The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1865-04-29
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
Y, APRIL 29.
The News.

News.
The stars Of the Union are again in the ascend
ant. The most terrible civil war of modern
times is rapidly drawing to n close. We firmly
believe that the last great battle of the war has
been fought. J The imperfect report of the cap
ture Of Petersburg and the fall of Richmond, re-
ceiyed by the Whistler, was quickly followed by
the account Of the surrender Of General Lee and
the Army Of Northern Virginia. Thus is
crushed the last great Army of the Rebellion.
This will justify the United States in summoning
France and England to withdraw their procla-
nations recognizing the "Confederacy" as q
lawful belligerent.'
The head of the Rebellion was crushed when
Lees army was routed, and it matters little what
temporary resistance may be offered by isolated
bodies Of rebels under Johnston, or Forrest, or
Kirby Smith. The game for Empire has been
played and lost. 1t is not an extravagant an
ticipation. that in thirty days the President of
the United States Of America will be able TO
proclaim that in all the vast territory east Of the
Mississippi the Rebellion has been suppressed,
with the exception of petty bands Of guerrillas.
We are glad that the browning glory has been
reserved for the heroic, long-suffering and much
abused Army Of The Potomac. And here let it
be observed that the negro Division, under
General Draper, was the first to enter Richmond,
singing, doubtless, as they know how to sing,
the John Brown song. Truly, " his soul is
marching on"
Most heartily do we congratulate those origi-
nal Union men who have never = despaired of the
Republic" whose faith in their country was never
shaken, even in the dark days after Bull Run,
and in the gloomy summer of 1862, when the
rebels still held the Mississippi and threatened at
once Washington and Cincinnati.
Not with vain-glorious Boosting, but with
heartfelt gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of Ma
tions will this great victory be celebrated. The
terrible experience of the last four years has
taught the American people its dependence on the
Almighty Disposer of events, and all but the will
fully blind can see the working ont of His great
purposes in this war. Four years Of war have
taught them the full meaning of the prayer,
- Give us peace in our time. o Lord - And
the ever-present memory of three hundred thou
sand fresh patriot graves will mingle with their
rejoicing, and repress all u~nseemly and vain
glorious exultation.
Let them thank Him that He has given them
leaders who could execute the stupendous cam
paign just closing for the true and unselfsh
heart, the penetrating eye, the clear and compre-
hensive head and iron will of the Commander
in-Chief; for the genius and daring Of a Sher-
man, whose late triumphant march of 500 miles
from Chattanooga to Raleigh will for centuries be
the admiration of the military student for the
Sheridan, = the favorite child Of victo-
:" for the wary but intrepid Thomas, against
whose lines at Nashville the rash Hood dashed
army to pieces for the nerve and daring of
I Farragut and Il Porter and, above all, for the
unimpeachable integrity, sagacity and frmness
IF Honest Abraham Lincoln. They do not re-
dice alone, but in common with all true friends
If liberty and progress, in the Old World US well
Is the New. For they have been fighting the
worlds battles as well as their own, and the
Flag of the Union has been the symbol of the
acred cause OF the oppressed in every land and
If every race. That awful Slave Power. which
las now been overthrown, was. as Professor
Iairnes has remarked, - the most formidable an
agonist to civilized progress which has appeared
or many centuries" Future generations will
hudder when they read the numberless atrocities
,erpetrated on Union men of the South, and of
Ehich but a small part will be known until the
ay of judgment of the horrible massacres of
lawrence and Fort Pillow and especially when
hey read of the incredible barbarity which will
TIE name of Andersonyille infamous for
lany centuries TO come.
The mere fact that the Nation has come out
riumphantly from SO terrible an ordeal. and has
nigh suppressed the most formidable rebel
on the world ever saw, i Of itself the most
plendid example on record of the power of free
iOyernment. No other Government ever raised
million OF men by volunteering before it had
ecourse to CONSUMPTION, or commenced Q war
without troops, or ships, or credit, and
18th every department infested with traitors, and
lised itself IN four years 10 the rank Of a first