The Shasta courier., 1862-10-11
Desuitory.

Desuitory.
IN war 80 vast as that al present. waged
in the United States, unavoidnbiy great and
distinct interests become involved, excusing,
if not precisely justifying the bringing for
ward of some solemn maxim from that code
of humbugs usually called the law of nations,
concerning which great men for the last
twelve hundred years have interested them
selves, and to which all civilized nations are
understood, by consent never yet expressed
in solemn convention, to be bound. What
respec ability this code has in the esteem of
the powers lin which we include all ideas of
any nations oneness) of the earth, is to no
small extent to be attributed to the policy of
the United States of America. This nation,
in this the smallest of particulars, has been
always possessed of great influence abroad.
The powers of the earth, without specially
recognizing ours as being the true idea of a
government, have deferred to itneser.heless,
perhaps for no better reason than that they
were afraid to oppose it. Howbeit, it has
come to pass that civilized peoples recognize
certain great maxims of war, prominent
among which, better had we said fundamen.
tally among the first, is the declaration that
they are to so conduct the strife that the
greatest amount of public good should result
from the least possible sacrifice on the art of
an antagonist.
Thus is it written in the law of nations
And so is the law. And never yet did any
law so perfectly fail of any illustration in the
practice oft.
We cannot now remember any struggle in
which, whatever might be the real or pre-
sumable rights of the parties, which did not
in fact turn on the maxim that =" Power
makes right" Weappreciate the harshness of
of the sentiment Yet we. ask the reader, whose
generous mind leads him to a different con-
clusion, if it is not strictly true. 1t was a
beautiful fable that the gods, in early war
fares, mingled in human strife. To this ic-
ton we are perhaps indebted for our grand
est epic; but sadly, wherever you turn, do
might" and "might and right are practi-
cally convertible phrases.
But seldom is it given to the poor STUN
bling nations to pray, bleed and die for a
thing, the justice, the right, the holiness of
which is as plain and garing as the sun at
mid day. To the maxims of power, come in
full force all the precepts # justice. Let us
family idealize the fight our nation sternly
wages. We war for our eighty years history
as a nation. We defend the righteousness of
the conduct of our fathers in the revolution
airy times. We do more yet: we fight for the
dignity of the Anglo Germans for one thou
sand eight hundred years for, mark you,
there is not one good thing in the British
Constitution, or in our own, which is not
drawn, directly or otherwise, from the prac
tices of the peoples who congregated on the
head waters of the Rhine and Vistula, before
the Saxon Heptarchy. The past pleads in
thunder tones, the present speaks in accents
which involve the personal dignity of every
man, and the mighty debt of the future asks
to be discharged, and instrumentally by us.
For what are the unfortunate rebels war
ring2 Turn it which way you will for an
swcr ): befog, disguise, muddle the idea as
you can or will, and the answer is that they
fight for slavery.
Heaven bless us. Who before now fought
for this thing? In what history is it writer
that it is, or was, or could be proper? Or
what ensanguined field did any martyr evel
die to vindicate right like that? When die
the pen of poet, or the tongue of an orator
become inspired in its praises? Where ART
its triumphs? Where its successes? Ther
right is with us, and might is with us, and
| =" this oc our motto
| In God is our trust