Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-04-13
Richmond.

H' Richmond.
When Oliver Cromwell won vast and
decisive victory his earnest heart thanked
God for "crowning mercy" and we may
be sure that nothing less than the conscious
ness of great deiverance could have set
every hell ringing, every flag flying, every
heart beating, and have brought merchants
and bankers to the steps of the Exchange at
high noon of Monday, April 8, 1865, TO
unite in solemnly singing 'Old Hundred"
and John Brown" The Virginian capital,
dextrously defended for years as the very
heart of the rebellion, was not surrendered
by military orcivil negotiation: the armies
of the United States did not occupy it by
permission of any man or body Of men,
They entered victorious and liberated thous-
ands of their fellow-citizcns from the most
relentless despotism
1t was fit that the old flag should be re-
stored to the city Of Richmond by soldiers Of
the race to secure whose eternal degradation
that flag had been pulled down; and it was
peculiarly fit that the army Of the Potomac,
so brave and steady and persistent, so long
baffled by various fortune, should at las,
justify their own patient heroism and the
blow. Nor less pleasant is it that the
battle field Of Virginia should have been
personally directed by the simple, silent,
sagacieus, tenacious soldier, whose name
will be always percious in the national heart,
the Lieutenant G eneral Of the armies Of the
United States. -.....
1t is natural speculation to wonder what
the rebels will do next. Their leaders are
not men whe will relinqush the struggle
until the defeat and disappearance of their
soldiers assure them that there is no other
alternative. Those soldiers comprise the
the most desperate men of the insurrection,
and their fighting at Fort Steadman, and
Bentonsville, and through the tremendous
days that destroyed their cause before
Petersburg, shows that then, at least, they
were not demoraized. If Lee can escape
with any considerable force tolerably we'll
organized he will jein Johnston, and either
make for the mountains or for the South.
west or possibly, upon calm military
survey of the situation, considering his
ghastly disaster in Virginia and the compar-
atiye fewness of his defeated troops, sur
render Internationally. IF he can not es-
cape, and is compelled to face Grant again,
the question will be decided before these
words are read.
As for the country, solemnized by the
war and inspired by its success, it has learn
cd what it did not know at frst-and that
is, what it is fighting for. While it has
been defending its Government, assailed by
rebels, it has learned that the assault was
made in the interest of a system ineonsis.
tent with free government, as it is with
manly honor and Christian civilization. n
An earlier and easier victory would have
blinded its eyes, and have delivered it once
more to the deadly political corruption of
slavery, which would have made the next
shock of inevitable war even more perilous
than this has been. Bull Run was bitter
pang, but it was higher wisdom that caus.
ed us to st
! "Wat beneath the furnnce blast
| The pangs of transformaon,n
until the costly blood of its noblest children
washed the national blindness away, and
every man saw the reality of the terrible
conflict between humanity and brutality,
civil order and barbarism.
And now, with no hatred of our fellow.
citizens with whom we have fought, and
whom we know were deluded by leaders
who can never be forgiven, without scorn
or vituberation, but with dsvout gratitude
to Almighty God for this browning mercy,
let us all, remembering the young and brave
by whom we have been saved, the eyes that
are dim and the hearts that are breaking,
even in this hour ofjubilse, resolve that the
peace they have secured for US shall be as
broad as liborty and as eternal as justice
| Haper's Weekly.