The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1864-09-22
A New Lesson on Dying in the
Last Ditch

A ...- lldSt DltOn
Why didn't Denmark die In IN
last ditchi i'lucky as she ha
: been, she happened to DC made q
: ilesh aud blood, and this sort @
dying is not u thing for flesh an,
blood to DO. II may be talke,
about; all mankind hos a weak
ness that way; but Il never ha
happened, and never will. q
course we refer to people collec
/ lively, and not to individuals A
person here and there seized will
some sublime phrcnzy, may tax,
death sooner than yield. A pen
pie never dies thus. not even tIi
hravest a man may COMMIT
suicide; n people cannot. sow
inie liberty, or give me death" " is 1
worry fine sentiment, and ought
we suppose, to be universall,
adopted, and either lived, or died
lup to. But il isn't done. Mon.
in general, somehow can't over.
come the instinct of self.preserva.
tim. They'll take any measure Of
wrong sooner than Geath. "Bet.
ter u living dog than II dead non,
lis a muXlln that, we are afraid,
commends itself to. our poor ma.
turo now as much "a ever. Are
there Drawer men on earth than the
llungarians, or Poles. or the Cir.
cassiaus2 Aud yet have wc not
lately seen them all. as we now see
the brave Danes. bow Themselves
to their col queior, sooner than to
fight to externinationl They did
this not in wart Of courage. They
had courage enough. 1t was pre-.
cisely because no courage could
helpthcm that they stopped fight.
ing. Courage is of no avail with.
strength, and when their strength
had been broken by their enemies,
submission came. Cowards yield
because they coat help them.
selves. Brave men yield because
they cant help themselves. That
is Just the difference between
thcm.
The Danes never protested SO
loudly that they would fight to the
death, ns for week or two before
they gave in. Nothing is more
common than this. We saw it in
the late Crimean war. When the
reverses and discomtitures. OF two
campaigns eliminated in the over.
throw OF Sebastopol itself, Russia
had nothing to answer but an or.
der for a levy OF 100000 men.
From the Gar to the lowest scrf,
there was an out burst of contin.
uad defiance, 50 imposing that wen
the cool Richard Golden who had
once declared in Parlimcnt that
"RussiP might be crunpled like q
sheet OF brown paper" issncd a
pamphlet maintaining that Russia
was unconquerable, and that peace
must be made with her on her
own terms. Yet q month did not
elapse before the Gar made
known his readiness 10 accept
terms which not only conceded all
the points originally in dispute,
but others of yot moro humiliat.
ing character Just So did the
Mexicans. One of their last acts
before submission was to create n
Dictator, with absolute power for
everything except submission and
a proclamation 10 the provinces,
declaring resistance to the death.
This access of new defiance gust
before succumbing is perfectly ma
tural The pride of the worsted
purity is always the last quality to
yield. 1t rallies when the strength
no longer can. 1t is the return OF
the spirit upon itself when the arm
droops--a self assertion, or self
protest Of the soul, necessarily in
cident, perhaps, to its superiority
over the flesh, but iorall that, per
iectly useless. We don't call such
exhibitions mere bravado. They
arenot. On the contrary, they are
most apt to be seen III those who
are most truly brave. The higher
the spirit, the sharper the recoil. -
At no time have our robels pro
tested stronger that they will never
submit than they are now doing.
JEFF. DAVIS said the other day,
with unusual emphasis, that "We
will have determination or indie
pendence. .nIIo felt so. undoubted
~; but the truth is, he will have
neither. His people will not take
tue one, and VIC have no intention
to give the other. Precisely as
Tennessee, and Louisiana, and
Arkansas have neither extermina.
ton nor Independence. so will it
be with all the remaining eight
States OF the so-called indeps ndent
Confederacy. twenty-five mill
ions ofthe loyal States have the
ability to overcome the remaining
strength of this rcbellien, They
mean to do it, They will do it.
When it is done these people will
do precisely Ghat every pthfr peo-
pie at war have done when their
strength vas gone.-t they, viii sub
nit They viii Weld when cx1aust-,
ed-wil Stop fighting when they
can fight no longer. II this talk
about Contamination" is natural
enough, and, after a fashion. cred