, 1863-08-13
Chicago Grtb111e.'
AN ILLUSION DrsPELLED.

THURSDAY, AUGUST IS, 1868
AN ILLUSION DIsPELLED.
War is not IN event calculated, in the
aggregate, to excite anybody'a laughter; !;
but, in some Of its aspects, the war now
waged for the Union is humorous enough.
Nc all remember tie theory with which
the rebels set out-that one Southern man
Was always the equal Of three, and, in or
dinary cases, oftive, Yankees; and that
whenever and wherever the chivn1ry should
put themselves in battle array, the troops
Of the North would surely run. This no.
lion naturally enough conceived. By the
blathering bu1lies who never met from
Northern men any opposition more serious
than that encountered among dirt eating
members Of Congress, the "1nerchant
princes" of New York, or the sergile pol
iticiaus who were wont to toady to planta-
lion morality and manners at Northern
watering places, Was generally disseminate
ed in all the Southern country. Fellows
whose Lives had been passed in the obscu-
rlty Of the 3place down by the swamp
whose only knowledge Of Northern men
wns derived from the tin-poddlers who oc-
casiona1ly strayed into their vicinity or from
the Northern reueeadcs settled among them.
had no more doubt that in all tile essentials
Of the soldier and the gentlemen they were
20 greatly the superiors Of the best speci-
meas Of Northern manhood, that their
march, if five thousand Of them should be
banded together, could not be arrested BY
all the men that the government could put
into the tieid.' Spending their lives among
slaves always ready to crouch at their bid
ding, or among poor whites who were but
little more independent and selfreliant
than the blacks; always armed, with no
body to dispute their VIII, ignorant Of the
results Of freedom and OF the character Of
their eountrymen; naughty in hateful
and vulgar way, eaten up With the admi-
1ation Of sell that such Life always fos-
ters-what wonder that the notion of
which we speak should have taken firm
hold OF the planters should, in fact, have
become an axiom in the Southern creed,
just as sel1-eyldent Us that other Southern
axiom, hat it IS Christian to whip women
or rob them Of their babies. The explain
alton why this was so, did not lessen the
intensity OF the conviction. The theory
yet hrmly upheld by all the south Is that
the people OF that section are Of superior
blood-1hat the vital current which coursed
through the Veins Of the strumpets and
haIidans who, destined to become the
mothers Of the first families" were sold
in Virginia st SO many pounds Of tobacco
per head, had By being somehow
distilled and 1edistillcd though specimens
of the African and Indian races, acquired
the purity, warmth, and richness that
would he looked for in win among the
descendants Of these yirtuous mothers and
praying and fighting Puritans who settled
New England, and thence peopled the
West. This pleasant delusion. which,
among nations still more barbarous than
the elave-holding States Of America, con.
vcrts marauding progenitors into deui-
gods, and builds altars in their honor.
completed the task which the craft Of the
tin-I,eddlers and the seryiIity Of the poli-
ticians begun Staggering, bullying, full
Of gascon1de, and Of course cruel,s the
South went into the war with the Unborn
assurance that the contest would be short
and the victory certain-that to whip out
the North, bum Washington. New York.
Philadclphia, Cincinnati and Chicago. was
q task of no greater u,arnitude than tn
nut a gang OF 1nis1,ra,ayra ..nicccr,,, t.,
the torture before breakfast. Il was to
these boosters not question Of yalor, Of
resources and Of endurance. Int Of snecd
Shall wc be able to oyertake these coward
IT Ynnkccs when tl1cy run !? was the noint
in debute.
Ii is fortunate for the stability and per-
pcuity Of the peace That is mt now far oH
that the war has continued long enough
to dispG these illusions Of se1floye and
Ignorance, and to teach the South that
Slavery is not the parent Of the courage
that founds or saves State. The process
Of instruction has been slow but continu-
GUS. The lessons Of Wilson'S Greek, Bel
mont and Of Fredericksburg, Of Fort Don
olson, Shiloh, Columbus and Island No.
10, were necessary but paiaful. What Of
hcroisn our troops displayed was attribut-
cd to the intermixture Of The blood
Of the South in the soldiers who fouGht in