The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1867-03-28

grown great and powerful under JUS
such conditions 1t would have beer
an appeal "from Phillip drunk to Phil
lip sober;" an appeal from the frantic
crew of fanatics, who had gotpossessiol
of the government, to "the sober, sec
oud thought of the people, wfo wer'
known to be in favor Of concession ant
compromise 1t would have been al
appeal from a.Congress that deliriousl,
exalted the mere shibb )leth Of party
above the harmony and unity Of th(
country, to the honestj judgments Of the
people, who cared nothing for party
triumph, 80 that the peace Of the coun.
ty could have been preserved. Rcmcm.
Der, it was the same Legislative body
that trampled, insultingly under theil
feet, the wise and patriotic counsels OF
the statesmen who formed our Peace
Congress, and gave this country slight
foretasle Of the blind obstinacy whole.
sale corruption, and wicked usurpations
ofthe Congressional Directory at Wash
ington. now aspiring to rule the ia-
ton. @" ."'' ...h "
DR.. johnson once we'll said, "that
fanaticsm was robust ignorance We
are, day by day, having realizing ex-
emplitication Of the truth Of this def
milton. Fanaticism, first, by its robust
ignorance, brought the sections face to
face in deadly conflict. In its robust
ignorance it triicd with the gravity OF
the crisis, treating the deep-seated dis.
content of q large body OF States as II
it was only the wild fury ofa mob that
sacked houses and destroyed power.
looms. 1t was robust ignorance Of the
very first principles Of the welfare of
government, that induced fanaticism to
assert that the destruction ofncgro ser
vitude was paramount to the question
ofnational happiness and prosperity. -
1t was the robust ignorance Of fanati.
cism that conceived the insane idea that
the freedom flour million dependent
beings could be fully consumated by
the simple dash Of the grey goose quill
that signed the Emancipation ProcIa
nation. Insane, incomprehensible fol
~! to suppose that we could decree
freedom to them, such freedom as w
possc3s-that we could make for then
in day, what God alone has made TO,
us in centuries. 1t insanely though
that it could call forth the full grown
solid oak by some other process thai
that through which the acorn SLOWLY
unfolds and strengthens year after yea
that it could make the wheat field
ripen unto the harvest without "firs
the blade, then the car, then the tul
corn in the ear" And now the resul
of all this folly and fanaticism comes
to us in the wall of the starved ant
abandoned freedmen, wandering out
casts amid the charred remnants ofthei
once happy homes, in the wild wastes
other abandoned plantations sinking
down to die, having found the chains Of
destitution more CALLING than those O.
their ancient servitudc. The task mas
ter of northern flnaticism, whose love
is torture, and whose pathway to cman
cipation leads only through "the valley
of the shadow oftlcatL." was but poor
exchange for that ancient bondage
whose fetters in comparison were silk
en-, and whose cruel les were tender
mercies compared with the wrong and
outrage inflicted upon the negroes ir
the name ofnorthern philanthropy ant
universal emancipation. And now
when what was styled the war for the
Union is over, and every Southern State
once in rebellion has returned to its al
legiance, We are presented with the hu.
initiating spectacle Of the patriotism
and conservatism Of the country. in
nolved in struggle with Radicalism
for the integrity OF the Constitution ant
the preservation of the Union. True
it is that there were times during thai
long hour of a nations agony, wher
her sweat was not only as it were grea
drops of blood, but blood itsclf-tht
blood of kindred shed in civil strife
when personal wrongs and outrage.
were inflicted that made the honest, pa
triotic breast Of this nation pause il
narrowing doubt and misgiving owe
the sincerity of the declarations mad,
by the party in power. 1t witnesse Q.
fertile valleys, crowded cities aud teen
ing villages at the South, given to ,
Hanton destruction utterly at war will
every principle of the modern laws o
nations. The smoke of: the countr.
went up after the invader, like th
smoke Of furnace. Colleges, church
cs, libraries, works ofarts and the prop
erty of non-combatants, all given t,
destruction BY an edict that sounde'
like some fierce tale of vengeance in th,
middle ages, "when the Eagle of th'
Scala rested on the towers of Verona.
The great maxim inscribed by the pow
er of christianity upon the pages ofth
reformed laws of nations--".hat na
tions ought to do one another in pcac,
the most good, ,and in war the leas
evil possible" seemed swallowed up i
an insatiate thirst for vengeance. Her
at the North, we experienced what wa
appropriately called the Reign of Tel
ror. 1t was an age of arbitrary and ST
cret arrests, of corrupt, cowardly
subsidized and prostituted press, q
paid spies and pensioned informers.-
Then the post Offices everywhere be
came each like The Lions Mouth Q
Venice, into whose open jaws, the ly
ing delator could secretly cast his il,
famous accusation, and from the tribr