The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-06-01
Make this Campaign the Last.

Make this Campaign the Last.
I'VE are yet IN the beginning of this CAM
paign, and already we count the dead by the
thousands and the wounded by tens of thous-
ands. The contest for Richmond has been
ushered in with a hideous saturnalia of blood.
This havoc of the first battles is without par
allell on the red pages of human strife, unless.
we look far back into the record of heathen
barbarism, when slaughter was the object
and not tim instrument Of warfare. 1t is true
that at rare intervals great numbers have per-
isked upon single fields, but never, in
military sense, to SO little purpose. Water
loo decided the fate of Europe. The victory
there was complete, the defeat utter aud over
Hhelming. The total loss of the French was
twenty six thousand three hundred !; the Viii
'defness battles undecisive, barren of percepr--
ible results, and but the prelude of work
more terrible yet to be done, have cost the
North, as has been commuted twenty-five
thousand men.
five estimate the Confederate as equal to
ours there is the appalling list of fifty thous-
sand human beings killed or disabled at the
very threshold of this campaign. Fifty thous-
and human beiugs in th.ir strength and
manhood-as many as constitute the total
population, men, women, and children of a
second class city, have been stricken down at
issue nearer co close When it is consider
ed that fifteen thousand wounded Federal
soldiers are huddled together in the streets of
Fredericksburg and that they are portion
only of the victims thus far of this campaign,
the extent of the carnage can be more nearly
realized. -,T -
1t may be gratifying to our national vanity
that we have troops who will move without
faltering into the jaws of death, and who will
osl,0 h,vH
by cannon shot, but every better feeling at
tests the inhumanity and folly of prosecuting
a war that involves such waste of life and
serves to accomplish no desirable end.
If our people do not profit in moral sense
by the lessons now being taught upon the
battle plains of Virginia, we shall lose faith
in human nature and set at nlusht the inf1u
ence of Christianity and ciyllizasion.
Whatever may be the military result of
this camgaign, SO terribly inaugurated, theblood
that has been shed, the blood that will be
shed we must not appeal in vain against prolon-
cation of this Internal war. We cannot be
lieve tina the people will consent to repeat
these scenes of mutual destruction. There
must be period in this strife when humani-
ty will refuse to permit such slaughter, when
common sense will imperatively command at
least pause for reflection, an opportunity
Tor the ministration of reason. IF We iuter-
pref Alright the suppressed sentiment Of the
people, that time has come. They are appall-
ed aud conscience stricken at the ghastly as
peet which the present phase of this struggle
has revealed. They say in th heir souls if not
aloud: "We are too fast the God of Chris
tlans will not sanction this mutilatien and de
struction of His creatures, endowed with tie
essence of His divinity.
In testomony to this growing conviction,
the confession Of noted and extreme Aboli- |
ticnist is most opportune. Wendell Phillips
said on Tuesday last: GAS an American
white citizen I deprecate one month of war
1 see in the seed of debt military ambition
and despotism. The settlement of this war is |
not to be by battle but by statesmanship."-
We acknowledge and admire this the power |
of conscience to repress the unnatural.. cravings
of fanatticism. The intellect of this man has |
and submitted to the truth and |
enough of the angel has triumphed in his ma. |
ture to inspire him with that courage that re- |
nounces error. We accept it as a sign that, |
perhaps, in that quarter where il was least |
expected, the revulsiou of feeling will have |
its most powerful impetus. We have said be-
fore that We respected the Abolitionists more |
Democrat uses the opportunities of civil STRIFE |
to purchase emolument a9a Office.
The Abolitionist, at least the slave of Gu
pidity and ambition, and his false theories |
emanate less from vicious heart than mis-
taken judgement. Perhaps the energy of
fanaticism that has impelled him to mischief
may make him enthusiast in working out |
atonement.. Tie evils generated by this war
have now so much accumulated, the sacrifice
of life, awful as it has been, threatens to be- |
come so uncomfortable to Christian sentiment
that we think the time has come when, with
out distinction of party or social creed, men
will rally to the standards of peace or war ac-
cording to their individual attributes as MEM
bers of the human family.
1t is our solemn conviction that no man of |
ordinary perceptiye faculties honestly believes
to day that further bloodshed will secure q
political result more desirable than such,
whatever it may be, than can be secured by |.
negotiation. Neither is it now question of
sectional prowess or courage; for the baatfe.
in horrible carnage, attest with fearful wit
nesses that no charge of weakness OF coward
ice will stand against either section. Why
10 we then persist in dealing death-blows that
vndicale no principle, that satisfy no point
of honor, and that p onise no result that
people should covet for themselves or others
The cours ga that darcs the utmost peril of
he battlefield has been sufficiently proved
now let our people exhibit that equal courage
hat subbdues passion, false pride and obstina-
~. AS We turn with shudder from the
ist of the innunerable dead and the crowded
hospitals; as we hear in the hearts sympathets
c echo t1e lamentations that come from q
thousand desolated homes, let US resolve that
With this campaign, whatever its result, the
,utchery shall cease.--M. T. Nees
~ -s4.-.-.ss--H uats7
.bo,x Al, |