The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-03-02
SOUTHERN OPINION.


Letter from diatingaished Southern Cler- :
ynsd'l
The following letter was recently received By :
gentleman in this State. 1t comes from
clergyman. of Virginia, who was
strenuous /" Union man, up to Lincoln's Proc
,mation calling out $4,000 men to coerce the
south. The writer is no politician, but ear
estiy devoted to his profession, and the sens
iments he expresses are iHeportant and interest
ng, as showing the prsscnt state of public,
opinion in tie South:
81 have Just returned rom . visit to our
army in Northern Virginia where found Q
uond erful presence of religions interest, and |
am persuaded of a genuine work OF God's
spirit. In the 2nd corps, once the siamented
Jackson's the corps chaplain told me there
we're fifty sermons preached every evening the
weather pemited, to immense congregations
usually, aRd amidst melting seriousness
This great work is done parity by chapiains,
and partly by missionaries from the chureh
at home, who are usually our most distinguish
ed pastors The reported conversions are count
ed by the thousands, and have it from the
highest source that the discipline and steadl-
ness of the army are vastly improved snee last
year. The tyrant will find that these peni-
rent, believing rejoicing soldiers, will be terri
BILE iversaries to meet in the holy cause OF
their country, their homes, and their aitars;s
I think the state of feelings among all our
respectable people is this: In June, the re-
pulse before Charleston, the State OF Lees AZ
nv, the hope that he wsuld be aSle- to do
sorlcthing effective in Pennsylvania or Mary
land had encouraged the more sanguine among
US to believe, and all of US to hope, that the
radical party in the United States would speed
lily become hopeless and tired of the war and
that the day of peace was therefore beginning
to DAVIS The capture of Vieksburg, tho re-
pulse at Gettysburg, the perscver:ng resump-
tion Of the siege of Charleston, have convin-
ced as that this hope was dashed; that is, that
an early peace cannot now be expected; and
that we must return to those expectations
which we had entertained previously daring
all of 1862. Those expectations were that
the population and resources of the United
States bsing SO mrch greater, we should cave
to win our way to independence, by long
and suffering course of defensive warfare, pa
tient endurance, and hard fighting under dis
advantages. The events of the early summer
of 1868 had encouraged us to fatter ourselves
with more happy and speedy success 1t
was painful and bitter to give up the fatter
ing hope, and return to embrace the old pros
pect of the long continuance of our trials, and
that prospects darked still more. The feelings
of all of us were dashed by this. and some dis
courased for a time. But the people are
nerying themselves AGAIN for tha taSk--Thay
feel that after the fall of New Orleans, they
had all made up their minds to the necessity
of stubborn, patient, determined, defensive
war, with all its sufferings; that this spirit
bore them through 1869, aad laid the founda-
ton for splendid partial triumpbs; that they
must recur to it again, relinquishing this more
pleasing hope ETA speedy peace through hap
py offensive operations and that this spirit
will bear them through the storms aud trials
of 1864 as it did through 1864, and with the
prize in the end. All sensible men feel that
submission is impossible; that the intensity
malignant and wicked spirit harbored by the
Black Republican party, and more and more
manifested, leaves them no alternative what
ever, but to- fight it out to the bitter end
LINCOLN effectually cures all. our weakened
"ReconstructioRists and submlssionisis" OF their
temporary fits of dependency, by his sense
less and devlish barbarities The Confeder-
ats Government would have q good deal to
fear from United States administration that
would adopt truly msgnanimous policy,
waive the insulting nonsense about our being
''rebels" and ''traitors; !" recognise the fact
that we we're free1nen under Constitution
fighting for rights really endangered, offer
some sensible guarantee of those rights for the
future; reiinquishathe monstrous proposal for
confscation, and offer general amnesty.
But the security of our leaders is in the
madness aud wickedness of the Washington
Government. They are too much possessed
of the devil to tempt any of our faint-hearted
ones with such hopes they shut them up
with the alternative of fighting to the end, or
else accepting loss of rights, property and
honor, SO utter, that even dog would spurn
the latter We thank them for it; thsy re-
cruit our armies perpetually from the op-
pressed districts. The more they invade, raw
age, and persecute, the more impossible do
our soldiers feel submission to be. If the
United States choose to continue this war,
they may crowd US down, possibly good deal
by superior numbers but the issue will be
precisely ike thu war of 1776. Our people
/ think have never doubted the justice of a
minority of the Democratic party of the North
We have given them cr,dit for willingness
to accord us our rights. But we regard the
course of the bulk of that party suicidal,
and. in one point cf view, more inconsistent
and wicked than that cf the Federalists and
Black Republicans. Had the Northern Democ-
racy said at the beginning :ssThese Southern
States may be misguided as to the extent their
rights are threatened but our Constitution
makes them the judges (not us) of that, and
Of their dernier remedy and if they choose
to go, we cannot Tighteously keep them by
force" had they only risen in their strength,
and while condemning, perhaps, the rashness
of the South, still said, s.thefe shall be 40 CO.
ercion,'' Virginia North Carolina, Tennessee
and Arkansas never would have gone out -
There would have been no war. The Cotton
States would have coma back in five years
all would have been well; far better than it
has ever been since the disastrous strife OF
1929. But no; these Northern Democrats.
misled by SECTIONAL pride, folly and ambition,
deserted their own principles the very frs..
moment they we're ever truly tested, joined
the mad cry for lcoercion,, and .threvs thsm-
selves like lunaties into the arm of their enc
mics, toe Republicans What has been the
result In the wicked effort to- join their en-
emies in robbing their brethren of their lib
critics, they have promptly lost their own.
The Confederate States are not subjugatsd,
the Nor,hern Democracy is: Our confcdera
cy has before it, in the good Providence of
Col, two alternatives, either of which is pos
sible. One is long harrassing war, at the
snffsrines of which the rejecting mind sick