Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1866-01-25


months time. Three hundred tbousanC
men were slaughtered upon the field of bat
tie During the first and second years
the war, the balance Of victory was greatly
in favor of the Confederate Government. -
In many prolonged and saDguinary battles
the Roman armies had been routed and Gu
to pieces, so that at the close Of the secont
year everything seemed to indicate the lina
triumph Of the Coniederacy.
But Rome was Rome STILL During 81,
hundred and sixty-two years Of uninterlnit
ted conflict of arms, within and beyond the
limits of Italy, though often beaten in tho
battle, she had in every instance stood forth
victorious in the war She proceeded tc
confer the right of Lartium, or Roman cit
zenship upon the tier of States lying at the
foot of the Alps, and embraced within the
territory known, as Cisapine Gaul She
next and for the first time in her history
Incorporated freedmen, or men who had
d. been slaves, into the body of her lcgons-a
humiliation which she had ever proudly re.
fused to inllct upon herself, even when,
during the second Punc war, the great Car.
thageniaD, after having triumphed over all
her armies but one, had pitched his camp
within three miles of the Roman capital.
Having by the contributions of troops and
revenues by the Gallo States, and by the
renewed contributions of both by the bor-
der States, with the recruits from the body
OF the freedmen, reorganized her armies,
she departed from her usual custom of plac-
ing those armies under the command Of the
! Consuls. She called in to take the place of
those Consuls, at the head of her two prin-
cipal armies, the two ablest Generals of the
age--the great Caius Marius, and his great
rival Lucus Cornelius Sylla. Thus prepar-
ed she renewed the struggle 1t soon be-
came apparent upon the renewal of the
war, that the tremendous efforts put forth
by the Confederate Government during the
first two years of the conflict, had well nigh
exhausted its resources of men and money
Disappointed in receiving the foreign aid of
Mithradates, the King of Pontus, which
the Confederate Government had sought,
and for the want of a navy, being unable to
obtain from beyond the sea provisions and
the material Of war, the defense OF the Con-
tedoracy 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 sur
render at discretion. The revolted States,
with the single exception Of the Samnites,
and remote towns, which, being besieged,
still held out, acknowledged, as of old, the
authority of Rome, and the obligation of
obedience to her paramount authority. The
Confederate Government disappeared from
the earth like bright exhalation in the
evening" Thus having laid down their
arms, the Confedeate States stood defense
less in the presence of their victorious ad-
ycrsary, to receive whatever doom that ad
vcrsary might pronounce. The Roman
! Spnntp had Iut N SHnnl- onl ,i
the State Governments so lately in rebellion
ceased to exist. 1t had but to speak, and
every citizen in those States became slave
1t had but to utter the word confiscation
and every one Of these unfortunate people
became homeless and a breadless pauper
W hat did that Senate do under these cir
cumstance? There had been arevolt which
placed its being in jeopordy; the territories
of home were strewn with the dead bodies
Of its slaughtered legions. Many Roman
towns had been reduced to ashes The Re-
public had suffered everything that could
embitter the minds of men against their fel-
lows. What then did the Roman Senate
do? Did it utter the word annihiation of
the Governments of the revolted States?
Did it reduce their people to bondage and
| starvation! That Senate was not composed
of fanatics. Every member was a general
/
were both. That body was not creation of
yesterday. 1t had existed for six hundred
and sixty. five years. And during that whole
! time, in all the affairs Of war, negotiations
| legislation, judicaturc and administration,
that Senate had displayed yigor and wis
dom which has never been cquaed. No,
not even approached, save by those modern
Governments which have taken that Senate
as their example, and drawn their inSpira-
ton from the wisdom of its counsels. What
then, did the Senate do? Did it speak de-
struction to those States, slavery and beg
gary to those unhappy people? No, no, no!
Such an act Of stupid vengeance was deem
ed unworthy Of the majesty of the Roman
people the generosity and mag
nanimity of the Roman Senate Such an
act Of malignant stupidity has been reserv-
ed for later day. for Il little fraction in the
Northeast corner of this Republic-more
debased by superstition and brutalized by
tanaticism. What did that Senate do? 1t
passed decree, ratified in the full assembly
Of the Roman people. What manner of de-
cree was that? 1t was a decree comforting
the rights Of citizenship, in alltheir fullness.
/ Upon whom? And when were those rights
conferred? They were conferred within the
last year of the war; and upon every one OF
tHc seCeueu SUITES WHICH nuu ldlu uOWn
their arms. Having done this-having by
this high act of magnaninity and Justice,
restored the Italian Union more strongly
than beforc-the Roman Senate incorpora,
ted the surviving troops of the late Confed
eracy into the body of the Roman legions
She ordered those legions to Asia Minor tc
recover her territories there, which Nlith
1 dradates, taking advantage of the Social
war in Italy, had overrun and occupied with
his troops; and those legions speedily sent
this Maxamilian back to to his little king
dom ofPontus, which, within few years af-
ter they added as provinces of the Roman
Republic.
Italy; thus reunited upon the basis of
I equal rights, by admitting all to participate
in the benefits, who were required to share
! the burthens of the Government, was ena-
bled to exhibit that political phenomenon,
never before or since seen in the world, of a
Government which, though repeatedly con-
yulsed by anarchy and changed by internal
revolution, yet maintained its unity and its
power, as against the rest of mankind, and
prosecuted, for five hundred years after the
close OF the Social war, its vast system OF
foreign conquest, without the intermssion
of single hour, and without having, in all
that time, signed single treaty of peace by
which one acre of its territorial conquestS
was surrendered or restored.
l have been thus particular in these his
torlcal details, because foolish fanatic has