The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1865-07-01

NEW YORK HERALD, s.
Our Four Years OF Was.
Our correspondents In all the great Southern
cities 90 lately in the hands Of the rebellion,
continually tell Us Of the joy Of the Southern
people to be once more under the Stars and
Stripes. The telegraph runs from New York
TO New Orleans. Steamboats, go down the
Mississippi and never receive shot Every
few days there Is Union Governor appointed
or chosen for some Southern State, and north
ern men are sending ploughs into the South,
where lately they sent PARROTS and twelve
Founders. All these are the facts Of peace
the demonstration that the war Is over. Peace
has indeed settled on the land, and we can
contemplate In its completeness the terrible
war that has ragged for the last four years.
We cannot see, or perhaps even surmise, tho
full effect that the war is to have in the his
tory Of this nation; but the war ITSELF the four
years of action, we Sen view and consider as
one distinct grand drama.
We may well question whether the world
has ever seen its equal in any respect 1t
was first beyond parallel great and real in Its
origin and purpose. More than half the great
wars that have tormented the human race
have been useless and have originated in tri-
vial and contemplate causes. They began in
the disputes Of royal favorites and paramours,
or at most were questions Of dynasties, disputes
Of no real account to those who waged the
but tho nnarrQv In
which a nation ever took up arms 1t was the
necessary collision of two great systems Of civil
lization, for both Of which the same continent
was not large enough, and it was, therefore, q
quarrel that could only be settled by war. We
fought to sustain human freedom; our enemies
fought to destroy it. This Is so grand an ar
gument that all who go to war seek the pres
tige it win give them, and as a rule both
sides pretend that they fight for human free
dom. Since the first days Of the French Revo-
iut!oa, whsp France stood g fsslss ;hs sssyes:
sion of the sovereigns Of Europe, we are the
first nation that have in truth fought for this
glorious cause. For nearly a century we are
the only people that have been stimulated to
fight by the only just cause of war.
Nor was the war less grand in it's develop
ment than in its cause. It was the universal
movement of great people, and was, there
fore, immense as a display Of power merely.
All the sovereigns of Europe opposed to Napo-
leon agreed to put million Of men in the field
against him; but they never did it. Five hum
dred thousand men was the total embattled
power of all those nations when the battle Of
Leipsic was fought; and yet this one free
government actually put in the field one mil
lion of men on one side Of this great struggle.
And with these million men it concentrated in
vitality are scattered over twenty years. The
greatness of the means employed and of the
events crowded In the time are equally without
precedent. Never were battles contested with
such desperate stubbornness, or won BY more
magnificent valor; and never was the success
sion of great combats so rapid and so per-
sistent. Europe saw in this only that the great
battles were not decisive, and held it up as q
reproach. That was q grave error, but one
founded on the narrow view that Europe has
persistently taken of the whole war. The inde-
oislveness Of these great battles was only ap-
parent, and the effect Of every baltic came at
once when the last one was fought. In the
meantime that effect had been kept down
by the greatness and tenacity Of the
fighters. In Europe baltic is decisive
when one side is routed. Except Bull
Run there were no routs here. American
soldiers can never be so badly beaten as that,
and in this fact Is the one grand difference be-
tween us and Europe that made the war such
great, tenacious and satisfactory fight.
Equally wonderful also has been the develop
ment Of genius-military, naval, political and
financial. We have gone through the great
struggle without foreign complications or
foreign loans. Native genius also has enabled
us to carry the military art to q higher pitch
than it has ever reached in any other war.
Our naval novelties have astonished the world
with their effectiveness in combat, and our
naval heroes given new and grandcr examples
of wonderful daring. And this great war is
also without parallel in tho lurid and horrible
aspects Of its last events-in the fearful dramas
Of arson, piracy, wholesale murder and assassi.
nation with which the fendish passions Of our
enemies have characterized its close. There Is
feature OF the close that Europe will under
stand quite as little as it does any of these, and
that, in fact, will be incomprehensible on the
other sidethe water; and it is that the whole
country will be reconstructed and once more
grandly free and progressive in less than q
year.
WHAT Was GENERAL SICKIEs' MIssIoN?-We
see it stated that General Sckles has returned
from his South American mission. It is said
that in bis new sphere he has accomplished 9
splendid victory, which will tend to preserve
his military laurels bright and fresh in spite o.
this scorching weather. We notified the Gen
eral on his sudden and mysterious departure