Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-11-28

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punished. Mourning in every house
hold, desolation written in broad char
acters across the whole face of their couB-
try, cities in ashes, and fields laid waste,
their commerce gone, their system OF
labor annihilnted and destroyed. Ruin,
poverty, and distress everywhere, and
now pestilence adding the very cap sheaf
To their stack of misery; her proud men
begging for pardon and appealing for
permission to raise food for their children.
her 5000 900 slaves free, and their value
lost to their former masters forever
How any Southern gentleman, with these
facts, plain and palpable, everywhere
staring him in the face, and recorded
forever in the book of history, can still
boast OF his 'lost cause" or speak of it
In language other than of shame and sor-
row, passes my understanding, and in-
stead OF being revived, know that their
lost cause will sink deeper and deeper
into infainy as time more keenly probes
Its hidden mysteries and reveals them to
the light of day.
Now that Slavery Is gone, and gone
forever, with its unhappy wrecks left be-
hind, and all danger is passed, If any set
OF men again appeal to war when they
have courts to'secure their rights and re-
dress their wrongs, would trust our ma
tional destiny again to those grand old
national laws which raised our country
through the long, tedious vassalage OF
colonization which carried US safely
through the ordeal of the Revolutionary
War; made our flag famous on the high
seas in 1872; led our conqueriag armies
to the gates of Mexico in 1847, and has
borne. US gloriOusly through four years
OF as hard war as ever tested the man
hood OF any people. Let us renew, as
far as lies in our Individual persons, that
system which Bancroft tells US guided
our fathers before the REVOLUTIONARY
system which has been revealed in India:
the system which combines and perfects
the symbolic wisdom Of the Orient and
the reflective genius OF Greece; the sys-
tenn conforming to reason, yet kindling
with enthusiasm, always Fastening re-
form yet always consei vative; proclaim
ing absolute equality among men, yes
not suddenly abolishing the unequal in
stitutions Of society; guaranteeing ab-
solute freedom, yet involving inexorable
restrictions of duty; i'll the highest de-
gree theoretical, yet in the highest de-
gree practical; awakening the inner
man to consciousness of his destiny,
and yet adapted with exact harmony to
the outward world; at once divine and
human" This system was professed in
try. and cradled our freedom. With such
spirit pervading all our country once
more-with Our population increasing SO
per cent. every l0years; with our natiou-
al wealth developing in even q greater
ratio; with our frontiers pushing back
in svary direction with farms and viii
lagos and cities rapidly covering our vast
national domain; with mines of gold
and silver and iron and coal pouring out
wealth faster than ever did the cotton
fields of the South, with 10000 miles of
finished railroads, and other thousands
in progress-can any one doubt our pres
ent strength, or calculate our future
destiny? II our friends at the South WiR
heartily and cheerfully join acith us in this
future course, 4, for one, Would srelcOns
then. back, our equals, but not OUR suoeri-
Ors, and lend them a helping hand. But
if, like spoiled children, they will cling
to the dead past and shut their eyes to
the coming future, would only call
their attention to that wave of emigra-
tion that has swept over our land from
the Atlantic to the Pacific and must soon
turn back and flow South. They may
oppose, but their opposition will be as
vain as it was for them to try and stop
the Army of the Tennessee which swept
the length and breadth of their land
The nert rdr of Northern inrdsion UiN
not desOldte their land but aUW Jructify
and regenerdte IL. ..<
And now, in conclusion, my friends,
will say that since the war closed moth
ing has given Inc more satisfaction than
to see the spirit you have all manifested
since you cast ,uside the soldiers garb.
recall little circumstance in Memphis,
in the Summer of 1868. We were lying
I'm camp, drilling and preparing for the
coming Winter, when l was visited by
gentleman of high education, a Captain
then, now Admiral Lessodike, of the
Russian Navy, who accompanied me in
many drills and reviews, always compli-
menting our men on their soldierly ap-
pearance. On one occasion we rode into
the camp of Barrett's Battery and we
timed them from the call of assembly"
till the battery was harnessed up and out
in the field, ready for action. He was
much pleased at their promptness. lex
planned that our men were not profess
sional soldiers, but had been mechanics,
clerks, and laborers only few months
before. He seemed to admit that was
possible, but he said: "What will you
do with these men when the war is
over?" / answered.: They will all
quietly and peacefully return to their
homes" He shook his head and did not
believe me. have no doubt that he has
slhce SIfeH US, aS peOpie, luii cTeuit iot
this result-to him and to all Europeans
80 enigmatical in its character. Yes, our
men have returned to their homes in
peace and quiet. And go where l may,
meet them all more or less busy at their
various callings. Instead ofthe great art
of destruction, they are now acting that
better part of construction. Dodge
guiding the Pacific railroad THAT stupend-
Gus movement of tho energy and re-
sources of the people, across the Rocky
Mountains; Easement laying his two
miles Of rails per day Wright seeking
out the way for the Southern Pacific
Road; Sprague at the North, building
westward; Corse constructing harbors on
| the great lakes; Blair and Warner plant
| ing cotton at the South; Wilson deiving
out the Mississippi, and planning 10 make
the Illinois River majestic canal fed by
| the great lakes of the North; and turn
which way wemay, we find our comrades
busy, their swords turned into pruning
hooks, each planting his own vine and
fg-tree, and no man afraid.
Go on then, / say, and encourage hon
est industry everywhere. Form and ex-
press your honest opinions like freemen.
Discourage that system OF personal abuse
and detraction Which has grown too
much into fralht, and Is a stain upon