Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1863-05-12
How i. Min Afreot tho Rebels


fall into strange hands, or are destroyed,
the pride faleth and the hope endeth. So
says the.historian.
Had Washington fallen into rebel hands
al any time since the rebellion, and our
armies been driven away, we hardly think
ii would have been worth while TO have
more than kept up . decent appearance Of
.resistaacein order to take time for treaty
making. The nations pride would have
sunk and with it our hope AMI patriotism
as people. With these would b fill
en- our finances. endi seems impos e that
men could have been raised to recruit our
armies. Europe would have looked upon
us as fallen people and the rebels as a
tiiumpbant nation. The Confederacy
would hava demanded and secured upon
somewhat Just grounds treaties of recogni-
ton from England, France and other ma
tons abroad, and then we in the North
could not long refuse a like recognition,
that too upon such terms as the rebels
might demand. And as rebel demands
are never trifing or bounded by tmaIl
dimlts we suppose they would claim our
nations capital and at least all the terri
tory in bounds of the slave tolerating States
including probably part of Illinois and
some of Indiana, Ohio and Penn ylvania
and all Of New Jersey. Then they would
have claimed indemnity for losses of prop
erty, private and public, and the enforce
,ment of our Constitution as it was in res
pect to the return of fugitive slaves. The
Mississippi would have been theirs, all Of
it, having command of its mouth and the
Ohio and Missouri. All these are ineyita-
bic truths, and there still follows a general
corolary; we of the North would have
virtually have been an ensayed people
with warike, bullying, blood thirsty ma
ton of Southrons by our side to play the
master; worst Of all, 40 disinterested reo-
pie upon earth would pity us in the least !;
all such would say, 'the trucking, dough-
faced, psalm singing Yankees deserved it
all and ought to tie en:layed for ever con,
,senting to serve the chivalrous Southern
DULLES as long as they did" II indeed We
had been SO fortunate as to have saved a
separate government and had been able
to establish one Of those petty republics
which the British Deisraeli foretells is the
destiny of American nations, we might
have graduated ourselves that the ferocity
of the foe had something to check It other
than its spirit. For, with our capitol
the base Of all our operations as if it were
the Government fulcrum-gone, aud with
it the army which i supposed to hold the
balance Of strength between The two fear
full arrays, what could we do? Then,
too, with our army broken, our prepare
tons captured, our inancies destroyed, our
spirit crushed, what could we do with the
thousand kissing Leads cf the dragon, thus
warmed into life, that would strike up all
oyer tie national body
With this view let us compare the effect
of TIE capture Of Richmond upon the reb-
els: Mcclellan asserts before the War
Committee that Richmond bears the same
relation to armed rebellion that Washing
ton does to cur armies. 1t is not only the
feat of their Legislature and location Of
their President and COMMANDMENT Chief.
but it is the base Of operations for all their
armies, and is defended by their chiefest
army and the choicest Generals. To take
it would wound their pride as a similar
capture would ours, and which in their
case is as near ! solid component Of their
nationality IS anything else they hate; it
cuts off their source Of supplies for the
main army-thus leaving it TO the mercy
OF ours, and cripples their own army ~
destroying its base. Their grand army
which never was able to do more than
check the advance Of the Federal Potomac
army, captured or shattered to fragments,
their courage would droop, the remaining
armies e9aii hasrlless contests from which
they ahHnk as from grapple with The
King Of Death, while their conscripts take
refuge with the eonquerors, and their
pllnderuss, abandon their defeated and be-
trayed comrades.
The leaders Of rebeldom must see all this,
and will act vigorously to save themselves
from the impending halter. They will not
stop to make treaties Of peace, for they
must know that Eo:thern public opinion
and the Federal army wiz demand in
thunder tones that the entire Congress and
army of rebel chiefs shall he hung Nor is
this all: their property. strpt and torn as
: 4 1 II II