The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1864-11-09

see now they Will manage that. See now the
people, who are so ready to defend themselves
at home will bear the cost of armies and fleets
and garrisons and heavy taxation, for q for
eign war. They are people of yesterday.
They are nation of poor Richards-wait I'M
til they have begun to count the cost. sea-
Here was great problem. And whatever
we might believe, or hope,we could not be
sure till the experiment was tried Ado III
And SO the Fiend, war, followed. which
amounted to little or nothing, and was soon
disposed OF, by issuing letters Of marque; and
then the war with Tripoli, which ended in set
ting US free from the insolent pretensions of
barbarian foe, and In ransoming all the mara
time powers ofthe world from qualified sla-
very; and then, followed the second war with
Great Britain, while her fleets covered the
sea, and the march Of her embattled legions
wherever she moved in wrath was like the
subterranean throes of q coming earthquake.
Aud what followed? Our country prevail
ed, and came out of perilous conflict, victori-
GUS and triumphant. and her strength began
to be felt and acknowledged by all the powers
of earth. a sise
All, but-said these aged statesmen, she
has never been tried by near neighbor. She
has never had to wage war as we do, for the
very soil we stand on. Look at her invasions
Of Canada-see how she has been beaten back,
again and again, like the retiring and exhaust
ed surges of the great deep. Lot her hand on
Mexico, and see what will become of her shin
gle palaces, and card-house government, and
fr-built frigates and striped bunting.
And this too, we needed to know; for how
could we be sure, till that question was tried
and the second great problem solveds
Well, we had our Indian wars score Of
them at least. and the most powerful combi-
nations were swept from the earth as by the
blast Of trumpet--or charge of cavalry
and the warrior Creeks vanished like shadows,
and the Seminoles were no longer to be found
land all this by body less numerous than
our pickets along the Potomac, and almost
without the knowledge of our newspapers.
And then followed the war with Mexico;
and our hastily gathered volunteer militia
were found fighting their way side by side
with handful of trained soIdiery against the
veterans of Santa Anna, inch by inch all the
way from Vera Cruz to the Halls of the Mon
tezumas- where the loss Of q single battle
along the route, would have been the destruc-
ton OF our whole army; and there, having
dictated terms so magnanimous as to astonish
all the nations, our beleaguring hosts never
too large for reconnaissance, or respecta-
BILE foraging party-were quietly withdrawn;
and again we we're at peace with all the
world
But still, we were ignorant of our own
strength. We had no idea Of what we were
equal to--nor had anybody else. The sover-
eighties Of earth needed to know it-and SO
did we. They needed to be astonished, as we
have been. We had so long undervalued our
selves, that, nobody ever dreamed of our be-
coming dangerous-or anything of a military
power. But how is it now! 4a issn.5s.si
! And then this war broke out. Here was a
house divided against ITSELF And if this did
not try our strength, nothing would. The
great Dragon was turned loose; and he drew
with him third part of Heaven; third
part of all the stars in our blue armament.
We were taken by surprise-we were wholly
unprepared. We had fallen asleep like Guilt
yer, and when we awoke it was to find our
selves fastened to the earth with hairs, and
overrun with pigmies. We had no arms,
no armies, no fleets, no money, no credit
emptied-our few troops tempered with, or
betrayed-traitors were found in every branch
Of our service, and some Of our fortresses
were already In the hands of our crafty and
terrible foe, who had been preparing for thirty
years; we SO weak and sohunsuspicious of
what soon followed, clap after clap, that when
Col. Lally who had served in the Mexican war
proposed to the Governor of Maine to raise a
regiment--one single regiment! -by way of
precaution ito make assurance doubly sure"
he was regarded as an aiarmist and nothing
was done. And our President-the Com
mander in Chief Of all our armies and fleets,
after consultation with Major Gen. Scott and
all our best captains, ordered a levy of 49, 600
men, to overcome the greatest rebellion that
ever darkened the sky or Allied the earth with
lamentation and waiting. And now Maine
has nearly fifty thousand of her sons in camp,
/. over and above her thousands upon the sea
fighting the battles Of the Lord; and we have
now, not 75, QUO, but ten times $4,000 glorious
fellows in the field. if not million all told, Ii
we include our colored troops.
And now, where are we ? And what are we
The greatest problem--and the last is now re-
solved. We have shown onr strength In quell-
ing insurrecticns-in foreign wars-in war
of defence. We have tried it, in war of ag-
gression-marching upon Mexico, and the day
of her strength, when she mustered fifty thou
sand veterans, and hundred thousand raw
troops, and swept her armies from our path
and overthrow great Empire, in single cam
paign; but all this kid not show, even to our
selves, that we were equal TO the dread emer-y
gency now upon us. We wanted proof We
needed to know for a certainty what we were
capable of. We needed to feel our own
strength. We needed that all the more trou-
blesome nations of the world should see it also
and acknowledge it, with fear and trembling,
as they now do. as
And now, once more-Where are we? And
what are wes We are near the end of the ter
rible drama; the curtain is already up for the
last act; and have an acknowledged strength,
and aptitude for war, ten times greater than
we ever dreamed Of ourselves, and ten times
greater than we should have had, for the next
nity or hundred years, but for this great re-
bellion. ~ st
zoo save the Commonwealth! jim.
% 90 ' The Sailors Fair. yfr
This Fair opened this evening in Boston,
this Is the FIRST movement that has been made
In favor of the sailors we ara glad tbs clas. "a