The Portland daily press., 1867-02-18
"New America

Mr.. Hepworth Dixon's book under the
London. 1t is very favorably received by Eng
lish readers, and is as fair towards this coun-
tyy as any reasonable American could desire
An American edition is in the press of j. B.
Lippencott d Co., of Philadelphia, and will be
published during the present month. The
following extracts from advance sheets win be
read with interest:
Under these walls of Richmond the battle
OF that principle was fairly fought; with a
skill, pride, a Valor, on either side, to recall
the charges at Naseby and at Marston Moor;
but the Cavaliers went down, and the Middle
Ages then lost their final field.
Happily for the world, they failed and lost !;
failed by law of nature, lost by an ordinance
of Heaven. No calamity in politics could
have equaled the success of a slave empire,
founded on the ruin OF strong republic. All
free nations would have felt it, all honest men
would have suffered from it; but even with
their mistaken cause, their retrograde policy
their separatist banner, what fight they
made! Men who can perish gloriously for
their faith-however false that faith may be-
will always seize the imagination, hold the af-
fections of a gallant race Fighting for weak
and failing cause, these planters OF Virginia,
of Alabama, OF Mississippi, rode into battle as
they would have hurried to feast; and many
man who wished them no profit in their raid
and fray could not help riding, as it were in
line with their fOaming front, dashing with
them into action, following their fiery course,
with flashing eye and bounding pulse.
Courage is electric. You caught the light
from Jackson's sword, you flushed and parted
after Stuart's plume. Their sin was not more
striking than their yalOr. Loyal to their gods, to
their obsolete creed, they proved Their per-
sonal honor by their deeds; these lords of ev-
cry luxury under heaven, striving with hunger
and with disease, snd laying down their luxu.
fious lives in ditch and breach. All round these
walls, IN sandy ritts, under forest leaves, and
by lonely pools, lie the bones OF young, of old
men, who were once the pride, the strength of
thousand happy Anglo-Saxon homes
Would that their sin could be covered up with
little sand!
"Out ON yon lovely slope of hill, from the
brow OF which the reddening woods and wind
lag waters OF beautiful Virginia gladden. the
eyes OF men tor leagues and leagues, the pious
North has gathered into many beds, under
many white stones, the ashes of her illustr,-
Gus dead; of youths who came down from
their farms in Ohio, from their mills in Yer
mont, from their schools in Massachusetts
ohC tdSW3 tuC HClNS, but Ufdlu Oh LllS great
family OF free men; who came down, singing
their hymns and allelujahs; giving up ease,
and peace and love, and study, to save their
country from division, from civil war, from
political death. Singing their hymns, they
were stricken In the trench and in the field
New England gave its best AMI bravest to
that slope. know street. in Boston from
every house in which death has taken spoil !:
IN the houses OF poet and teacher have seen
Rachel mourning with a proud joy for the
sons who will never come back to her again.
These heroes sleep on the hillside, in the CITY
which defed and slew them they have enter
ed it as conquerors at last; and here they will
keep their silent watch, the sentinels of
bright and holy cause. Ali glory to them,
now and epermore!
"Out, too, IN yon swamps and wastes. by the
deserted breastw ork, by the fallen fort. by the
rank river margin, lie the ashes of broken
and ruined host; OF young men, of old war
nors, who rode up from the cotton lands of
LOUISIANA, from the country-houses of Geor-
9ia, from the rice-ields of Carolina, to fight
tor cause in which they had learned to feel
Their right; soldiers as honest, as brave, and
proud as any OF their stronger and keener
foes. But the strong were right, and the right
were strong; the weaker side went down in
their fierce embrace. They tell together:
their duty done, their passion spent. Many
tender once, many a solemn greeting, pass-
ed between these falling brothers, who Spoke
the same tongue, wha muttered the same
prayer, who owned one country and one God.
Iney died on the same field and whitened on
the same earth. Still, here and there, some
plous hand picks up their bones together just
as the warriors fell in battle, and laying them
size Dy side, leaves the two brothers who had
come TO strife, victor and vanquished, union
ISL and seceder, to sleep the long sleep in a
common bed"
"fon sunny Richmond slope, ON which the
setting sun appears to linger, tipping with
pink the fair white stones, should be for North
and South alike place OF rest, sign of the
New America; an imperishable proof OF their
reconciliation, no less than an everlasting
record of their strife" -