Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1865-05-11
WING.
WA. INA SMITH, Proprietor.
THURSDAY XoRNING.....MAY IL, 1866
Life from Death.

lt the life OF a nation we're limited TO a
single century, We could find no Solace in
looking back upon the gloomy scenes, the
ensanguined battle fields, the fall of thou
sands of the noblest and brayest in the land
which four short years have been able to
include. Such sufferings and sacrifices
could not be compensated, if the people
who have sustained them were destined to
pass away and cease to exist as = nation in
period but little longer than the four-Score
years allotted 10 the individual man in ex-
treme old age. Memory would retain too
firmly the power Of embittering the cup of
the present by pouring into it the gan OF
the past; even hope would be impotent to
Slid the future with radiance if that future
we're so brief IS to vanish in few troubled
years.
But when We remember that nations live
for thousands Of years, and that the people
Who shall be so happy IS TO embody in their
own experience the principles of right and
truth, will live until these are lost, then We
may Ind comfort even in reviewing the sad
deSt scenes Of the val and in contemplating
the heaviest losses il has inflicted. The
yAwnipg chasm which opened in the Roman
Forum under the shock of the earthquake,
was never 10 close until that was thrown in
upon which the greatness Of Rome depended.
Marcus Curtius, in full srmOr and mounted,
plunged into the abyss, believing that valOr
and virtue in the person of = noble Roman
we're the dependence OF the State. The
earth closed, the chasm vanished, but the
mama Of the martyred hero will live forever.
7 Aud 80 in our own country. The dark
and threatening gulf which, for forty years,
was growing wider and blAcker, and rendiDg
the North and the South asunder, is begin
ming TO close. Into this gulf the noble, the
generous, the brave, the young, tbs fondly
loved have thrown themselves in sublime
SelEdevotion, and If their loss shall close
the cbasm which threatened the life of the
nation, we may feel that they have not died
in vain.
We can perceive already that the war has
established, upon an immovable basis, GER
tain principles which will 60 far to ensure q
long life Of prosperity for the United States.
The right Of self government was really in
VOWED in the struggle. II has been COM
mon, during the war, TO find writers in
Europe as well as IN America, predicting the
overthrow of this principle, and declaring
that this mighty outbreak was positive proof
tina. = Republic had no stability, and that
relapse into monarchy was inevitable. The
gigantic efforts Of the nation to preserve her
own life were falsely represented 70 be as
saults on the sacred principle on which re-
Pubhcanism is founded. Happily these va
ticinations Of evil have been ialsifed. The
Government male and upheld by the people
has proved itself too strong TO be success
fully resisted by internal faction, and yet too
moderate and we'll regulated to destroy the
liberties entrusted to its keeping.
Whatever temporary Inconvenience may
attend the destruction of SlauTy, this great
and radical change has established another
principle tending to preserve our national
life. So long as slavery existed among US
We were pointed at by the civilization of the
Old World as living monument of incOn-
sistency. Our principles required freedom;
our Practice forbade it. 1.-The land of the
Tree" held four millions OF bondmen. With
this eeAseless protest against the purity of
our faith, Ne could never have wrought out
the high destiny for which Providence SEEM
ed preparing US. The war has solved this
mystery. -Four years have removed what
nearly four centuries had established.
With the power Of selCgovernment vindi-
Gated, slavery blotted out, and our Union
confirmed By the very sacrifices it has cost,
the nation starts forth in 1865 upon a new
era of her life. May it bring peace, pros
perity and virtue to all our people.