Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-01-13

the Itaiic, but more generally as the Social
war. 1t extended through three years aud
ten months of time. Three hundred thou,
sand men were slaughtered upon the field
of battle. During the first and second
years of the war, the balance OF victory
was greatly in favor of the Confederate
Government. In many prolonged and san9
culinary battles, the Roman armies had
been Eouted and cut to pieces, so that at
the close of the second year every thing
seemed to indicate the final triumph OF the
Confederacy. ifds ltlogH7 alF- igGT g
But Rome was Rome still. During SIX
hundred and sixty-two years Of uninters
mitted conflict of arms, within and beyond
the limits of Italy, though often beatenfn1
the battle, she had in every instance stood
forth victorious In the war. She proceeded
to confer the rights of Lartium, or Roman
citizenship, upon the tier of States lying at
the foot of the Alps, and embraced within
the territory known as Cisalpine Gaua
She next and for the first time In her his
tory, Incorporated freedmen, ior men who
had been slaves, into the body Of her lei
gions-a humiliation which she had ever
before proudly refused TO iDfliet upon her
self, even when, during the second Punic
war, the great Carthagenian, after having
triumphed over all Of her armies but one,
had pitched his camp within three miles OF
JEb IAO1ldll SdDlJdls lldNluHi. w bhO WI
tributiOns of troops and revenues by the
Gallo States, and by the renewed cpntribu-
| ton of both by the border States1 with the
recruits from the body of the freedmen,
reorganized her armies she departed from
her usual custom of placing those armies
| under the command of the Consuls. She
called in to take the place of those Consuls,
at the head of her two principals armies, the
two ablest Generals of the age-the great
Caius Marius, and his great rival Lucius~
Cornelius Sylla. Thus prepared she renew
ed the struggle. 1t soon became apparent
upon the renewal of the war, thatth tre- .
mendous efforts put forth by the Confed-
crate Government during the firsttwo years
OF the conflict, had well nigh exhausted its
resources of men and money. Disappoint-
ed in receiving the foreign aid of Mithra-
| dates, the King of Pontus, which the Con-
federate Government had sought, and for
| the want of navy, being unable to obtain
from beyond the sea provisions and the ma
terial of war, the defense of the COnted- :
eracy became necessarily more and more
| languid, as the struggle continued; so that
toward the conclusion of the fourth year,
the armies of the Confederacy were every
where beaten; and, finally, compelled to
surrender at tdiscretionk The revolted States,
with the single exception of the Samnites,
| and two remote towns, which, being be-
seged, still held out, acknowledged, as of
| old, the authority of Rome, and the Obliga-
tion of obedience to her paramount author
ity1 The Confederate Government disap-
peared from the earth like bright exha-
latiOn in the evening" Thus having laid
down their arms, the Confederate States
stood defenseless in the presence of their
victorious adversary, to receive whatever
| doom that adversary might pronounce
! The Roman Senate had but to speak, and
every one OF the State Governments so
lately in rebellion ceased to exist. 1t
had but to speak, and every citizen
of those States became a slave. 1t had
but to utter the word confiscation. and
every one Of these unfortunate people be-,
came homeless and breadless pauper-S
What did that Senate do under these cir
cumstances? There had been revolt
\ which placed its being in jeopardy; the ter
4 rit0ries of Rome were strewn with the dead
bodies of its slaughtered legionsJ Many
Roman towns had been reduced to ashes
The Republic had7suffered every thing that
could embitter the minds OF men against
4 their fellows. What then did the Roman
Senate do ?TDid it utter the word of ami
i hilation to the Governmental of the revolted
States? Did it reduce their people to bond
age and starvation? That Senatewas not
composed of fanatics. Every member was
general or statesman, and nine-tenths of
them were both. That body was not crea-
tlon of yesterday 1t had existed for six
hundred and siXty-five years. And during
/ that whole time, in all the affairs of war,
negotiation, legislation, judicature and adj
ministration, that Senate had displayed a
Yigor and wisdom which has never been
| equalled. No, not even approached, save
4 by those modern Governments which have
taken that Senate as their example, and
drawn their inspiration from the wisdom of
its counsels, iWhat then, did the Senate
do? Did it speak destruction to those
States, slavery and beggary to those nnhap
py people? No, no, no! Such an act of
stupid vengeance was deemed unworthy of
/ the majesty of the Roman people-un-
worthy, the generosity and magnanimity
| of the Roman Senate. Such an act of ma
lignant stupidityf has been reserved
tor a later day, and for a little
faction in the Northeast corner
of this Reppblic--more debased by su-
perstition and brutalized by fanaticism,%
What did that Senate do? It passed de-
cree, ratified in the full assembly of the
Roman people. What manner of decree
was that? 1t was a decree comforting the
| rights of citizenship, in all their fullness.-
| Upon whom2 And when were those rights
| conferred They were conferred within
one of the seeded States which mad laid
down their arms Having done this-hay
ing by this high act of magnapmity and
!, justice, restored the Italian Onion more
strongly than before--the Roman Senate
incorporated the surviving troops OF the
late Confederacy into the body of the Ro-
man legions. She ordered those legions to
Asia Minor to recover her territories there,
which yMithd radates, taking advantage OF
the Social war in Italy, had overrun and
occupied with histropps; and those legiops
speedily sent this ancient -MaximiIian back
TO bis little kingdom of Pontus,, which,.
within,a few, years after they added asa
province to the, Roman Republic.xed, yd
Italy, thus reunited upon the basis OF
u equal rights, by admitting all to participate
in the benefits, who were required to share
the burthens of Governments was renablSa
to exhibit that political phenomenon, never
beforeor since seenln the world, Qf alG0y-
efnmento which, though repeatedly cpnP
vnlsedlby anarchy changed by internal
revolution, yet maintained its unity andits
power as against the rest mankind, and
prosecuted, for five hundred years after.she
close Of the Social wary its vast systemo0T
foreignconque without the intermission
of a single hour, and with0nthaNing mall
that time, signed a single treaty OF pence
by which one acre Of Its territorial re0n7
quests was surrendered or restoreds -go1g
I'd have been thus particular In these his
torlcal detailsg because q foolish fanatic has
lately attempted toifalsity history BY rep-