The Placer herald., 1865-04-15
Re.Union--Its Impossibility through War

Re.Union--Its Impossbility through War.
The servile press and the blood .mongering
orators of the faction in power are fond of
quoting history, to show that the hatreds of
civil war, though bitter while it lasts, are
sure to fade away when the strife itself is
over. The great rebellion, in England. is
one of their tavorite illustrations teaching
US, they say, that we may cut each others
tbroals, and plunder and ravish at will, with
out danger Of leaving an;mosities that will
survive the present generation.
Granting for the sake of the argument,
that there is room for rational comparison
between the facts of the two cases, it is Gu.
rious to recall the judgment which was pass
ed upon just such pretended analogy, by
one of the profoundest reasoners upon ma
tional motives aud conduct, whom the world
has ever known.
When Napoleon Bonaparte was discussing
with DIR. O'Meara, at ST. Helena the proba-
bility of another revolution in France for
tho expulsion Of the Bourbons, he used the
following remarkable language:
ERE twenty years have elapsed, when
am dead and buried, you will witness another
revolution in France.
You arc very fond in England of making
comparison between the restoration of Char,
les ii and that of Louis, but there is not the
smallest similitude. Charles was restored
by the mass Of the English nation, n
but as to the Bourbons, there is not village
in France which has not lost thirty or forty
Of the fl ,wer of its youth, in order to prevent
their return. The sentiments of the nation
are: 1t is not we who have broncht back
| tInea
aged our land, who have burned our dwell
lings, who have violated our wives ard our
daughters, have set these rulers over us by
force"
1t was in 1916 that these words were
spoken, and the revolution of 1880 gave
early testimony to their truth and wisdom
Who, that is not wifuIly blind, can fail to
see how vividlv they paint for us and ours,
the future that would curse us, ven were we
able, in the war that is upon Us, to secure
the present triumph of our arms? The
march of the allied armies through France
was a pilgrimage of charity compared with
the desoiating progress of our trc~ps through
the States of the South. The seeds of bit
terness sown by the triumph of the allies
were but few and thiniy scattered in com,
parson with the broadcast enormites which
must make the campaigns of our generals
fertile forever in remembrances of wrong
and traditions Of revenge. The Govern
ments which we might institute and main.
tain by force, would be as alien to the hearts
and convictions of the Southern people as if
en'hroned by Wellington and BIucher-tenr
fold more than the Boulbons could have
been to France Wha. village in the South.
ern country but would mourn the flower of
its youth, persisted in the effort to avert the
hated domination? What blackened home-
steads-what desolate fields, would there cot
he, from which the voice of undying animos.
ily would cry aloud, like the blood of Abel,
from the ground it reddened9 Sensibililes
outraged, pride and honor wounded TO the
quick, would teach resentment as duty
nay religon-forever. Time would only
aggravate and madden, instead Of wearing
out the inherited delestalion. II would last
until the graves of the victims gave up their
dead
And yet, this is the sort Of peace and "re
stored nationality" which is the declared and
exclusive Object Of the gigantic war we are
waging. This is the millennium of rekindled
affection and reunited brotherhood, which is
beckoning us on through blood and bank
ruptcy. To fight for this is to set the seal
TO our reverence for republican institutions
it is the pledge and the sign of our devo
ton to freedom! Amil the snakes of this
Gorgon's head we are taught to look for the
smiles of an angel!
Bad and callous as are the men who are
now ruling us, we wonder that they do not
shrink from the horrors of the time to come
that their own handwork does not now
and then. alright them. They have made a
desert and waste of the fairest and happes:
land beneath the sun. They have taught a
free and a freedom loving people at once the
lust OF dominion and the servility and cor
rupton which follow despotism. They have
elevated the law of force upon the ruins of
the law Of love, and the alteration of golden
the Prince of Peace. They have so harden
ed and debauched the people whom they
govern that the news of battle is their
p'easantest excitement, and their very feasts
are
"Kept with slaughtered men,"
They are now promising future of hatred
and oppression n-endless, hopeless, and dis
graceful-as a consummaton which Chris
lian people, under a republican government,
should sacrifice all things precious to hasten
and insure.
This is "reunion" Reconstruction, and
"saving the life of Republic!'
NeW York NewS.
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