The Elk advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Elk Co., Pa.) 186?-1868, 1866-04-12


followed army in surrender, state after
state wheeled into the Union line, aud,
as if by magic, the frowning structure
Of the Conledoracy, four years erect, grim,
and defiant, tumblcd from turret to cor.
ner.stone, and left not rack behind"
No guerrilla shot vexed the air. No fierce
patriot refused to lay down his arms.
No state struggled with state pride
against the surrender of what it had hop
ed to call state sovereignty" But qui.
etly accepting the decision Of the sword,
and reading in events the voice Of God,
the South laid aside, with its arms, its
doctrines, It's aims, and its cause, at once
and for ever
The popular sentiment of the North
was no less marvelously revolutionzed.
The cry of /" subjugatiou !"-that por-
tentous Uoe victiS which contained nn-
numbered horrors in its scanty syllablcs
ceased before the smoke rolled away
from the last battlefield of the rebellion.
Wade Hampton told the South Caro-.
linians that, "as conquerors, the United
States had the right to impose what
terms it chose" We chose to conquer the
South again-by maguanimity. No such
national generosity is recorded in the
history Of any nation or any age us that
which has crowned our bloody war
Other nations celebrate the repressing
of rebellion by turning upon the con
quered fire and sword. the rack, the bul-
let, and the gibbet; broad countries are
laio desolate. homes and fields burned,
property confscated, and heads fall un-
Ger the axe as grain bows before the
mower We had no corps of haugmen
stalking in the trail of our victorious
legions. We had no Sepoy atrocities,
Jamaica massacres, or Arab tortures.-
Other arts than blowing rebels from the
cannon's mouth, smoking them to death
in caves, or hanging them without trial
are ours. We began by throwing the
agis of uational protection over every
armed insurgent We emptied our jalIs
of state criminals. We restored the
southern people their rights as fast as
they could take them. Before they could
ask, we gave them more than they had
fashioned their lips to beg. No odious
conditions were exacted. Our army
eleven hundred thousand strong and
flushed with triumph, noiselessly melted
away to handful, and the presence o
that handful was hardly known in thC
silent garrisons and sentry beats of the
southern coast In one brlefyear clever
states resumed their place in the sister
hood of states, and the Union became
whole and harmonious Peace is its
elf a conquest"
Exactly on this twelvemonth's extra
ordinary work rest all our hopes of ell
during peace in the future. Had W
given to the South such cessation G
, hostilities, misnamed peace, as Franc
gives to Algiers, Austria to Hungary
, or Russia to Poland, the future woul
still be dark. Smouldering hate woul
wait only the occasion to become fame
t to fury and break out 10 fresh rebellion
. But if love of country be not stron
! ~uou5h ~ hold our country together. "
. have triple cord of honor, gratitud
and interest to bind the South to us
5 The transatlantic world, which persis
r emily refused to stand by the Union
j our war, overcome by our America
c method of making peace, would pause b
2 fore lending sympathy to new insure
J. ton. Slavery is dead. Secession is dea
: 1t was those two elements, inherent
e hostile to tho American system, whic
C arrayed our people against each othe
No man in our generation longer b
lieves in the practicability of either 81
very or secession; no man in the gene
alton to come will believe in them eve
IT were they practicable Eliminate the
Z. two evils tIom the nation, and VIII
,. source of discord can ever again divi
le it The words which Shakespeare us
r. of the happy ending ofan elder rebelli
r. befit our own, for " our peace shall sta
), as firm as rocky mountain" and the
% ton, " like broken limb united, gr'
st stronger for the breaking"
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