The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-12-21

the most thorough exemplars OF the
agency of local warfare in altering and
transforming human character. do not
propose to mar the general tone of this
review by any very closely logical discus
sions else | might venture upon clas-
sifioatioh of facts which would have the
force of self. evidence in illustrating what
/ mean.sla Z lay 81, gis0tg5 lis :.
The one chief and mounful truth is
this :fthat whereas, in the beginning, the
powers that might be, through consult
with the interests and feelings of the
residents of the Shenandoah valley, have
secured the practical sympathy Of that
whole region to our side, they have, By
persistingly neglecting and abusing them,
so thoroughly alienated nearly all the
people that not one spark of interest or
feeling remains to impel them out of the
path of rebellion which we are in part
responsible for their having chosen
1t is very easy to say that this is no
matter that we don't want their sympa-
thy that when I'VE conquer the South
they will have TO come back withait, and
that they may hate US in the meantime
as much as they choose. Upon this very
sophistry hinges the most important ques-
ton of the war. if such frightful un-
reason is to prevail tosthe end as in the
| past, cannot every body see that the war
will be infinitely prolonged? ? Conceiying
that it (the war; with those who direct It,
any remaining objects consistent with the
restoration of the Union, 20 one can help
aokno wledging that this has GO: to be
procured by the sconsent-forced or per-
suaded-of the people, It will take less
time to get tiff we accompany force by
persuations IF we intend, ike Jerry
Graham, the elder, to, keep on ~ iths the
cry "Corne back and. be damned r, to
these people whom we are endeavoring to
whip into the Unfoh, I have no hesita-
on in saying that the war cannot posi-.
IDLY end within ten years. x e Il
Is Here, in the Shenandoah Valley, is the
plain proof of all say. If simple whip
ping would accomplish our ends, the
work would have been completed. They
weuld have Been humble submissionists-
humble to the dust, licking the:hems of
our garments shouting for Union with
lungs grown hoarse. We have hogged
their army in front of their own door
yards. We have taken their stock, their
forage, their provisions. The outcasts
among our troops have overcome and rob-
bed them of the most sacred articles they
possessed. Their houses have been search
ed their daily lives and movements sub
fjected to our control; their every action
based upon the circumstances that we
have put about them, s
What is the result? The burning ha.
tired borne by all among them to the
North is only nurtured by this bondage
1t preys upon their hea rts, making them
hard and vengeful-f full of rage. Il
transforms men into monsters, wome en- in
to ferds. Ah! friends behind ho7
many smo 9th face, within how many {
soft breast, whose heaviest burden wa.
once thought of love, could we sweal
thatHtEe wishfor bloodshed reigns uprigh
to-day out of what twin of coyetousnes
save revenge, have sprung the vast pro
portions of the guerrilla warfare wagec
tagainst us snow upon all sides!
II The remedy-or rather the preventiv,
WAS in the past. when ..Virginia Sc
ceeded the vote in this valley was so over
-. Ewbe]ming for the Union that consistent
protective military system was the .onl,
, of treating them as possible friends, il
seems to have been the policy to regard
them as certain enemies from the first
The good will and confidence of any peo
pie must instime succumb in such an in
s tercourse. Theslate measures of .smili
tary necessity which have ignored (per
haps very properly in those latter days
when the necessities of the war are s.
much altered9 everything save consider
ations of military success to US and mill
. tary endorsements to the fee, have Ger
! tainly completed the gulf that gross in
,, justice had widened before. And thu
. it is that nothing in the war, to one VIII
has witnessed its bloodshed and horro
.. on score of fields, is half so utterly de
! pressing as the waste that it has made o
|, human sympathies in its track across Viz
ginia.