Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1863-09-08

large portion of our territory was overrun al
occupied by the enemy. In the South, Greer
was compelled to retire before CORVALLIS,
Washington had done before the Howes in I'll
North. Georgia, South Carolina, North Car,
lima, Virginia, each and all Of them, east of til
Blue Mountains, were overrun for time by th
| armies of the enemy, while all the chief cities
the North and in the South-Boston, NewpOr
New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, NorfolE
Wilmington, Charleston and Savannah--were al
for longer or shorter period, in his possession
But 1t the country was overrun, the hearts OF I'd
people were not Overawed. With them and tbe
trusted servants, whether in the council or In til
| field, there was no despair of the republic. The
felt as Washington, when most oppressed by th
complicated dficL tiles of his situation ,expresse
himself. in the sincerity of his heaEt in writin
to his brother : Under full persuasion of III
justice of our cause, cannot entertain an ide
thai it will finally sink. though it may remain 10
| a time under ciOud.''s
| All history proves that brave an uncorrupt
ed people, determined to be free, never can b.
subdued by the insolent superiority OF force ant
l mum bers, however disproportioned. What avail
ed the countless Persian hordes of Darius ano
Xerxes, when confronted, in many field made
classic ana holy ground by their@aiseomfture
with the proud spirit of freedom and the NOBLE
self devotion of the small but undaunted COM
monwealths of Greece? If ever people had ap-
parent cause for dependency, 1t was the people
of Rome when Hannibal with his Carthagenlan
hosts, after three successive victories on he Tin
cino, the Brescia, and Thrasymene, in his triun-
phal march towards the Capital, almost annihs-
lated the Roman in a fourth at Gamma, leaving
more than forty Thousand Roman citizens dead
upon the field, including one of the Consuls in
command, many Senators, ExConsulS PrBtors,
Gdiles, and others of the highest rank and con-
slderatiOn. But, amid the CONSERVATION of so
terrible calamity, the spirit of the Republic
never blanched. When the surviving Consul,
whose rashness even had been the cause of the
disaster, approached the city with the wreck OF
mis- army. the Senate and all ranks of the people,
we are told by one of their great historians, weRt
out to meet him and thanked him for not having
despaired of the Commonwealth. And in the
ind it was not Rome, but Carthage, that perish
ed in the conflict.
So, too, when we come down to the period of
modern history. Is it possible to conceive
struggle more unequal in numbers, armament,
and every material resource than that, IN the SIX
teenth century, between the seven insurgent
provinces of the Netherlands, beginning with two
of them only, and the whole weight and power
of the Spanish Monarchy II its meridian OF splen-
dor, when, in addition to the resources or Its
large dominions in Italy, the Netherlands and
the Peninsula, including Portugal, it elded the
riches of America and the lndlas united! And
yet by the indomitable courage and perseverance,
of the inhabitants, animated with the spirit OF
civil and religious liberty and in spite OF caiam-
tiles and disasters which tried TO tho uttefmosG.
the heroic stuff of which they were made, leaving
to them often no other resource than, by cutting
their dykes to call in the aid of that destructive
clement it had cost them ages OF LABOR ana toll
TO shut out, they redeemed their native lana from
the remOrSeeSs Surges OF despotlsm more fero-
cioQs than the sea, triumphantly established their
independence, and constituted renowned COM
monwealth which, for two hundred years, proud
ty htiA ira pta in tiryF rlniy n
of Europe.
If we wish farther to see what prodiges an Un-
dlsmayed spirit Of national independence, bat
tling upon its soll for its hearhS anu affairs,
is capaole of accomplishing against the odds OF
force and numbers, look at tho example OF the
same people, under the third William of Oraage,
magnanimously bidding defiance to the united
and powerful armies OF Louis xiv. of France
and Charles IL. ofEngland ; look at Prussia, un-
der Frederick II. in The memorable Seven Years
Var, successfully contending against almost all
the Powers of continental Earop3-Aastria, the
German States, France, Sweden and Russia-all
banded together, at the same moment, in the
invasion of her territory look, again, al the
miracles of successful valor, accomplished, some
thirty years later, by the people OF revolutionary
France, in the enthusiasm of liberty and in vim
dication of the right of national self-government
against second and more formidable cOmbina-
ton of all Europe, both insular and continental.
are capable OF accomplishing. We have the same
love OF liberty; we nave the same devotion to
our native land; we haYe the same martial ardor;
We have the same, and even greater, motives to
exert every faculty Tor our deliverance. With
the most of them, the great stake involved was
national independence and political rights.
With US In addition to all this, everything pre-
cious TO the human affections, everything sacred
to the human heart is at issue. From the ruth.
less spirit in which this war has been waged by
our adversarleS from the specimens we have
had OF their Infamous pro-consular governments
in parts or our territory occupied by them from
the appeals they are now making to the vindic
tive anu brutal passions of an unciviiized race
as their allies IN this unholy crusade against u.s.
1t is impossible for the imagination to picture a
fate more horrible than ours would be, if we We're
once subjected to their power. | know no Ian
guage which in That case, could adequately paint
the depth OF our degradation and the extremity
of our wretcheGness, unless it be those burning
lines of an English poet, in which he gave vent
to his feelings of horror and Indignation, when
deprecating the iron rule of a Vulgar and hypo-
crtica.tyranny in his own land
Come the eleventh plague rathe than this shoudb
Come sink rather in the sea;
Come rather pestienc9 and reap down;
Come God sword, rather than our own
Let rather Roman come again,
Or Saxon, Norman, Or the DaLe
In all the bonds ever bore,
We grieved, we sighed. wept; but never blushed
before.
In the foregoing remarks, it mas been assumed
that the enemy's forces We're, in number much
greater than ours. This has undoubtedly, here
tcfore, been the fact. But am firmly persuaded
that notwiths standing the Immense difference i'll
the actual population of the two countries, We
shall hencefOrward have army In the field at
all times equal in number to theirs and that
surely, is all We need desire. The energies OF
the South are just beginning to be thoroughly
aroused. We already see proposition In the
Legislature OF Alabama to extend the limits of
the military age below eighteen years to sixteen,
and above forty five to sixty. This was the OLD
Spartan rule, and prevailed long time in Eng
land, until the Institution of standing armies, and
her insular situation, made her careless with re-
gard to the military organization OF the mass of
her population. Bat our circumstances may we'll
Justify recurrence to the ancient rule, SO far at
least as to call the supplementary classes for
local defence. the spirit of the people, there can
he no doubt, would nobly respond to such call,
while the demands of the crisis appealing to the
instructive courage of men, and enforced by the
pleading loynness OF woman, will keep cur active
army tull within the limits OF the age heretofore
prescribed tor it.
The situation Of our adversary presents very
different picture. The popular fervor for tee
war; first klndled, and for sometime kept up by
delusive pretextS, is abated and abahng. The
difficulties ard general repugnance opposed to
their recent draft have converted it in,o very lit
tie more than barren mockery. No large ac
cessons to their army, already much reduced By
the expiration of enliSGrnents and the casualties
of war, can now be had by force or. persuasion
The cordial support of public opinion, in the