The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1863-09-22
WAR LETTER.


ter al the is6lh Reg'tN. Y. v. into the ser
vice Of the u S.-One year ago today. &C
stood in line aud with uplifted haud ard on
covered head swore 10 be true and faithful sol.
iiers of TIE q. s 10 serve her for three years
against ".alI of hsr opposers and enemies
wha,soever. 20 day we will gladly and
heartily re-affrm that oath and will strive the
year to come to keep it AS faithfully as we
have the year that is past.
The l26lh Reg't with ranks thinned by
battle aud disease is more loyal 10 day than
one year ago whom with thousand hands up-
lifted |. vowed It's devotion 10 this nation. 1t
was devotdly loyal hen, that loyalty is in
tensifed today Loyalty was then mostly a
theory, duty, app,ebended somewhat. TO be
sure. but existing too much MS an abstraction
To day loyalty is comrrebended not only a.
theory anu as duty, but Ms grand reality,
the commonest and most necessary ou'growth
of an American heart. Loyalty has mol only
been craven deep upon the tablet Of the heart
but has permea,ed the soldiers whole men.
tai and moral being. II has been wrought
into the soul by the severe hand Of trial and
ripened by The slow process of experience.
Loyalty 10 our Government WAS once respect
for il, now it is devotion. -Onco it was es.
TEEN, now il is love. aa| |ttEG
Oice, to us, the full force and meaning Of
treason was little understood. Ii was name,
unaerstood by great men heretofore aud pro-
nounced odous and terrible by them. In
theory we believed it to be such, and we could
say treason was odious and hateful and should
be trampled under foot as loud as any one,
bot the awful depths Of it's oliousness and
hatefulnebs were never comprehended by us'
To day, after years experience in learning
lessons Of loyalty and after following wick
ed and desperate foe, made wicked and ,les-
perate by treason's power, we begin to appre.
heud the force aud meaning wrapped up in
the terms traitor and treason. We have
learned its meaning by experience thorough
enough to teach the lesson well. To the SOL
der treason is TREASON, and You cannot by
any system of philosophy make him believe
il is only delusoD, an error, grand mistake.
To him il is the essence of wIckeduess, it
has nothing psllia,ing about it. it is all gall
and poison. He hates it iDstinctively, and
fights i, from desire. This severe experience
has wrought in the army an intense loyalty
the whole army from Maj Gen. to private is
thoroughly possessed with it, AMI it is SO mar.
ked that before one year after the return Of
the soldiers to civil lie, the old putty Ephri-
ans who have remained at home listrss and
stupid, learning the meaning Of loyalty and
treason only by the experience emanating
from little tax, will denounce them rs radi
Gals and dangerous enthusiasts. They may
whine on now for little time, groanDg un
der their burdens and PRAYING for peace
peace--peace, even at the sacrifice of national
honor, which means nothing to them, for all
the peace Of mind or body ,b.y'll have, will
be what they can s,npiJly absorb before the
vide awake, loyal and traitor hating men of
tbe'Rrmy go home. Lessons Of loyalty and
the odousuess OF treason will then be taught
to them in mar ner that even they, in their
malcnless stupidity can finally comprehend.
Dou't think now We are going TO hang them,
tar and feather them, mob them or any thing
of the kind. We are coming home loyal to
law,--we will live them TO death, we will
bombard them with our best batteries of free
speech, and scorn and spurn them so perfectly
tha, their lethargic souls will he more thor.
ougbly scorched and withered than could be
Elected by the application oi any physical
force. II they 10 their stupidity aud semi
disloyalty will not, during the war feel that
treason is wicke1 and outrageous, tbev shall
feel it after the war is over
you want to make mau loyal send bin
10 war. Send US ten thousand Copperheads
from the north and let them SIP loyalty from
thsdiriy streams OF Virginia, aud nlbhle it from
the bareback aud pork, ,hsve it beat into then,by
these scorchng suns and these ioreed march
es, by the exposures of camp life, and picked
into them by mosquitoes and the sting cf
wasps, and IN warrant you that this nation
will have ten thousand more loyal men in
a six month. Send them 10 US and let them
meet these miserable butternuts, surcbarged
with the poison Of treason, and Lave their
veins pr cked by their swords aud bayoneis.
and their limbs and bodies proted by their
bullets and th. nation will send in little
time 10 their homes again ten thousand urea
son hating patriots. Cast Copperheads aud
peace men, and poor, more TO be pitied neu-
trails into Tie crucible Of war aud let them
learn lessons Of loyalty from severe expert
ence, aud unless they ars consumed, they can
be moulded into loyalsts, be transformed in
10 patriots. THIS war will cure treason north
and south aud will destroy root and branch
al notification an secession, and make re-
belion so odious and hateful that it never
will be heard Of again In this great republic.
- w. 8.