Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1861-06-11
How Shall we Accept the>Necessity for the
Present War?

qulle dlllerent constituents OF society," aIJhougn
we axe not prepared to say that one lis not as
necessary as the other. The disposition to
make the best Of everything is certainly very
pleasing one to its possossor, and to all with
whom he may come in contact Its not CON
sidered On easy thing to extract sunbeams from
cuccmbers nevertheless, the man who could
do ii would be regarded unquestionably as in
some sense public benefactor.
We live in a disordercd world in which, al
though there is much good, there is also much
evil and he who looks alone for the evil and
painful passages Of life, will find enough Of
sorrow to cloud the longest life, and make him
a perpetual croaker and we cannot believe
that it is a duty either to God or our fellows
to hunt for and paint these evils, without any
relief to the picture from the sunny side Of
existence.
10 the hypoch ondriac, we presume the pres
ent righteous war, VIII ich our Government is
waging against the most wicked treason that
ever a esaed and defod the authority of law,
presents none but the very darkest shades, and
he sees only evil in it, and that continually.
II o secs that Commerce must suffer, fortunes
vanish away, hearts be wrung, and that desola-
ton and death must march with our armies
and stung with the pain of these evils, he
shuddors as Israel might have done, when the
promised land lay but dimly disclosed to their
fearful vision, on the banks Of Jordan, mourning
that their deliyerance lay only III the passage
through its rolling tide, But may it not be
possible, after all, that those who are thus filed
with dololul forebodings at every temporary
evil which the Nation must suffer in the prose-
cution of this war, are taking shallow and
superficial view OF the times in which We live
In a merely commercial and physical view,
war is no doubt very bitter evil to the nation
embroied in it. 1t causes great physical pam
and suffering and destroys immense amounts Of
property. But the millennium has not yet been
ushered in to bring peace to this wicked world.
When that blessed time comes we believe the
sword will be beaten into the ploug and
the spear into the pruning hook, and the ma
tons will learn war no more. But until then
we must accept war as one Of the divine in
slitutons' which God employs, one of the
agencies in the progress Of the race to the end
for which they were created. While evil and
wicked passions control men and nations, i'm
peiling them to acts Of plumber and violence, the
instincts Of self preservation will develop them
selves in resistance to wrongful aggrcssions, and
blows will be struck, blood shed, af.ies,lost
in tho conflict thus precfpitated. This bus been
and will be true in all ages OF the world and
while we may regret that human nature is so
constituted, we are yet compelled to sec that,
until it is changed, wars and rumors of wars
must occasionally, break in upon the tranquil
ty of the NEST philosophical and contemplative,
and disturb and interrupt the sweet harmonies
Of peace in which we all SO much delight.
Aud we think this war should be accepted by
loyal men in cheerful and confident spirit as
one of the methods employed by an overriding
Providence to bring this nation to ahgher level
in civilization and christianity, and We should
conduct ourselves in it with true manly, hope
ful courage. Let US not sit, as Israel did in
their exile by the cold streams Of Babylon, hang.
ing our harps upon the willows mingling our
tears with the running waters, pouring out COM
planning songs and plaintive waiugs, and be-
moaning our sad fate but let us rather 90 as
Judah went to battle against their enemies,
lv clv llt Vuit ttr
trusting in the God of battles, and glorying in
the opportunity Of making every sacrifice to
prove our devotion to our country and its liber-
ties.
, And if there should happen to be among
the patriotic sons of Freedom some to whom,
believing in that Providence which brings good
out OF apparent evil, aud harmony out of what
seems the widest discord there is given blessed
faith that looks beyond and through the storm
blackoping the sky and desolating the earth, tc
the end the result, the separation and purlfca'
tion of the warning elements, the defeat of the
wrong and the triumph OF the right, and who
are thus led to rejoice IN the midst OF the agony
through which they believe will come the new
creation, let us not rebuke their triumphant
hopes because they ignore our cold calculations
of commercial reyerscs and physical suilerings
but let us rather rejoice that devotion to lib
erty and faith in its ultimate triumph strong
enough to make men unmindiul of the suffer.
| ings through which that triumph is to be
, reached, yet lives in the land,
The 2nd Vermont Regiment will leave for tn,
snnl nc mnr rhnrsAnu Of Ihis Asank We Inv