Daily State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-07-04
An Unchanged Theme.

The war is on all sides admitted to be an evil,
of all evils the most hOrrifying which these Re
publics Witnessed; and it may be safely
asserted that If any one great man could be
found able and willing to arrest the evil. he
would stand in the hearts and history of the
country on a platform equal in altitude to that of
Washington. Ii Is true that all human annals
from the days of the first Brutus to the present,
preach the plain path to peace and warn by innu-
merabe examples against the greatest obstacle
to that divine blessing.
war waged Tor the acquisition of some de
bateable land, commercial advantage, or balance
of power is easily ended because il is mere
contest of armies, born of i'll logic or political
strategies The heart of the bellgerent pusates
not in accordance with its every movement.
Domestic peace, internal trade, family ties. are
unnteriered with; and, the army whipped, peace
is easily madel
waged in support and i'm resistance of
revolution is seldom short. For eight centuries
the Sierras of Spain saw the continued fight
between the invader and invaded. Each gene
ration bequeathed its national vendetta to its
successor. the child played in his cradle with
the arms of his guerrilla father and was nightly
taught by his mother to pray 10 God and SAINT
lago for early strength to WELD them in the
nationally hereditary cause. Europe, Asia and
Africa, aye, and America, afford numerous ex-
ampleS OF wars of retaliation; and their pecu-
liarities of bitterness, continuity and desolation
are easily traceable to the narrowing and unnec-
essary divertng of the contest from the armies in
the field to the civilisns of the country. The
moment the war reaches the civilian, narrowing
his sense OF right and wrong, exposing his liberty
aud property for the mere expression of opinion,
that moment is infused into him an intensity of
hostility which spreads from the man himself to
all who bear his name, or claim consanguinity
with him. Then it is that Maids of Saragossa
stand by the cannOns of resistance then it is that
wives string their husbands bows, and children
spit in scorn upon their fathers foes. Then
springs up the true spirit of sacrifice to hatred
Armies become secondary in such contest, the
people in chief take it up; signalize their desper-
ate adoption by Siciian Vespers or st. Bar
tholomew, and continue it to determination or
success, generally to the latter
Oppression is the mother of resistance. The
king OF Britain put his foot down and-llberated
the colonies he would Cypress. The king of
Britain conciated Canada, and now Britain could
not kick Canada from her allegiance to the House
Of Guelph
Confine to the armies in the field, its du-
ration must be limited. During its continuance.
let the civilians of either belligeraut be oppressed
ip conscience, liberty or goods, and the war of
armies turns into of peoples, gradually in
ensfed in spirit till it becomes savage and quar-
terless, and the motto of the Catalan is revived
ana auODteu, W ar 10 knlIe.
With the lessons of the past before them We
feel satisfied that the Federal Government, as its
armies advance and occupy, will refrain from the
adoption of any policy which would tend to drive
the civilian 10 the field, that it will remember
that 1T the reconstruction of the Union Is indeed
their object, that object can only be accomplished
by the resurrection of the fraternal feeling tina.
created il. The Union not built by bayonets
neither can its ruins be once more wrought into
the old plan by the sword.
Here in Memphis the effects of policy
of Cancellation. which resumed and persisted in,
would do To bring back Tennessee" than
coald any amount OF systematic severity. The
surrounding country may be wOoed back to its
old relations with the city, but can not be driven
10 their resumption. Severity may secure pas
sive obedience wi hin the limits OF a military
post, but il also frightens from it all who can es-
cape il. and in lieu OF inviting to peace provoke
to men who from their past lite and avoca-
tons have ever sought the former aud deprecated
the latter. We deprecate all harsh measures from
the soldier tn the civilian, tending inevitably
10 proong this unnatural to period indefinite
y remote in the future, and certain to defeat the
purposes for which il has been waged. Push this
war upon the civilian by the military power of
the country. and We shall have established a sys-
TEN of guerrilla and bandit warfare which will
last till the infant now IN his cradle perishes by
Z
il must be TO the South-horufying all Chrsten-
dom by acts of barbarity and cruelty unsurpassed
in the history OF savage life Limit the to
the armies OF the two beIligerent powers, and
when one or the other shall be yanquished and
honorable peace may follow, and the North and
South alike escape the humiliation OF property,
life and liberty. Ii is impossible to reconstruct
the old Union by force. Ii existed only in the
hearts aud affections OF the people. A Govern
ment of force will not be the old and cherished
institutions of the "stars and stripes" which
Washington. Jefferson and Madison inaugurated.
and which were so calamity defended by Jack
son-"the Union" which he said must and shall
be preserved The sword brandishel by the
soidiery Of the country never restore the peo-
pie of the South TO these old relations. The
means must be wholly and totally different in
character, otherwise follows a signal and certain
failure.