Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1863-04-23
Can the South he Conquered.

Can the South he Conquered.
lyon cannot conquer the Sonth," is q
cuckoo note that we have heard ever since
the war began; it was prediction, indeed.
before the war, and is now believed by
many from mere repetition. To give it
greater force. a saying of Napoleon. to
the effect that no people determined to
win their in dependence can be conquered is
often quoted. We are not told when or
where the great warrior uttered the dictam;
but it is very clear. If he did. that he was
talking at random, or at least without re-
gard to the lessons Of history. Nations
and people from the beginning of time
have been conquered, in spite of their OBJ
stinacy; and one of the greatest Of what we
may be called the propulsive or expansive
movements of civilization has been in the
line of conquest.
No one, we presume, will Question the
fact that Greece. as well as Gaul, Hispsn-
la, Carthage and other less important ma
tions, were effsctuaiIy conquered by the
Romans, no one will dispute that England
was permanently occupied by he Normans.
the ancestors of the present ruling classes;
or that England in later years has reduced
Irelandto a painful subjection, in spite of
a deep rooted hatred of race and religion,
and of the proverbial courage and gallant
ry of the lrishmen. Nor need we refer to
the more recent instances of Poland sub
jected by the Russians, of Hungary sub
ljected by the Austrians, Of India subjected
by the English and Algeria subjected by
the French. The truth is that the con-
quest OF a nation is matter of military
science and force, and though it may be
more or leass diff cult according to the to-
biography of the region which is the thea
tie of war. or the martial energies Of the
people, it is still possible under every cir
cumstance, if the conquering people be
really the superior in resources, skill AMI
strength.
1t has been shown by a thousand in
stances. indeed, that conquest is possible,
even when there are almost ineradicable
differences of race, religion. language, insti-
tu,ions and laws. there were between
the Romans and their many victims tho
Franks and the Gauls, the Arabs AMI the
Spaniards. the Normans and Anglo Sax
ons. the English and the Indians. In a
thousand other cases where the conquest
has not aimed at the subjectio1 of the
whole people but merely to compel their
submission to certain dynasty or to cer-
tain form of Government, the success has
not been less signal. No people in the
world is by natare more irrepressible than
the French; none is more apt for war or
more brave; from their origin to the pres
ent time they have won the highest name
for gallantry; they improvise powerful ar
mics more readily than any other people.
AMI those armies arc sooner organized into
an efficient host than elsewhere; and vet
the French, while the greatest military gem
ius the world has ever produced was their
commander, submitted to the dictation of
the Allies, took back a hated line of rulers,
the Bourbons, snd for years lived in pa
tience, and even with large degree of
satisfaction, under the government which
had been imposed upon them by foreign
ers. Are the people OF the South better
prepared for protracted war or more reso-
lutte and more spirited than the French?-
In their own conceit doubtless, but not in
the estimation of the historian, the philoso-
pher or the impartial day observer Of
common sense.
But there is one confederation which
renders the problem of more permanent
conquest with the South supposing it pos
sible in military sense much more easy
than the historical examples to which We
have referred. 1t is, that there is no vast
political differences to overcome. The
great body of the people, of the same line
age, language, education and laws with
ourselves, have no real grievances to al
ledge against the government which VIC
proffer them. They have never suffered an
hours wrong from it; their statesmen in
fact, have pronounced it the best on earth;
they are used to its practical machinery:
and it requires of no man, women or child
a asubmissionthat by any possibility can be
constructed into humiliation or disgrace
Unlike the Irish, theHungarians, the Poles
who were subjugo!ed by onother race to
institutions they detest, the southern peo-
pie are asked to submit to constitution
their fathers devised, which they themselves
had never been able to reproach. and
which the very LADDERS who led them into
revolt copied, an pied do 10 lettre, in their
own organic law. Their aversion to the
North then is mere by personal. prejudice
carefully instil!ed into their minds by their
suPeriors; resting upon no deep foundations
Of past injury or present oppression: and
consequently not likely to endure the press
nre, the trials and the miseries of pro-
longed state Of hostilities. It must give
way in time, and particularly as soon as
| it shall be discovered by the masses that
this war has been made by class-ths
slaveholders--wholly in their own class
interests.--N y. Post.