Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Iowa) 1861-1864, 1862-05-29
STRENGTH IN WAR.

STRENGTH IN WAR.
Cruel and bloody as war is, it yet
teaches needed lessons, and throws a
bright light on great truths. 1t brings
opinion TO the test of trial it con-
fronts assertion with fact it chal-
lenges pride and boasting to real com
bat; shows the weakness of pretcn-
sion and cherished rank and place,
however much they may have filled
men with awe, and brings them down
to their true level while it gives true
valor and genuine force of brain or
muscle, supreme dominion and crowns
them with victory. Men may boast
of their superiority in the calm days
of peace brag of their power, and
challenge the world To match their
valor, or outshine their genius, and
find nowhere a denial of their vauntcd
powers and greatness but War
brings all the conceit to the stern test
of fact; it strips the false feathers
from strutting and imbecil upper
class, and exposes its naked meanness
and cowardice to the gaze and con-
tempt of the world. Lofty rank and
noble blood count for but little in the
clash and smoke of battle purple
and fine linnen are no coat of mail
steel aud ball do not respect first
families or aristocratic birth /; the
brawny arms that WELD the sword of
Freedom and strike for human rights,
rejoice TO hew their way through
noble ranks aud tumble the proud.
est aristocracy in the dust. War re-
spects persons no more than his com
rade and brother Death. Both level
and all alike, and sceptre aud crown
are made equal with the poor spade
and hoe. In war the lord is no better
than his yassal, and the master often
not SO good as his slave.
To fight well in our day men must
be stout of heart, strong of limb, and
skilled in the use of their weapons, as
they always had to be 1; and must be-
sides add to these requisites others
no less essential. The time in which
fields could be won by mere bravery
Of the soldiers, and the superior skill
aud tactics of their commanders, is
past. The progress in invention and
mechanics gives to-day the supcriori-
~ in war TO the people who are far
thest advanced in skilled labor and
the new application of mechanic arts
to military science. When the men
who work in wood and iron, and are
esteemed and rewarded for their labor
and ingenuity when all the arrange
ments and feeling Of community
tend to make labor honorable. and
wealth and position wait to reward dill
igent and successful toll and thought,
there you find the people who are ac-
cnmulating the resources and power
which will make them invincible in
modern warfare. No nation can long
maintain its position of equality and
independence in this age OF progress,
that does not contain within its limits
large class of educated and intelli-
gent artisans and mechanics. Any
people who look down with contempt
upon the labors of the mechanic. who
deem the toll of the workshop and
the foundry demeaning and degrading,
are sneering at the main sources Of
national strength, and driving with
contempt from their land the only
men who can save them from con
quest and humiliation. In the great
nations that to-day lead the civiliza-
ton of the world the struggle for
power is being carried on in the work
shop and the brains of inventors. The
weapons of imperial France aud royal
England are wrought and fashioned
by the cunning Of skilled hands and
the thought of ingenious minds. Brute
force has given way before educated
and calculated power. The might that
triumphs now in war is the offspring
of science aud art.
Aud what stupidity and folly is il
in a nation thet proclaims slavery t.
be it's corner stone, and that calls me
chanics lower class, and scorns and
abuses labor, to deceive itself with the
belief than it can match its strength
in war, with a country that makes
free labor its pride and boast, and ha.
armed its strong hand with all tht
powers Of modern invention and i'm
provement. II the South had achieves
/ independence and stood to-day an equa
} among the nations Of the earth, i
could only maintain its position b,