Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-04-18
THE PAST rHE GREAT TEaCuE.

THE PAST THE GREAT TEACHER.
There are adequate causes for al
consequences and the hideOus and null
tiplied ones that We have family out
lined, as well as those that have
succeeded them and now cypress US, are
not the effects Of Northern u~surpation,
hate and revenge alone. We also have
had some part in causing them, and il
we lay the hattering JUNCTION to our souls,
that they are in 40 degree, or in a small
degree only, owing to our own ill-con-
duet and want Of wisdom, we shall in no
wise profit by the awful lessons we are
now receiving, nor be able to halt even
for a moment in our headlOng career to-
ward thu hell Of ruin that yawns ahead
Of us, among the breakers on which the
Ship Of State is driving.
A war 50 unnecessary, and calamities
50 frightful, can only have been the conse-
quenees, either Of some inherent defect
In our system Of Government, or Of in
competency and ~ineapacity in the man
sgement Of our affairs. II IS useless to
go about to evade or put out of sight this
truth. The malady is internal. No
force OF fraud from without has oppressed
Us, nor had the senility which comes to
nations as it does to men, with its dotage
aud loss Of vitality, overtaken US. We
die while We are yet young; and yet it
does not seem hat the Gods love US.
Now, while the slings and arrows Of
outrageous fortune vex the people, when
utter and remOrseless ruin has overtaken
every one, and death is in every house
and a skeleton at every table,-now,
when calamity sharpens the wit Of men
aud disposes them to admit that an has
not been managed well, and that either
their institutions were not so perfect, or
their public men so capable and wise, or
themselves 50 difficult to deceive, as they
had imagined,-9OW is the proper time
foE<oOse to whom the people viii listen,
and to whom it is ft they should listen,
TO inquire unto what causes it is thatthese
dreadful disaster are owing, and To tell
those on whom the fury Of the storm "a
beating, in what respects they must
change their courses, amend their insti-
N4AAaIH III EDN1A hAANAAf anu dNOl4 the 7
repetition Of the fatal errors that are now
costing them so dear.
Nor is the future less gloomy and ON
inous for the Northern States. although
they have ~subjugated Us, and linked the
dead corpse Of the South to their living
kody, after they have borne it in tri- +,
nmphal procession with baccbanal shout
ings OF intoxicated joy. There are victo- ,
ries that injure more than defeats. The
future is full, to them, Of threatening, :
spectral shapes Of disaster. Bankruptcy, !,
foreign war, internal hatreds, a hell OF :
fire thinly erusted over, new -dissensions, .
separations, s~trlfes, new rivers Of blood. )
repeated destinations, new lightnines Of :
the red deserved wrath Of God. the cor !,
stains Of innocent blood upon the
soul, the insensibie horrid lapse in.o the !,
most bideous Of despotisms, all the =
Dantesque horrors Of the Internal regions !,
that the shades of dead nations, tor =
Iured, inhabit,-all these stare upon Z
hem, out Of the grim, silent darkness Of =
he future days. We write for them :,
llso; for we are human and mourn for n
he woes Of humanity. We pity and do r
lOt hate them and We pity them the y
more because the bitter cup has been ~
He'd TO the brim by themselves. and II =
) their own hand that holds it 10 their
ips. So God Furnishes nations.
And though the doom Of both the 40
forth and south may be sealed though Pc
ne IS subjugated, and it seems fatea that \,
be other IS to be ruined by victory. there 10
Istih q future sAele VIII De people to sol
habit il, ~se viii seek to be free, and rs
~ only lie 30 by learning the lessons Of in
isaom III the annals Of the Past. Let Of