Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1866-02-09
THE LESSON or HISTORY.
The Northern ard Southern Races I'm
e the Var.

The Northern ard Southern Races I'm
e the War.
from the Grafton Of Major General Dix, at the
Celebration Of the Seventh New York Regiment. j
Military successes are always from
North 10 Sonth-from frosts and snow TO
flowers and sunshine Our very in
stincts Teach Us that it must be so, and
all history confirms IL It is not be-
cause the Southern nature is less spir-
tied, or less capable of high and heroic
achievements but because the North
ern muscle, elaborated under a colder
sky, and through more invigorating i'm /
fuences of climate, acquires more COM
pactness, tenacity and strength, carry
ing with il for the mental and physical
conditions assilnilate) greater power
of endurance. Southern races are, for
the most part, precipitate, impassioned,
ferry vehement, rsometimes3 breaking
down al opposition by the force of their
resistless impeluosity.y Nertheru races,
on the other hand, are, calm, deliberate,
persistent, determined, and as immoya-'
BILE as rock, against which wind and
storm are idly expanding their fury. The
remark may seem fancifnl, and yet /
believe it to be historically true, that,
great military successes, considered m
reference to parallels Of latitude, are
subject to law analogous to that which
governs currents of running water.
They do not rise above the level Of their
source, or if carried to greater height
by some special force, they subside to
their former level as soon as that force
Is Withdrawn. has
Accordingly we End that the great
tides of conquest in all ages have flowed
from nerth to south, or east to vest, on
nearly the same parallels of latitude.aIt
fequired the extraordinary genius Of
julius Caesar, perhaps the most finished
military commander that ever lived, to
carry the victorious army to Rome, when
the great republic was inAthe fullness of
its prosperity and power q few degrees
Of latitude north of the metropolitan
center. And yet we all remember that
it was little more than hundred years
after this FIRST invasion of the little
island of Great Britain. before it was
reduced to the condition of a Roman
province. Even then only the lower
part was subdued, and the Emperor
Adrian was. compelled to build wall
across it to protect the Roman soldiers
from the incursions of the Caledonians,
the predecessors of the Scotchmen of
our day. Now venture tossay that il
that island had been fifteen or twenty
degrees further south it would have re-
sisted the Roman power successfully
through single campaign. The opera
tons of Hannibal in Italy may seem to
conflict with my theory, but not If they
are properly considered 1t ID true he
marched up through Spain, crossed the
Alps, descended into Italy, and obtained
several signal victories over the Romans.
But bis Operations did not contain one
ofsthe elements of permanent conquest.
They were nothing but a protracted raid;
and, after q few years, he was compelled
to return to Carthage to- defend that city
against the very people whom he was
invading.
There was q remarkable instance,
eight or nine centuries later, OF the truth
of the proposition | have stated. Some
six hundred years after the Christian
era-when mankind, as if in defiance of
the celestial messengers of the Great
! Teacher, had Asunk fEto q mofaFtorpor
as dangerous to all the interests of civisi
lization as the living paganism which
had preceded is--God raised mp an aven-
I ger in Mahomet 40 destroy all that de-
/ served TO perish, and to rouse to action
all that were worthy of being preserved.
The creed of the prophet was full of
error, bat it contained one vital truth,
and under its influence his followers
were reused to wild enthusiasm which
4 nothing could resist. TWAS in the name
4 Of the one and the everything God that
their cimetars flashed to the light. The
great tide OF Islamisn poured down
I through Western Asia, into Africa,
across Egypt and the Desert of Barca,
whelming the ancient Pentspolis, over
4 the summit which separates Africa and
Europe, sweeping across 1.-The sunny
plains of Andalnsia, and over The vine-
clad bills of Granada, but the great wave
burst at the base of the mountains of
Asturias. Il did not rise in the West
above the level of it's source in the East.
And thus this great human deluge,
impelled by the spirit of conquest and
religious frenzy, bearing on its crest the
! trophies Of Eastern science and art, was
Il
zation, to be purified and perfected in
after ages BY the clearer light of Christ
! ianity. Wherever armies have gone to
the North for the purpose of conquest,
they have been defeated. The Greeks
and Romans were constantly repulsed
By the rude nations north of them. The
legions of Yarus were cut to pieces in
the wilds of Germania by Arminius and
his followers. Nay, the great modern
conuueror of Europe, when he under.
fook--if I may so express myself-a
campaign against the Arctic Circle, with
/ one Of the most numerous and best dis
ciplined armies the world ever saw am
bodied, was discom6ted-n SO much,
il 10 true, by the arms as By the strategy
Of his enemies and By the rigors OF the
climate. His immense host, like that
of Xerxss, was broken to pieces, and be
was compelled to retreat, leaving thoae-
ands of bis followers sleeping in blood-
less death upon the frozen plains OF Mus
covy. On the other hand, when great
conuuering armies have been sent to
the South they have nearly always been
victorious.
The Romans overran everything south
of them down to the shores of the great
African desert-one of those seas of
sand which are far more impracticable
than any waste of waters. The Romans,
i in their turn, were overrun by the barha-
: rous nations north of them. The Goths,
the Normans, the multi-named races
which were swarming, century after
century, out of the great northern hive,
overwhelmed Europe down to the very
shores Of the Mediterranean, and even
Southern Italy saw these rude warriors,
} with frames compacted almost to. the
hardness Of iron by hyperborean frosts,
. unbuckling their srmor and lying down
J in the summer radiance on the nights
? of Sorrento, By the blue waters of Maize,
: and even in the classic grotto of Pau
I sillippo. In like manner armed multi.
t tudes from Central and Western Europe
! poured down into Syria under the I'm,
J, conQuerable banner of the Cross, and