Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1863-01-24

nights alike ignore the hospitalities Of
roof and civilized bed, is SO placed al
keenly TO appreciate, The teeming, wav
ing fields the grateful, soothing shade
The renoSatng rver.bath and the inviting
abundance and variety of wildfruits and
other bounties Of Nature, afford no slight
reeompense for the thousands Of solid com
forts and enjoymeBts inseparable from
even the rudest home. But rugged Winter
is stern realist. He disrobes and olsen
chants with remorseless sincerity. The
night passed in mud and misery, under q
pouring, pitiless rain, which in Summer
may be laughed at as o novel, romantic ad
venture, sin Winter an undisguised aud re.
voting visitation. Fording rivers in July
aud in January are radically different mat.
ters, whether in present experience or in
subsequent recollection. The roads which
IN Summer are tolerable are in Winter
beds OF sticky earth and pools of stagnant
water, which the trampling of an army
soon renders all but impossible, In the
far South, Winter is perhaps the season
wherein campaigning is least rcpulsive /;
but on the slopes of the Alleghanies of Vir.
ginia and by the banks of the Potomac, it
is hard indeed to be soldering in January.
All honor, then, to our nameless beroes,
who, on the Rappahannock, the Black
water, the Mississippi, the Cumberland, the
Tennessee, the Arkonsas, are writing in
lines of FIRE and steel one of the grandest
chapters of American history Their val,
or, their patriotism, their self.sacrifce, will
be treasured and honored by their country
men so long as Liberty and Union shall be
dear to the American heart Thousands
who face the binding sleet as sentinels or
piekets, suffering patiently from cold and
drenched TO the skin, or rush upon the
death dealing battery as it vomits destruc.
lion on the charging line, have little
thought that their spirit is noted, their
deeds recorded in undying aunals, for the
study and admiration of future generations.
But there never before was war whereof
the progress and incidents were so closely
and widely Observed so INFINITELY and mul.
tifariously recorded. Correspondents Of
many Journals are watching every battle,
field, and following every march the re-
ports of division and subordinate comman-
ders are remarkably full aud particular !;
white Rebellion Records and other repos.
itories of documents, letters, anecdot IS, and
personal narratives, are far more abundent
and capacious than were ever before known.
This is Peoples War, and its moral is the
strength (or the weakness, as the event
shall prove) of popular rule. We are to
be saved, if saved at all. not by statesman.
ship, not by generalsAip, but by citizen SOL
diership. We are to be saved by poor and
humble men ~ho believe iHsthe qoar-who
sympathze with the great ideas which nu-
derlie it, and whose souls are absorbed in
the great issues which, for good or for
evil, must proceed from it-who feel that
Liberty aud Slavery have olenched in
death grapple and that one or the other
must speedily bite the dnst-and who joy
fully renderiup their lives that so they may
achieve happier destiny for the undiSln.
guished Millions who are hereafter to toll
and sweat in the fields the shops, the fac
tories, of this sorely.tried and bloodily de.
vastated country.
1t is very true. that the final consum na.
tion of this, as of kindred struggle, is not
doubtful. Nobody really believes that
Slavery is everlasting, nor that Nation
avowedly based upon it as corner stone
can long endure and flourish. But that
Providence which permitted the overthrow
of Geecian independence and of Roman
liberly--which has allowed ISlamism to
overspread and deVastate, for the last
thousand years, the faireSt portions Of he
earth, trampling not only Christianity but
Civilization-nay, even Art and Industry
beneath the redeemed hoofs of its innu-
merabIe cavalry, may have decreed simi,
lar experience for us. The destruction of
Sodom, because five righteous men could
not be found among its countless denizens,
is a perpetual admoniton. The measure.
less corruption and moral rottenness of the
Roman world, whereof Slavery was the |
main Indictment, opened the way for the ir-
ruption of nexhaustible swarms of barba.
rians from the North and, at later day, |
of fanatical devotees of the Arabian False |
Prophet from the East and South If our
social state is as debauched and incurable |
as that of imperial Rome, our discipline
may be as severe and prOtracted as hers |
ln any case, we may be sure that our fate |
as people will be what we as a people |
have deSerVed-what, in the allembrGcing |
view, is best for us. The caustic will cease
to be applied precisely when the proud |
flesh shall have been eaten ont. .r
r The mills of the gods grind slowly.
But they grind exceeding small,
and the countenance of Infinite Mercy will
beam fully and cheerily upon us whenever
VIC, shall have been fitted by chastenlug
and pur!fcation to enjoy and profit by its
Pffulgence. ....... ........
In spite of pride, in erring Reasons spite,
One truth is clear, wHATEyER IS, Is RIGHT
We were beaten at Bull Run, because
We were not worthy to conquer, We were
beaten, because our too sudden and easy
triumph would have Insured prompt RE-
construct ION on ProSlavery basis, with
Slavery stronger and better fortified than
sver before We should now be yetors
before March, and with comparatively lit
lie bloodshed, If the people of the loyal
States had generally risen to the moral al
thude of the Presidents Proclamation of
Freedom. II we are vanquished, 1t will be
because our Democratic generals, soldiers,
and nartizans resist and battle the Eman.