American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1864-08-31

suit. What zoe no,o need IS me,,--only
men-not substitutes or hirelings who go
forth for any motive but the country's
good, and produce but little beyond depre-
cating our armies,-but MEN-such as
really constitute the State, and boast of
being freemen and the sons of freemen.
If these fail to support their country's
cause in her hour of peril, they are un-
worthy of continuing freemen, and should
blush ever to exercise freeman's priyi-
lege. But if bounties must be paid, let
it be in Southern land, not in Northern
gold and armies of emigrants, whose
sons may aspire to even the rule of the
nation, will cross the seas to win the broad
acres that disloyalty has forfeited to the
State.
To every intelligent soldier who has
fought through all these indecisive cam
paigns on almost numberless indecisive
fields, the question constantly arises, with
touching force, why not overwhelm our
enemies Tens of thousands Of lives are
lost because our array Of strength is so
disproportionably less than that against
which we battle Everywhere we meet
on nearly equal terms, where we well
might have four to one. The cost to us
in blood and treasure, of prolonged war,
can hardly be foreseen-the economy is
infinite of such an effort as will fight as
long as the struggle is equal il cW sub
mat to such preponderance as we should
show in every field.
Glance at the summers campaigns. If
Sherman had but $4,000 or 10000 more
men near, the South would be lost, be-
cause Hood would be annihiated If
Meade had moved in the spring with re-
serves of 10000 to 100000 men, Lee
would have been hopelessly crushed. Ev-
en- at this moment third column of 40
600 to $4,000 rightly moved, would give
unopposed blows to the Confederacy from
which she could never rise. What folly
then to struggle on in this way, when we
can send to the field five times the force
already there What weakness to think
we cannot conquer the South. Behind
the James only boys and old men are to
be seen, while here men buy and sell as
in the olden days of quiet, and regiments
of able bodied citizens crowd the streets
of our cities.
There is but one course consistent with
safety or honor. Let the people awake to
sense of their dignity and strength, and
in a few months Of comparatively trifling
exertion, of such effort as alone is worthy
of the great work, and the rebellion will
crumble before us. Fill this draft prompt
ly and willingly, with good and true men;
send few spare thousands over, rather
than under the call, and the Summer sun
Of 1865 will shine upon regenerated
land.
There are some who speak Of peace =
OF all Yankees the Southron most scorns
is those who do not fight, but are glad
enough to employ them, as they do their
slaves, to perform their dirty work. Peace
for the South will be sweet indeed for
us, except through Southern subjugation,
but anarchy and war forever. The Paci-
fic, the Western, the Eastern States would
at once fall asunder The South would
be dominant, and the people Of the North
would deserve to be driven a-feld under
negro overseers, to hoe corn and cotton for
Southern masters.
But no faint-hearted or short-sighted
policy can set aside the eternal decree of
the Almighty, who has planted no lines OF
disunion between the Atlantic and the
Western deserts-between the great lakes
and the Gulf of Mexico-that signify
His will that we should be separated ;
and unless so separated peace is delu-
sion, and its advocacy treason against
the wisest and holiest interests OF our
country.