Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1865-05-05
From the New York Ledger.
Richmond Free
BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.


draws to a close has been remarkable in
every point of view. In breadth of coun
! Try over which it spread, the vastness
of the armies, the multitude of forts and
q Notifications and field-vorks of every
kind, the extraordinary development Of
: resources by the South, and the growth
Of military ability in TIE North, the i'm
mense number Of battles, of fights, oi
!, skrmishes, the test of new arms, the use
/, in war of railways and telegraphs, which
began to be used only so late as in Louis
Napoleon's war for Italian independence
the whole process Of growth in the art Of
war, by which, at length, the North has
reached the condition Of war power
without a superior; all these thing,
stamp the great Civil War Of America
with singular historical value.
The fruitlessness of our great battles
in immediate results has been often re-
marked. But that has arisen from the
peculiar nature of the country fought
over 1t is, without art, and by is natur-
al condition, continuous series of i'm
mense military defence0. A defeated
brigade fall back into thickets, forests,
gorges, or upon mountains, which cav
airy and infantry can not assail except
under an engineers guidance, But, while
individual battles were apparently not
fruitful, the series of conflicts was steadi.
! ly weakening the rebellion, and strength
ening the United States Government
Every year it has shrunk, and diminish
ed in poWer, until, within this last year,
it has been like bull in an arena, not
subdued, nor anywhere MORALLY wound
ed, yet so wearied, and lanced so often at
so many places, as maniestly to be bleed.
ing to death. The South has been over
tasked and overmatched. She has strug-
gled with greater zeal and endurance,
probably, than any people ever did, and
came nearer to putting into the conflict the.
total force oil men, and power OF property
But, it was not enough. For more than
year she has shown signs of fatal weak,
ness.
After Grants campaign from the Rap
idan to the James, the fighting OF South,
ern armies has never risen TO its former
energy and ferceness. Petersburgh
would hardly have been turned had Lee
possessed the men, and they the sp Ri,
with which the battles Of the Wilrerness,
Spotsylvania, and Coal Harbor were
fought.
But the day of doom had come. The
crushing assault upon Petersburgh gave
to Lee his last wound. An further ef-
forts on bis part will be not intelligent
resistance, but only the cOnvulsive throes
of dying man.
1t was a kingly day, when Weitzel
led the army of black men into Rieh.
mondi
Virginia invited this war upon her soil.
In no other State bad slavery been so
guilty. 1t was a slave-breediDg STATE.
Slaves were raised for expectation, as
Morgan horses are in Vermont, or cattle
in Illinois. No other feature of slavery
is so hateful or horrible. Is there no
retributive Providence in the awful des-
olation of this depopulated, ravished, and
impoverished proud Old Dominion?
Richmond dragooDed the State into
rebellion. The convention that sat there
in the paroxysm of secession fury, was
largely for the Union. The slave traders,
gamblers, and desperate political leaders,
armed to the teeth, guarded the conven-
ton, and made the vote a matter of life
or death. Union men were compelled TO
vote the State out of the Union, or to be
assassinated. Richmond, too, has suf-
lered for her crime
Behold Gods hand ! The slaves are
set free. Those men who rebelled, that
slavery might become stronger, fee out
of their stronghold and capital, driven by
those very slaves, now free, and repre-
senting in their military Office, the Gov
ernment of the United States
Virginia is redeemed from the hands $
of these wicked men, who for four years I
nave wheeled her out of the line of ber J
historic precedents, and bowed down her
pride to the dust.
The Union arms in triumph can bring /
only prosperity to the desolate Old Do
ninion
But what contrast Richmond on
and Sunday the centre and
of rebellion. On Sunday d
light, the army punging headlong over r
he bridges; families in hot haste rush.
ng away; the Secretaries, with their :
and papers, fleeing like culprits; &