The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-03-02
[FSem the Bangor tMe.) Democrat
Wheh Will the War End9


From the Bangor me Democrat
When VIII the War End9
From the momspt when the first gun was
fired on Sumter to th1nAresept hour we have
never had the slightest hope Of The ability of
the North to conquer the South. Hence, in
the outset, we opposed the war as a vainsaud
useless expenditure OF blood and treasure
and, indeed, for months we entertained the
idea, that reason and the progress of events
would Drlng the people to an early realiza-
ton of the great truth taught by all history,
viz : that a numerous, united and determined
people, Inhablting q vast extent of territory,
can never be overcome by any force, however
formidable, their enemies can bring against
them.
But whilst we have wondered that the peo-
pie of the North have been 80 regardless of
the plain and oft repeated lessons Of history,
we, too, had forgotten another lesson which
history has as often repeated in language quite
as plain. viz: that people never profit by the
teachings OF the past, but must ever learn the
folly of attempting impossibilities by bitter
experience.
The beginning, the progress, and the end
of this struggle have all been illustrated and
foretold in the history of our own Revolution,
and yet that history has remained, and will
remain to the people of this generation a
closed volume.
Shortly before the commencement of hos
~tilities at Lexington, in 1775, VIM. Pitt said
in the English House of Lords:
"What though you march. from town to
town, and from province to province; though
you should be able to enforce q temporary and
local submission, which I only suppose, not
admit-how shall you be able to secure the
obedience of the country you have behind you
in your progress, to grasp the dominion of
eighteen hundred miles of continent. popu-
lous in numbers, possessing valor, liberty and
resistance" s ls5 81
Such was the language of Pitt, in January,
1775, three months before the opening strug-
gle at Lexington. he then spoke the lesson
of history, but the ministry Knocked at his de-
clarations, and boosted that they could march
through the Colonies with a single brigade Of
troops. Of course the warming voice of Pitt
was unheeded, and the war began.
After it had been waged two years and a
half, the aged Pitt, then a dying man, rose in
his seat and said:
;. any Lol DIS, I contend that We have net,
nor can procare, any force sufficient to subdue
America. 1t is monstrous to think of it,
Ministers have been in terror experience has
proved it and, what is worse, they continue
it. They told you in the beginning that 49,
600 men could traverse all America, Without
scarcely an appearance of Interruption. Two
campaigns have passed since they gayezrs
this assurance. Treble the number have been
employed one of your armies, which COM
posed two-thirds of the force by which Amer
lea was to be subdued, has been totally de-
stroyed, and is now led captive through the
provinces you call rebellious. These whom
YOU have called towards, poltroons, runaways
and knaves, are become victorious over your
veteran troops /; and. in the midst of victory,
and flush of conquest, have set ministers an
example of moderation and magnanimity well
worthy Of intimation."
Such was the prediction of the great Chat
ham, and such was the fulfllment.
In March 1861 a few weeks before the
present struggle, opened at Sumpter, Stephen
A. Douglas said in his place in the Senate:
"History does not record an example where
any human government has been strong
enough to crush ten millions of people into
subsection, when they believed their rights
and liberties were imperiled, without first con-
verting the Government itself into a despo-
tism, and destroying the last vestige of free
dom. Let as tske EARNINGS from the eram-
pies of the past
Such was the language of Douglas before
the opening Of this struggle. He, too, but
repeated the lessons of Liberty. We have
now had two years and a half of war, and ev-
cry campaign has hut Illustrated the truths
enunciated by both Pitt and Douglas.
We cannot recall the loud boastings of the
advocates of the war in the spring of 1861?
Did they not declare that the people of the
and knaves,' and that Z $1,000 men 'would
traverse all the South without scarcely a show
of resistance ? But have not these thirty
months of war taught the Administration the
same bitter lesson, that the first thirty months
of the war of the Revolution taught the Min
istry of Lord North ?
But let us pursue the parallel. At the be-
ginning of the Revolution the Colnnists num-
bered- three millions. During the first thirty
months of the war England had sent against
them $4,000 troops, or one against every sixty
of population and yet at the end of two
years and a half from the battle of Lexington
they had made ten fold more progress to-
wards the subjugation of the Colonies, than
we have now made towards the conquest of
the South. New York was in the possession
of Lord Howe New Jersey had been over
run, and her people had generally given up in
despair, aud recognized the authority of the
British crown. The disastrous battle Of Bran
DIVINE had been fought, Philadelphia had
been captured, and Washington had been re-
pulsed with heavy loss from Germantown, and
the gloomy shades Of the evening of the dark
night of Valley Forge were gathering around
starving patriots. Such was the progress
which England had male, at the end of
thirty months, in the s%ubjugation of Anne 10 >
The population of the South is ten millions.
During the first thirty months of the war now
just closed, the ADMINISTRATORS have called in
to the field 1,599,Q00 troops, CT more than
ore against every seven of southern popula-
ton. And yet what has been our progress
To-day the army cf Lee is again threatening
Washington Rosecrans has turned at bag be-
fore the victorious troops of Bragg, and our
troops along the whole length of the line are
once more compelled to act on the defensive
In view of these facts is it not reasonable for