Litchfield enquirer., 1863-09-03
Results.


 Results.
 As the end of the rebellion seems drawing near, it may be well to consider the actual ad vantage we have gained from the continuance of a struggle, so fraught with the horror and gloom and sadness which only a civil war can bring, for period of over two years. and whether the results which it has brought about will not, after all, prove that good, rather than evil, has come to the nation through the fiery ordeal by which it has been tried. Had ou1 army triumphed at the first battle of Bull Run or rather had they followed upthe victory they undoubtedly had at one time achieved on thai hard fought field, the rebellion, confsssedly would have ended then and there. We should have beaten tho only force the rebel leaders had then. mustered to- op- pose the government; we should have taken and held the "Capital" from which those leaders presumed to dictate laws and mil itary commands to the "Confederacy"; we should hays qnenched- at its outset-the mili- tary ardor with which those reckless men had "fred the Southern heart," and proved to them that "Confederacy' was hardly worth fight ing for when the alternatives were the olive branch,a ,and the halter and sword.
 But it is no less doubtful than this, that then would have come up the old system of "Compromises, in which the South would, as usual, have secured all the advantages of fur ther protection to it's institutions" and acqui- essence to it's demands, and which the North would as willingly have conceded, and so we should have relapsed into our old status of end less bickcrngs, crimnations and. recrimina- tions, and have been ripening seed for a new outbreak and fresh civil war. Now it is pretty well understood that whenever the war shall end, Slavery, the great root ot the rebel lion, shall have forever ceased as political power ill the land-to foment dissension and rstard the progress of the country that not long thereafter will it finger as shame to our boasted free institutions, and blot upon the fair escutcheon of the Republic. The war; severe, terrible, and burdensome as it has been, has educated us to this, and if this be one of its results, who shall venture to say that it has not been worth all it has cost to our Nation?
 And another result connected with the above, and dependent in measure upon it., is the hollowness and hypocrisy of the rebels them- selves, upon this subject of Slavery. which has been so thoroughly shown up at every stage of the war, and which, in their last extremeties, Is exhihited mere distinctly than ever. All the buster and braggardsm concerning the devotion of the Slaves to Slavery, and the con. tent which universally prevailed among that class of laborers with their condition, was ex- ploded long ago by the Proclamation of Eman- cipation. But it seemed to be reserved for the last kick of the managers, who now open ly offer freedom and fifty acres of land to their negroes, who will fight for them and their sinking cause, to demonstrate the utter falsity Of their professions that slavery was preferable to freedom with the slave, and that they would fight for their masters and slavery, sooner than for freedom and themselves. To be consist tent with their professions, King Jeff. should have proclaimed perpetual bondage to the negroes who shall fight for hm-to them and their heirs forever-and then, undoubtedly, we should have seen thousands aocking to his Auttering standard, where thousands are flock ing now to take up arms against him.
 A third result of tho war which we may men, ticn, and which the end will see, has been to place our nation on footing to carry out fully the Monroe doctrine, in it's letter and spirit, and to cope with whatever formida able adver- sary shall hereafter stand in it's way to fur ther progress and to higher perfection and realization of civil liberty throughout the land Never have we been SO strong as now. Nev CT before has the Republic risen to such 6 height of moral grandeur, as when taking its life in it's hand, it has battled against foes with in, aud kept at respectable bay its foes without Neycr as it seems to us, have we had as clea insight and intuition of our mission hereafter than now when our power and strength art being developed, and our resources and cour age brought to light.
 So, through trial and trouble and civil wa, God soems to have led this Nation along, chas tening us for our sins, subd uing our vain-glory rswarding our consistency and courage in tn end, and preparing us for future which sha be bright to US as our strength is.-forming U for the graudest and noblest Nation the worl has ever seen.
 FAIL OF BR1DaE-The bridge over th Westville (Mass.l river, at the gorge of Noun Tom. about two miles east of Westfielt known as Morley's bridge, gave way o Wednesday forenoon, the east end or abutmen being precipitated into the river, distance Q about forty feet. It was an old structure, an it would seem that it was unsafe, for it gay way when DO one was passing over it. H. H Barbour, Esq.,, of Hartford, the Times says came up to the bridge in his family carriase for the purpose of crossing, but few minute after 1t fell, and had he attempted to eros