Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1864-10-05

its partisans. and was, indeed, the great
stimulus for plunging into war.
Had the real facts, as they have since
been disclosed and demonstrated, been
known in the North from the first, it is
doubtful if, with all their vexation about
losing the profits they had been accus-
toned to extract from the South, they
would have brought upon themselves the
dangers and the ruin Of this fruitIess and
hopeless war. But these facts were igno-
red the Northerrers shut their eyes to
them. They believed and loudly asserted,
and their friends on this side of the water
took up the cry, that the Federal armies
would no sooner appear on Southern soil
than the majority of the population would
hail them as deliyerers and join their
ranks. The secessionists were TO sink at
once into insignifcance to which their nu-
merical interiority doomed them. The
Unionist party, consisting of the great
bulk Of the people, too long kept down,
and its voice stified by a small but noisy
and violent party Of disIoyal and desperate
| adventurers, would rise III its dignity and
its might, and crush the malcontents.
This was the theory that was persstently
dinned into our ears by the Northerners
and their friends.
Bat it was not merely tho Unionist or
Loyalist party that was to rise in its
stren-tl and dwarf the handful of Sc
| ditious ssrebels who had prolanely
sought 70 destroy the best Government
Providence had ever permitted TO be e8
| tabli4hcd upon this earth. Another for
midable coadjutor Of the North was to
appear directly the liberating armies set
their foot OH Southern soiI--for it was
not as conQuerors and invaders that the
| Federal troops were TO 90 forth on the
crusade-it WAS as Hberatoys and deliy-
| crcrs they were To emanci pate the great
mass Of their Southern brethren from the
usurpcd authority and CALLING tyranny of
| the Sccessionists. But this delverance
and emancipation were to extend beyond
| the whites. and hence tie second ally
which was to rise up to bid the crusaders
welcome, and receive them with open
arms, while ecccssionist malcontents were
TO perish under tie ruin of their blazing
homcsteads-this formidable ally was no
other than the negro.
1t was confidently expected and loudly
asserted that he would rise on his master
directly after The contest began, and with
out waiting for a sight of his pretended
liberators But four years of useless,
impotcnt war, without profit in the past,
or promise for the future, has dissipated
this theory as we'll as the other. The
fact now stands patent to all the world
that the secessionists are not a party in
the South, but the whole Southern people,
and the negro will not rise and cut his
masters throat, or burn him in his bed.
Such pleasing illusions must by this time
have been completely dispelled in the
North, which has now, the real nature OF
the struggle it is engaged in. 1t must see
that a restoration of the Union by the
consent of the South, or by the conquest
of the South, or by the determination of
eight millions of people, is an utter i'm
possibility. The South will not come
back. and cannot be made to come back
neither can it be converted into a Poland
and its people tettered and manacled, be
cause this would not pay; nor into Cir
cassia, and its people driven en- nausSe be
cause that is impossible
: 1t is on these considerations-bv thi
time, we should think, understood and ac
knowledged in the mind of the North, i
not openly confessed and admittcd-tha
the chief chances and hopes of peac,
must rest. The North must now see tha
it entered upon this war laboring under ;
serious delusion. Its policy was founded
on a sad mistake. 1t thought there wa
only faction, consisting Of a handful O
t secessionist malcontents. TO be met an,
crushed whereas it finds itself face t,
} face with eight millions of people, VIII,
will only sell their independence witt
their lives 1t thought that at least th
negroes would rise and assert their free
! dom against their masters with fire an
sword, 1t and finds they will not stir. /
: also finds that, though it may do tn
: South great harm by going on with tn
war, it will be doing itself much create
harm, Above all, it finds that the Sout
! is merely fighting defensive war for in
, dependence, and wants nothing more THAI
; to be let alone. Directly the North leave
off moles'ing and injuring the South, tn
| South will lay down its arms, and appl
itself TO the pursuits Of peace. 1t is i
these considerations, appreciated by tn
| North, that a termination of hostilitie
|, may be looked for.