Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1868-09-05
MISCELLANEOUS.
che Old Issue Over Again.

been greater curse than score of battles
fought on Northern SOIL and the capture of
a dozen Northern cities. Better that the
Rebel flag had foated in 1868 over the old
State House in Philadelphia, wherein the
frst Congress declared American Independ-
ence, than that the armistice had been grant
ed which the Democratic party urged and
the Rebel Government desired. Better, far
better, that the war were raging now, with
Grant still before Richmond, and Sherman
at Atlanta, than that the people of the
North had indorsed the declaration of the
Democratic party in 1864, that the war was
a failure, and compromise with traitors q
necessity. Peace hath her blessings, and
War, even in the noblest cause, cannot be
other than giant evil; but false Peace
comes sometimes to nation, crowned with
thorns ard robed in shame, offering short
respite as the price of long misery, and per.
petrating the strife which she pretends to
end. Bloodshed is not the worst of evils.
1t is better that men should die than that
principles should be destroyed. For such
reasons many of US feared that peace would
come too soon. After Bull Run the whole
North repudiated the idea with Indignation;
the Union could not treat with victorious
Rebellion. AS the war grew older men
trusted that victory would not come till
Slavery had been abolished. Long before
May, 1865, the loyal men of the United
States were resolved that the Rebellion
should be utterly crushed, and that the cle.
ments oftreason should be extirpated. When
Lee surrendered to Grant we thought that
the Rebellion was ended.
Is it endcd2 No. From all parts of the
South and from many men in the North
comes the assurance that the War for the
Union ended too soon. Their voices tell us
that McClelan's weary and costly delays
were not blunders that Grant made an
error when he closed up the war in the
West, and forced the fighting in Virginia;
that Sherman should have waited II: Attain
ia, and delayed for another year his trium
phant march to the sea. Those magnificent
combinations, by which the superior strength
of the Union was brought to bear upon
every point of resistance simultaneously,
were fatal mistakes. We are taught every
day that the war should have been indefinite
ly prolonged; that the Rebellion should
have been crushed inch by inch, till its
leaders had died in battle or fled from the
country; till its armies had dwindied into
bands of robbers; till it had beer driven
into the woods and swamps, to starve and
perish where the negro had starved and per-
isned in the days when Rebellion was only
an uplifted menacein that insulting hand
which Slavery shook in the face of the Re-
public. Victory WAS as premature, we are
assured, III 1865 at it would have been in
1862. Nothing was decided 10y the war, if
we may trust the defiance now hurled at us
by the South. 1t has gone back to 1850,
and proposes to begin over again.
But there is a difference. In 1860 the
country was warned that Rebellion would
toll 81. II,
dent In 1868 Rebellion is promised in case
of n Republican defeat. The election of
Seymour and Blair is to be the signal of an-
other war The Rebels of the South have
made it unmistakably clear that they intend
that Democratic victory shall pay them
for what they lost at Vicksburg, and Gettys-
burg, and Richmond. The Lost Cause of
the South is found again, and lives in the
Democratic party. The Rebellion declares
that Grant did not subdue it, and that 1t is
ready to fight again. Let us hear 1t speak.
Frank Blair promises Revolution if he is
elected. Robert Toombs declares that "the
Reconstruction acts are null and void, and
"shull not stand. The grinning skeletons
"that have been set up in our midst as legis-
'lators shall be ousted by Frank Blair,
"whom our party has expressly appointed
"for that purpose" Said Howell Cobb
in war we drew the sword, and bade them
defiance; in peace we gather up the man
"hood of the South, and raising the banner
"of Constitutional equality, and gathering
around it the good men Of the North, as
swell as the South, we hur into tEeir teeth
1.-The same defiance, and bid them come on
ito the struggle. We are ready for it, if
"you are" Albert Pike calls upon the
young men of the South to swear that the
I L. 4 hall
of fire, which no Northern Hun shall at
tempt to cross and live Secession is not
dead" says Gov. Wise "it is more alive
| "to. day than ever support Blair because
! ''he promises Revolution" j. NJ. Ramsey
of Georgia declares that the true men of the
! South are ready to rally once more under
the Rebel flag land try the issue at the car
! fridge box" and promises that there are
men in the North who will lead their bat
talions. III we are successful in the ap.
proachng contest" says The Mobile Tribune,
I'VE shall gain all that we lost in the Lost
Cause" THE country is by far too large
ito remain very long under one Govern
'ment," says The MemphiS appeal, and the
"day will come when the South will be in
dependent" "By the election OF Seymour
land Blair" says Gov. Vance of North Caro-
| lima, "al that the Confederacy fought for
! twill be won" The Mobile Tribune declares
that "the great Democratic party will rise
"in its might, and the dagger of Brutus
"msy aid in accomplishing our redemption
from Radical rule, ruin, and usurpation."
| There are many Democrats at the North
who believe" asserts The Mobile Register,
that the counter revolution will not be
complete without more blood letting; and
The Richmond Inquirer adds, THE white
men OF the Southern States have seen the
day when they could use the bullet, and,
III God III His anger permit the necessity to
arise, they will use it again" With the
skull and cross bones of the Lost Cause be.
fore us," cries The Meridian (Miss.) Nercurv,
I'VE will swear that this is a White Mans
Government. We must make the neeru
understand We are the men we were when
I'VE held him in abject bondage" "Gen
"Blair ut the head of the militia will be a
match for Gen. Grant at the head of the
regular army" boasts Gen. Ewing. Tho
Georgia Democratic Convention declared
"There might once have been a necessit,
"tor the Rebels of Georgia to submit to thu
military authorities. but there is none now
"The Democratic chivalry of the North ar,
"marching to our rescue"