Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1865-03-15
oureGreat Sins.

What ore cur great sins? Unbridlel selfish
ness and inordinate love of money. And mhilo
we a:e obdurately indulging in these sins, the
financial chaos in our country is becoming moro
and more deplorable. Hoarders keep more
resoutc grasp than ever on the necessarcs of life
Non-producers, who are ut the same timo non
spectators, are suffering more and mora What
was once competence has become poverty; poy-
erty has become perjury and penury is lapsing
into pauperism.. Any mechanical occupation is
more profitable than the most intellectual profess
sion the most accomplished scholars in the Con-
fedoracy would be glad to barter thci. services
for food and raimcnt; and in the complete uptur-
ming of our social relations, the only harry peo-
ple are those who have blackhearts or black
skins. The cry Of scarcity rcsounds through the
land, raised, in q great measure, by producers in
their greed for gain, and re-cchood by the consul
mors in their premature dread of starvation and
nakedness. We are all in the dark; and men
are moro or less towards in tho dark we do
not know what our resources are; and no one can
tell us whether VIC shall have pound of beef to
cat at tho close of 1865, square inch ofleather
to patch the last shoe in the Confederacy. And
in the midst of oil this, the Yankees are eodgratu
latipg themselves upon tie result, which they
bark about as the beginning of the end"
Preachers will tell us that tho dissEters-of the
last nine months arc the punishment Of our sins.
This is undoubtedly true; but a cheap and fruit
less pcnitence will not ave US from the evil con-
sequences. There ia no forgiveness Cor political
sins, and the results will certainly follow as If
therro had been no repentance. As al! sins are,
in higher sonsc, intellectual blunders, ne mus
strain every fbrO Of the brain, and every sinew
of-the will, if We wish to repair tho mischief
which our folly and our corruption have wrought.
The universal recognition of this imperative duty
is a more certain earnest Of our success than the
high spirits of our men in the field, or the jndom-
tablo patriotism of our r.omer ut homo.
The incompetence and unfaithfulness of Gov
crnment officials have had much to do with the
present sad state of affairs, but theresponsibity
does not end there by any means. The guilt does
not rest there alone. Let no man, when he abuses
the Government, Aatter himself that he is inn0-
cent. Every man who has sufferedshimself to be
tainted with the scSb Of speculation has done
something to iujure tbs credit Of Confederate
securities and bring about social disorgsnizaton;
every man who has withheld any necessary Of
life has done his worst to ruin the country Every
one, man or woman, who has yielded to the So
lictations of vanity or appetite, and refused to
submit to any privation, however slight which
any expenditure however great, could prevent
has contrib. ed to the general Decentralization.
It may be said that, with the present plethora
of paper money, such virtue as We demand is not
to be expected of any people made up of merely
human beings. But somo such virtue is hecessa-
ry for any people, whose duty. it has become TO
wage such a contest as ours. And if the vis!ue
is not spontaneous, it must be- engrafted BY the
painful process through which we are now passing.
We cannot go through this fiery furnace without
the smell of fire on our garments.
Weca no more avoid the loss of property than
we can the shedding of blood. There is no fsni-
ly in the Confcderacy that has not to mor.n tho
fall of some member or some connection, and
there is no family in tho Confederacy that ought
to expect to escape scatheess in estate. The at
tempt is as useless in most cases, it is gnobls
in all. A few, and but few, in comparison with
the whole number, may come out of the war
richer thnn when they went in; but even they
must make up their minds to- o'sacriGeeespart, and
large part, in ordor to preserve the whole. The
saying of tho stole philosopher: "You can't have
something for nothing" though it sounds like q
truism, in fact, conveys moral lesson Of great
significance: Men must pay for privileges. If
they do not pay voluntarily, their neighbors will
make them pay, and that heavily. Had those
who employed substitutes to take their places in
the army, refrained, as class, from speculation
and extortion, they would not have had to lament
their furthcrauce to the camp of instruction.
However just their cause was, the manner in
which too many of them abused the immunity
acquired by money, deprived them Of all active
sympathy. We have all very heavy score to
pay of, and VIC know it. The sooner woputaway
our sclfshncss and greed of gain, the better for
lis. God, we humbly believe, is going to bring
US triumphanily out Of this contest, but SO long
as we are thus obdurately devoted to self aud to
manlmon, just so long will Hc keep ua wandering
in the wilderness.
For the Advertiser.