow auy malicious
moralizng. We cannot afford to discourse
on the ship.wreck of Democracy, for more
than Democracy is involved in the ruin.
Every appliance and advantage which
could render community wise, every
institution which WAS reprted to Gender
men prudent has been found utterly in.
sufficient to preserve them from even the
worst Of [ollies. There is not one Of the
much praised institutions of the Union
but appears in this day Of trial to be OPP
Grating i'll wrong direction. The Amer
leans have comparatively no standing army
and no warlike estimates; but the result
OF their usages in this respect is that
every nan, being soldier on his own
account, takes naturally to fighting, and
that armies are raised for the most shock
ing OF purposes with a celebrity that could
hardly be paralleled under the most abso-
lutte military governments. The Ameri-
cans are .habituated TO- self government,
but that only renders them less amcnable
to control, and communicate the passions
of a popular iusurrection 70 the proceed
'ngs Of regular campaign. They are
wealthy, but that enables them to support
a war, and the merchants and money
dealers Of tho capital have been foremost
IN their approval of tile Presidents proc
lamallon. They are given to those pur-
suits Of trade which are held to divert men
from ideas Of strife, but they outs,rip all
the nations Of the Old World iu warlike
fury: They have no aristocracy to sle-
lude' them into war, and vet they have
plunged INTO war with such a tremendous
alacrity rs leaves the scrupulous and drift.
ing policy of European nations far behind.
These enlightened DembHrais have sent
across the ocean to purchase from US those
very implements and munitions of war
which sEe. were reviled for providing, and
will probably impress inta fyatrieidal
struggle the great slip we have. built na
the most wonderful Instruments of COM
merce and peace. Resolutions from which,
the Old World stateamep would have re-
co''ed in horror, have been promptly
adopted by magistrates; of a republic.-
Our own great soldier, with all his iron
mind and inle4ible will, was ,fain to say
that there was nothing which should not
be done or borne rather than the country
should knew III hour Of civil war; but
President Lincoln and President L. avis
have closed abruptly with an alternative 1t
which tile Duke of Wellington. stood
aghast: i is this contrast Of position and
practice which renders the proceedings Of
the Americans at once SO shocking and SO
incredible. Those free ci.izeps of free
States, to: which we are hidden, to look
| with envy aud,ad,niration, are resoEging to
4 extremi.ies far more terrible than The
j Last Appeal Of Kings They are com
mencing,n not foreign conquests, but cam.
psigns against codatryn,en. The .Ameri-.
+ cans may rest assured that England yoptl
desire nothing 20 much al ITO see them once
more united. They come Of onr own
stock lhsy speak our oown Ispgpaga, they
fsaeas spisgns faults and up 70 this tilns
n they,apBearsf zt9 he continuing opr ma
4 tionat grahdene We. cannot without Tile
a deepest sarns ssa saellta people Wecipii-
! taIfng i.seH Ito. eis;l war ;ks A tie Iall
breeds of Mssicos s Nat tLis ssho,,sd sbs
4 the end .ef The grsasss stsafiesas Republic j,
Il q prospects agaiAs him ,sssty siriend Fo
Ehaas assiits and pr5gssss M6s dsfss ciSSssss
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