The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1864-11-10

under this head, is Dy hev. IL. M. 4 HoAPSoN
Rector of St. Matthews (EpiscopaD Church
Of this city. 1t is an article aside from thu
interest many of our readers would natural
ly feel in it, on account of their personal re-
gard for its author, that will strike the read
Ell, as the production of a master mind
1t would have been noticed in our columns
ere this, but that the political campaign
just closed, has monopolized most of our at
tention, as well as most of our space. We
should like to transfer the article entire to
our columns, but it is too long
for our contr acted space We
can only make a few extracts, to show the
animus of the writer, and refer our readers
to the Continental Monthly for the article
entire. The article opens: 1b oH
''War is great evil. We may con
TESS that, at the start. The Peace
Society has the argument its own way
The bloody field, the mangled dying, hoof
trampled into the reeking sod, the groans
and cries, and curses, the wrath, and hate
great battle, are things no rhetoric can ev
er make lovely.
''The poet may weave his wreath of victo
ry for the conqueror; the historian, with al
the pomp of splendid imagery, may describt
the heroism of the day of slaughter; but
after all, and none know this better than the
men most familiar with it, great battle
is the most hateful and hellish sight that The
sun looks on in all his courses.
Sand the actual battle is only part
The curse goes far beyond the field of com
bat. The trampled dead and dying are but
1.-THE Of the actual sufferers. There are
desolate homes, far away, where wan
changes sorrow into madness. Wives wal
by hearthstones where the household fret
have died into cold ashes forever more
Like Rachel, mothers weep for the proud
boys that lie stark beneath the pitiless stars
Under thousond roofs-cottage roofs anc
palace roofs, little children ask for father. u
The pattering feet shall never run to meet
upon the threshold, his feet, who lies stiffen.
ing in the bloody trench far away!
'There are added horrors in civil war;
These forms, crushed and torn out of all hui
man seRblance, are our brothers. These
wailing widows, these small fatherless ones
speak our mother language, utter their pain
in the tone of our own wives and children
Victory seems barely better than defeat,
when it is victory over our own blood. The
scars we carve with steel or burn with pow
der across the shuddering land, are scars on
the dear face of the Motherland we love-
These blackened roof-trees, they are the
homes of our kindred. These cities, where
shells are bursting through crumbling wall
and flaming spire, they are cities of our own
fair land, perhaps the brightest jewel in her
crown.
SAY! men do we'll to pray for peace =
With suppliant palms outstretched to the
plying God, they do we'll to cry. as in the
ancient litany, ''Give peace in our time, 0
Lord !"
g ''There are things better far
than peace. There are things more loathe-
ly and more terrible than the horror of bat
tie and garments rolled in blood" Peace
is blessed, but if you have peace with hell,
how about the blessedness covenant
with evil is not the sort of agreement that
will bring comfort. truce with Sat n is
not the thing that will do to trust. There
are things in this world, without which the
prayer for peace is ga witch's prayer" read
backward to a curse su
* = s'There are capricious wars
wars undertaken for no fit cause, wars with
scarce principle on either side. Such have
often been kings aoars, begun in folly, con-
Quoted in vanity, ended in shame, wars for
the ambition of some crowned scoundrel,
who rides patient people till he drives
them mad. And even such wars have their
uses. They are not wholly evil. Alexan-
der's, the maddest war of all, and those of
his successors, the most stupid and brutal
ever fought, even they had their uses. Onr
war with Mexico even Louis Bonaparte's
was not wholly evil aco
"But there are wars, again, that are not
capricious, that are simply necessary una
voidable, as life, death, or Judgment, wars
where the choice is to see right trampled
out Of sight or to fight for it, where truth
and justice is crushed unless the sword be
grasped and used, where law and civilization
and Christianity are assailed by savagery,
brutality and devilshness, and only the true
bullet and the cold steel are received in the
discussion These are the Peoples wars
In them nations arm. Generations swarm
to their battle fields They are landmarks
in the worlds advancement. For victories
in them men sing Ie Deums throughout the
ages. The heroes, who fell in them. loom
through the haze of time like demigods.
$50 the great evils came to
us, as it has come to all nations, as we be-
lieve it must come, from what we now see
to every nation that will be great and strong.
The land, for a time, staggered under the
blow. Mems souls for an hour were struck
dumb so sudden was it, so unlocked for
AS duty became clearer, we awaked at last tn
the fact that war was at our doors. We tnrn.
ed to deal with it, as tine best nations al
ways do, cheerfully and honestly. We have
made mistakes, and great ones. We have
Numbered fearfully. That was to have baan
expected. But we have gone on, nevertbe-
less, steadfastly, patiently That was also
to have been expected. For three vaars
and over this has been our business We
have indeed carried on some commerce and
some manufactures, and some agriculture
but our main work has been fighting. TIE
rest have been subsidiary to that. And the
land groans and pants with this bloody toll.
1t clothes itself in mourning and darkans
its Streets and associates its homes and
bieeds Its life drops slowly in its patient ag-
ony. But 1t never falters. It has accented
the appointed work. 1t sees no outlook vet
no chance for the bells to ring out peace
over the roar of cannon, and it stands at ia
post bleeding, but wrestling STILL
'This much the war has done
Tor US. We are at last nation. We have
found conscience of our own. We have
bven forced to stand on our own national
sense of right and wrong We are indenen-
dent morally as well as politically, in opin-
ion as well as in government We shall
never turn our eyes again across the sea to
ask what any there may say or think of us.
we have certainly found thai they do not
understand u.s. We have taken the stand