Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-01-14


the deceitfm advantages of diotatorial "a.
glme TO apply to the South an eycentio7aI
rule would be, alas, quite easy. It would be
easy also TO pronounce the death nenaItv To
outlaw, to execute eonfscation hills Int in
treading this path of vulgar tyranny Won
would sacrifice two things--yonr bigb 20.
nown in the present, lasting Unio1 vi+b
the South in the future.
But if, on the other hand, YOU show tho
world the novel spectacle of victory without
reprisals, of liberties streng enough to sur.
vive civil war; if your constitution remain.
and slavery alone fall in such a conflict. if
on the morrow of the struggle the law re-
main supreme if elections for the Senate
and House of Representatives be again open
as IN the old time; if the representatives Of
the Southern States reappear at Washington:
II taking the oath to be faithful to the Uniou
ana to support the modified constitution
they ind themselves on footing of perfect
equalty with the representatives of the
North; II 1t be permitted to them to attack
ana TO embarrass the government you will
nave won the most glorious of victories, and
assured to your country the best chance of
prosperity and greatness.
Accept, gentlemen, in the advice which
we tender to you, proof of our esteem. 1t
II,
people that such things can be asked Pro
tracted civil wars tend to arbitrary customs.
stir up passions and hates, and at last engen-
der development of military power and ir-
responsible authority which generally hind
ers return to control, to free opinion and TO
strict letter OF the law. We honor the United
States enough to believe that they will be
capable OF setting us this, too, after so many
other examples
The moderation which we hope for from
you at home, we look for also from YOU
abroad. Assuredly on the morrow of the
submission of the South there will not be
wanting class of persons eager to recall to
you wrongs, real or fancied, suffered at the
hands of this or that power. They will point
to your armies and disposable feet. They
VIII prove to you that foreign war is per-
haps the surest way to draw together the two
sections so lately hostile They will tell you
that common enmity, common dangers, are
the cement needed to strengthen your shat
tered edifce.
You will not believe them gentlemen. You
will feel that after these jars it is needfu, be-
tore all else, to restore to America peace and
liberty. You will not seek new adventures,
and thus lengthen the temptation of dicta-
torships, the peril of exceptional rule.
GU Will fear return to the aggressive
policy which, with its invasons and turbu-
lence, the influence of the South forced upon
you, the day, when, to assure the extension
of slavery, it awakened in your hearts a wick
ed covetousness and pushed you almost to
the violation of the law of nations Your
glory will be to take the opposite of those
violent declarations of those fllibustering
expeditions, of those INSCRIPTIONS ambitions,
The temptations which great army ex-
cites are Of the class most difficult to repress.
May you not hesitate to reduce your forces
after peace! Not only your material pros
perlty, but your very liberty, is involved in
disarming, in reduction of your expenses,
and return to the old idea of small armies
and small budgets.
But we do not deceive ourselves. Your
small armies, do what you may, will be large
with those of three years ago
our military education is completed; you
have replied but too well to those who smiled
at the recital of your battles of 1861. You
have learned but too quickly to face death
and to kill, and what you have learned YOU
will not unlearn. You will not return to
your former situation.
But while we do not expect again to see
your effective force at ten thousand men, we
do hope that effective forces which are now
numbered by hundreds of thousands will not
long be witnessed on American soil
lI.-Courage You have before you one
OF the most noble works, the most sublime
which can be accomplished here below-a
work IN the success of which we are as in
terested as yourseves-a work, the success
of which will be the honor and the cOnsola-
ton of our time
This generation will have seen nothing
more grand than the abolition of slavery Tin
destroying it with you, you destroy it every
where,) and the energetic uprising of a PEG.
pie which, in the midst of it's growing pros
perity, was visibly sinking under the weight
of the tyranny Of the South, the completely
OF the North odious laws and compromises.
Now, at the cost of immense sacrifices, you
have stood up against the evil you have
chosen rather to pour out your blood and
your dollars than to descend further the slope
Of degradation, where rich, united, powerful,
you were sure to lose that which is far nobler
than wealth, Or union, or power.
Well, Europe begins to understand, will
ling y or unwillingly, what you have done.
In France, in England, everywhere your
cause gains ground, and be it said for the
honor of the nineteenth century, the obstacle
which our i'll will and our evil passions could
not overcome, the obstacle which the ntrigues
Of the South could not surmount, is an idea,
4 principle. Hatred of slavery has been your
champion in the old world. A poor champion
Laughed at, scorned, it seems,
weak and lonely. But what matters it; ere
5he account be closed principles will stand
for something, and conscience, in all human
affairs, will have the last word.
This, gentlemen, is what we would say to
you in the name of all who with US, and better
han ourselves, defend your cause in Europe
Your words have cheered US !; may ours in
turn cheer you! You have yet to cross many
dark valley. More than once the impossi-
,ility of success will be demonstrated to you;
more than once in the face Of some military
,heck or political difficulty, the cry will be
aised that all is lost. What matters it to
7ou? Strengthen your cause daily by daily
making it more just, and fear not there is
Tod above.
We love to contemplate in hope the noble
uture which seems to stretch itself before
you. The day you emerge at last from the
inguish of civil war, and you will surely come
,ut freed from the odious institution which
corrupted the public manners and degraded
Tour domestic as well as your foreign policy
that day your whole country, South as well
Is North, and the South perhaps more fully
han the North, will enter upon wholly new
prosperity. European emigration will hasten
oward your ports, and will learn the road to
hose whom until now it has feared to ap-
roach. Cultivation, now abandoned, will
enew its yield. Liberty-for these are her
revivify by her touch the soil
which slavery had rendered barren.
Then there will be born unto you a great
less nobler and more stable than the old, for
n this greatness there will be no sacrifice of
ustice.
AGENoR DE GAsPARLN,
AUGUsTIE COCHIN,
EDoUARD LABoULAYE, Member