, 1862-03-15
A higher Fighting Temper Needed.

"N "H' y, ""u appears " nave dCuleNeu an ul
dying popularity.
A Higher Fighting Temper Needed.
The most cursory observer must have noted the
difference in the spirit of the South and of the
Norhin tie present conflict. There S a measure
of bel sess. vindciiyeness, ferceness in the one,
that - taii shown in the other. The Message
Ics Je- Javis is foil of rancor; the Message oi
Abraham Lincoln presents not the least tinge of
ii. The newspapers of the South TEEN with the
most malignant epithets and phrases the Ian
guaee can supply against our public men, our
military leaders, and armies, and revel in the
yer coarsest abuse of the Northern people. The
newspapers of the North though they may de-
nounce the belion itself without stint, yet, as
general tLing, abstain from all vfcation of per
sons or people. They may cenSure, and, in some
sort, upbrud, but we never see in item the savage
Wholesale reviling that iss to be found in every
column of a Southern sheet. Our haid Ian
guage is direct' infinitely less against the traitors
than against the treason theirs infinitely more
against the supporters of the Government than
against the Government itself And just so OF
actions. Prom the beginning of the war they
have displayed trucuence we have never felt
They have shown it in unscrupulous confscations
in relentless conscrptons, in the useless destruc-
lion of public works, in the assassination of pickets
in mallreating prisoners, in leaving the dead I'M
buried, and even in many cases dis6gurng and
mutiating them, in seeking to enlist allies the
led savage with his tomahawk and seal ping knife.
If we attempt in any degree TO retaate, it evi-
DENLY goes against the grain, and practically
amounts to little. We get the two most violent
traitors in the Confederacy into our hands-Ma-
son and Slidell-and straghlway begin to pam
per them with all the delicacies Faneuil Hall
Market can suppl! and it takes special resolu-
lion of Congress to get visited upon them any
thiDg like the treatment experienced by our own
high WORTHLESS in the hands of the enemy.
II this difference of spirit affected simply the
mere ineidenlals Of warfere-keeping us from the
uses which they practice without scruple-we
might congratulate ourselves upon the contrast
the very essentials of effective fighting 1t is yet
ID
have made us more civil and humane, have rot
somew hat unnerved us for the dreadful but nee
essary work of battle. One thing is certain-that
thus far the soldiers OF the North have been al
most uniformly worSted in the field. Explain it
and excuse ii as we may, it is still an ungracious
fact. We talk, for instance, of the rawness OF
the volunteers at Bull Run. Grant that they
were raw but they were not more so than their
adversaries Even if they had been II would not
of itself have justified their headlong retreat
Our fathers at Bunker Hill were raw, and YET
they fought twice their number of the best troops
in the world with clubbed muskets. Napoleon
won Lntzer, one of his largest and most desperate
battles, against superior numbers with mere boy
conscrpts, who had shouldcred their muskets for
the first time hardly more than a month before
and we may add that, within three weeks after
wards, with the same raw troops, he successfully
stormed the ntrenchments of Bautzen, position
very similar to that of Manassas. But then it
cost blood The eight hours of Lutzen laid low
$4,000 of his young braves and $4,000 were dis
abed by the batteries the masked batteries
we should cal. theni-of Bautzen. Yes, these
achievements cost blood. Aud there is the rub.
Bull Run was lost not because our troops were
raw, but because they did not fight to the death,
as other raw troops have done before them. 1t
is absurd and ruinous to cheat ourselves with
these wretched excuses. If it be true that the
Southern troops are fighting with more mettle,
more vigor, more uim than our troops, the sooner
we realize 1t and find the right stimulus the
better.
Nobody will say that the North is less sincere
10 this struggle than the South. 1t is certain that
the North is as thoroughly convinced that it is
right as the South can be that ii is right. The
difference in spirit cannot be attributed to any
difference in sire 9Th of conviction. 1t may
come in some degree. perhaps, from difference
in tempe ptTament-in some degree, possibly, from
difference in the policy of the leaders, those on
their side seeking 10 WIDEN those on our side to
narrow the breach between the two sections.
But there is more reason to think that the shallow
philanlhropiSm the maudlin laxity Of heart, which
has been rife at the North through these latter
years, has something to do with it. There has
been, year after year, such deal of sickly stuff
vented about the awful wickedness of shedding
human blood, and abo-t the boandless potency OF
moral SuaSion, such an inceSsant stream of wishy-
wahy, nanny -pamhy, humantariansm, that It is
really doubtful whether it has not struck into and
relaxed our very muscles and nerves. 1t is very
certain that we don't treat renegades and traitors
as our fathers did.
The old Achillean wrath against untrue men,
the grim old puri,anic Indignation against the
(, workers of iniquity, has been gradually giving
place to entimenlality as impoteut as it d
passionless, till now we are not at all astonshed
to see Congress invoked by these modern phoso
pliers, with their emaSculated souls, to call in the
black race to save the nations flag from ruin, un
der the shameless plea of military necessity.
i These influences must be thrown off. There i