The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1864-03-29

The peace Democracy have employed the
greater part of the statistical ability which
they have been able to command, and which
they have been able to spare from the congo
nial tack Of proving emancipation in the West
Indies q failure, in efforts to show that this
war is not blessing, and that the nation is
not prosperous on account OF it. They seem
to labor under the delusion that the Union
Psrty of this country regard a civil war as a
very comforting occurrence, and one which
causes the land to overflow with milk and hon.
ey We are not aware that anybody has So
riously set up this man of straw WHICH they
ire buffeting 80 soundly. No sensible person,
whose heart is where it should be, can doubt
for an instant that every war is a scourge 10
both the parties which engage in it; that it
destroys the products Of industry paraIyzes
industry itself iu the districts whero the war
is waged; destroys lives, ard makes cripples.
And civil war 10 the most frighlful of all
forms Of organized human busche, VI and ,lev.
astation. Bat when all this is adj itted, it is
not the less true that the war in which we are
now engaged is a NECESSARY evil; an evi for
ced upon the nation by .he Shareholders rc
bellion; an evil light in comparison with any
peace which il now 10, or any time has been,
10 the power Of our government 10 make
We have not tho slightest evidence that the
rebes would consent to come back into the
Union upon any terms. Beyond all question
il they were disposed to do 60, they would in
sist tha: the debt which they have incurred in
their endeavors to dissolve tho Union, ehould
be added to that which they have already i'm
posed upon us in our effoits to preserve the
Union. They reboled in the most wanton
manner. They have forced US to incur an ex-
pepse of &l,600,000,000 in the effort to put
down their rebellion. They have incurred at
least an equal debt in their uuhallowed strug.
gle. Are we prepared TO take them back
again, no questions asked, and make our ma
tonal debt S3,200,00O,OOOl That is the
question which would bs presented for our de.
cision, If the rebels had any wish to come back
into the Union at al. And it is question
to which every loyal inhabiiant of the country
should answer-no. We can put down this
rebellion at less cost than that. We will put
it down, wilateverit ii mag cost. Be tie dura-
ton OF the war one, two. or five years longer;
be our national debt 81, 700, 10000 So, ,5OO,.
100000, or S4,00O,0o0,OOO, the people of
this country have resolved to crush out, not
to coax out, this rebellion.
The tweuty five millions of loyal people
who are now devoting their energies to tho
restoration OF the Union, demand of the Gov.
ernment 10 effect that restoration at" the ear
iiest possible moment; but they will perse-
we're, if need be, as long as their three millions
OF revolutionary ancestors persevered, in tho
war for that independence which made us tie
great nation which We are today, instead OF
merely third Canada. National unity is as
essential 10 these three millions of square
miles, which we 80 proudly call our country,
as is national independence. We should as
easily thrive under European protecioratc,
OF beneath the sceptre Of some Austrian arch
duke, kindly sent to rule over us by SHE grace
of God" ard Of "the nephew of his uncle',
as We should with slaveholdiug oigarchy,
or, worse yet, a slaveholding military despot.
ism, upon our southern border. Those TWEEN.
ty five millions Of patriots will not lose sight
Of this great fact. Nor will their dread Of
taxes blind them TO their ability to bear up
under national debt three times that which
they sustain so cheerfllly to day, more easiy
than the less than twenty millions of the pee.
pie of the British Islands carried their debt
Of 81, 100000, after more than twenty
years of almost conetaut warfare, during which
they paid in taxes nearly $500, 100000. 4.
The war has not made us prosperous; but
we are prosperous eycrheless-prosperous iu
spite of it. Despite the tens of thousands of
valuable lives which it has cost despite
Tho hundred thousand homes to which it has
brought weeping-despite the million Of strong
light arms which now bear the musket or the
sword, aud which used to guido the pow or
WELD the bammer--despite, such taxes, ma
ional, state, and local, as we never knew be.
ore, we, the people Of the loyal States, are
prosperous at the close of the third year OF
bis world shaking struggle 10 maintain our
rational unity, beyond the people Of any 9TH
r country under heaven. We are less pros.
,srous than we should have been without this
var; but we shall be blest hereafter, as we
lave been thus far with all the resources which
will be required to give US victory, and we
hal! pcrsevero Till victory il achieved