Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-10-19
PORTRAITURE OF WAR.

. toll me, If there be any relentlngs OF
pity in your bosom, how could you endure
it, to behold the agonies Of the dying man,
as, goaded by pain, he grasps the cold
ground with convulsive energy, or, faint
with the loss Of blood, his pulse Gibbs low,
and the gathering paleness spreads itself
self around in despair, ne can only mark,
by few feeble qaiverings, that life still
turks and fingers in his lacerated bod y
or lifting up fading eye, he casts on you
a look Of imploring helplessness, tor that
8, ccor which which no sympathy can yield
hima 1t may he painful to dwell on such
a representation-but this is the way in
which the cause of humanity is served -
The eye of the sentimentalist turns away
from its sufferings and he passes by on the
other side, lest he hear that pleading voice,
which is armed with tone of remon-
STRANGE so vi gorous as to disturb him. lie
cannot bear thus to pause, in imagination,
on the distressing picture Of one individ
ual; but multiply it ten tllsssand times
say, how much of this distress has been
heaped together npon single field
give us the arithmetic of this accu-
INFLATED wretehedness, and lay it before
us with all the accuracy of an official COM
putation: and, strange to tell, not one
sigh is lifted mp among the crowd of eager
listeners, as they stand on tiptee, and catch
every syllable of utterance which is read
to them out of the register of death. Oh !
say, what mystic spell is that which so
blinds us to the suffering of our brethren
which deafens to our ear the voice of
bleeding humanity, when it is aggravated
by the shrieks Of dying thousands-which
makes the very magnitude of the slaugh,
ter throw softening disguise over its cru.
elites ANIL it's horrors-which causes rs to
eve with indifference the field that is
crowded with the most revolving abomin.
atoms, and arrests that sigh which each
individual would singly have drawn from
us, by the report Of the many who have
fallen and breathed their last in agony
along with him.
When think that the Christians, ever
of the great world, fern but very little
flock, and that an army is not propitious
soil for the growth OF Christian princi pie
when think on the character of one sucl
army, that had been led on for years by ;
ruffian ambition, and been Injured to scenes
of barbarity, and had gathered most fe
rocions hardibood of soul, from the many
enterprises of violence to which an un
principled commander had carried them
when follow them to tho field of battle
and further think that, on both sides of al
exasperated contest, the gcntieness O
Christianity can have no place in almos
any bosom-but that yearly every hear
is lighted mp with fury, and breathes
vindictiye purpose against a brother of tn
species, cannot but reckon it among rh
most fearful of the calami!es of war, tia
while the work Of death is tickenin
along its ranks, so many dsembodied spil
its should pass into the presence OF Hin
who sitteth upon the throne, in such
preparation.
have 10 time and assuredly as littl
taste, for expstiating upon topic SO me
ancholy. nor can afford at present to &c
before you vivid picture Of the othe
miseries which war carries in its train
how it desolates every country throng
which it rolls. and spr ads violation an
alarm i'll its viilages-how, at its approach
every home ponrs forth its trembling fl
gitive-how all the rights Of property All
all the provisions Of justice must give wa
before its devonrng exaciions--h0w. whe
! SaSe%tis comes, no Sabbath charm come
along with it---apd for the sound of I'll
: ehurca-beh, which MES wont to spread i
!. spRs'e 0Ses s"1i'e faa landscape Of natu
and summon rns;1c wcrsi,ippers to ii
. house OF prayer, nothing is heard. hut II
::;eathfnt voIseys Of the battle, and the ma
dsning QUERY OF infatuated mer-how,
( the fruit Of victory, an unprinci pied lice