Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-12-03
The Golden Opportunity.

can eminent criterion" said Burke, in
his great speech on reform In 1850, 'for dis
tinguishinga a wise government from weak
and improvident one, was this: soeH 10 kno1o
the best time and manner Of yielding tchdt IL is
impossible to keep" 1t was the want of this
wisdom that involved this countryin all the
horrors of civil strife. The craftsmanship
that was in power at the commencement of
our national difficulties, and which is still
to rule us to our ruin for four years more,
treated the deep-seated discontents of q
great section as they would the wild fury
of mob that destroys mills and power
looms. Had they had the sagacity at once
TO have yielded by concession, the trouble
would have soon passed away. The minds
of a large portion of the Southern people
clung with great tenacity to the Union.-
They loved it tor its historical associations;
their ancestry, as well as our own had help
ed to make it, and nothing but the insane
rage of abolition fanaticism could have driv-
en- them out of it. But even after the first
battle of Bull Run had opened a gulf be-
tween the sections, into which has been
poured oceans of blood and myriads of
treasure, this Administration might have
learned to yield what it was impossible to
keen. 1t was the same insane folly that
actuated Lord North and his followers in
the policy they pursued toward the people
of the Colonies. There was time In the
outset of the Colonial troubles with the
mother country when an ounce of conces-
sion would have prevented disruption; but
after the first blood was spilled at Lexing-
ton and Concord, political wisdom should
have taught them how best to yield what 1t
was impossible to keep. Time has nobly
yindicated the exalted wisdom of the
Burkes, Lutterells, Pitts and Pownalls of
that era; while it has covered with shame
and confusion the policy Of the Crown and
its advisers. During the continuance of
the Revolutionary war, Powwys, denounc-
ing the North Administration, used the fol-
lowing language concerning 1t, that might
be applied to the present Abolition Admin
| istration: ~
.sThis whole war has been conducted in
delusion, every promise broken, every as
sertion falsified, every object relinquished.
| II was now q war for the support Of Gov
eminent, now war of coercion, then war
for the Constitution. Now the rebels are
| in a state Of exhaustion from exposure,
| without suitable clothes and without food
| for their famishing bellies; and again these
half-clothed, halt-fed wretches are discom-
| filing the best troops we can send against
them. or out-maneuvering the ablest Of our
| Generals by their strategy; and thus the
people, the House and the country have
been deluded, confounded, abused and
cheated"
= Its a curious study to trace the parallel
that exists between the policy of Lord
North during the American rebellion, and
that of this Abolition dynasty in regard tc
the Southern. The same glaring errors al
the outset, in reference to the resources
power and courage OF the colonists, were
repeated here at the commencement of the
civil war in regard to the South. The same
confidence, bonbast and hectoring brayadC
characterize the statements in regard tc
the movements of the Federal army to-day
as filled the English journals during the
progress of the American war in reference
70 70 tRe Kings troops. That the end is to be
similar no wise man doubts, and when thai
end comes, the men who are now SO will
fully blind will wonder at the extent Of The
delnsion through which they were made
the victims. The English King did moi
learn until 1t was too late ''the best time and
manner OF yielding what 1t was impossible
to KEEN Neither will this Abolition dy'
nasty. "They will totter on In blunders te
the last but when the people, in the midst