The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1865-03-17
The Magnitude and Consequence
Ihn Amcrirnn Mnr.

from the London Times, February 22d
Wo are witnessing with much, tho
various Interest, one of the greatest
military spSctacies ever presented
to the civilized world. All things
considered, there never was such
fighting before, and for the like OF
it we have to imagine several of Na-
poleon's most terrible campaigns
fought together in one country, by
the hostile factions of one people,
and with all the fresh aids and appli.
ances which art has since contributed
to the service Of war, Very few OF
us think we have anything to do but
look on; all the better for us, q short
sighted selllshness may suggest; all
the worse tor ourselves, if not for our
material interests, wiser monitors will
say. 1t is, however, wonderful, con.
sidering that we call the performers
in this great tragedy, brothers and
cousins, partners in race, in language,
in religion and in laws, how few OF
us have relatives and friends in the
war. This is because the emigration,
for many years past, has been con
fined to the lehoring classes. The ship
builders, merchants and manufactur.
ers who have spcculated on the wants
Of the belligerents, busy and enter
prising rs they have been, are only
small fraction Of the British com
munity and we hear of their doings
rather through American than any
home channels The great mass of
our people, not only those in the
deep quiet of private society, but
those in the great world, would open
their eyes with astonishment at man
said to be making his fortune by
blockade running or supplying arms
and ammunition to tho combatants,
II is, however, a melancholy fact,
that we have contributed almost ev-
erything necessary to the spectacle.
We have supplied from our own race
both comhatauts at least nine out of
every ten of them; we have provid-
ed the bone of contention, 10th the
original slavery, and the more mod
ern cry against it; we have furnished
arms, powder, nay, the very percus-
sion caps, and the medicine chests.
the clothing, and good deal of the
shipping, and of all the other mate.
rials required. Some OF us have
gone behind the scenes and brought
back strange experiences. Staff ohi-
GERS, engineers, doctors, and even
clergymen, have gone On erronds of
science or curiosity, and will know
what to do when half our people set
to work butchering the other half
Bat we, ordinary spectators, see ev-
erything much as the Americans
themselves saw our Russian aud In
dian difficulties There may have
been wars on grander scale in the
days OF Attilla, or Ghengis Khan,
or limour, but the achievements of
those almost fabulous personages no
more touch us than when we hear of
a mountain of 'locusts blown into the
sea, and then washed up on its shore.
When the matter is quite out of our
knowledge, million seems no more
than hundred. Bat we are quite at
home in this business before us. The
language Of the men, the familiar ter
limitations and prellXes oftheir names,
with an occasional touch of mother.
wit thrown in by the principal actors,
give sort OF domestic interest to-
the performance.
America is bearing the palm in at
least the magnitude Of the war, tho
we still have TO wait for that marvel
Gus reconciliation that is TO astonish
the world. Great as she has been in
peace, and great us she has proved
herself in war, she finds it not SO
easy to repair the shattered vase.
On the contrary, the vast mischief
spreads, and do what we will, we are
doomed to see complications rising
North and South on every sea, on the
Pacific as well as the Atlantic coast.
A great war is apt TO become uncon-
trollable, because lllimitable, too vast
for control, with too many issues for
forethought. 1t rises to the scale of
natural convulsioD, the workings of