Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1871-06-07
snosbs daleskIp Gbropitls alsOp'sNqps Suns 1871.


improper TO restate &c, that wemay see ex-
actly what IL is.
Ten years have gone rushing by since
revolution broke upon u peaceful land.
Any reasons for It will be sought i'm vain
in the declarations preceding or attending
it's outbrake. Whatever were the mo-
tives and objects of the authors beyond
the overthrow of agovernment of admit
ted excellence and the disunion of these
states, they were not avowed. Nor was
there less preparation by the people for such
shock. So little, indeed that i'm the war
which followed, vast as were the armies,
and earnest as were the combatants, not
only were battles fought, but whole cam
paigns Were concluded before the number
of slain indicated any considerable skill
in the military art upon either side. Still
they rushed toarms with an alacrity which
proved that, in their minds at least, there
was something worth fighting for, If need
be, worth dying for. With some excep-
lions, their armies were composed of the
substantial elements of society, precisely
those who had the most to gain by
stable and well ordered government,
and the least to gain by anarchy, turbu-
lence and violence, and they placed them
selves Voluntarily in the ranks of death
and took cherfully the irrevocable vow of
the soldier. Home, friends, trade, bust
ness profession, family ties, social and po-
litical relations were discarded for the
more urgent duties of the field. 1t was a
great popular uprising, such as the world
has shown but few examples. Had the
war been invoked by a foreign enemy
there conld not have been greater zeal in
the defence. AS confirmation strong of
the deep heartfelt and ever-abiding loveof
the American people for their country,
their whole country and its free govern
ment, those early demonstrations of the
unwarlike and peacefully indicated citi-
zens ought seem to be forgotten. / well
remember n remark at that period at
tributed to Mr.. Alexander II. Stephens, to
the effect that the men who begin revo-
lutions are seldom the men who end
them. -.a
Another maxium often in the mouths
of men at the same period was that revo-
lutions never go backward, still another
might have been but was not added, that
revolutions seldom move forward to the
point aimed at by those who begin them.
We have seen all aphorisms prove true,
although not in the sense in which they
were used and certainly understood at that
day. Without following the fortunes of
the war in the fluctuations of success,
from the opening scene at Bull Run to the
closing of the tragedy at Appamattox
Court House, it is apparent that the great
movement never retrogated, there were
no steps backward, it advanced in
way little immagined by those who
set it agoing, and they who began it have
almost to man DISAPPEARED and given
place to others. This remarked change
extends to social aud private life as well
as to public life, and what was usuallyun-
derstood by our peculiar institution. All
these results, be it understood, were indi-
cative and not objective. The object was
to preserve the Union, everything else
was not only subservient but subsidiary.
My object, said President Lincoln in q
OF ~ fn In in hn
summer of 1862, is to save the Union. If
/ can save it by preserving slavery l will
preserve slavery If / can save it by abol-
ishing slavery, will abolish slavery. We
know the result. So of other points. The
war for the Union went on, overthrowing
and wiping away all obstacles, and using
every available fundamentally, never
ceasing, never intermitting until every
foe was disarmed and the Union was safe,
and there it ceased. To preserve it secure
against future dangers has been the subse-
quent endeavor. The Union then was
the cause for which and against which so
many men died and received sympathy
and honor, respectively, from its
friends and its enemies. No words
of mine are needed in vindication
of the Union. A thousand times has this
browning effort of Washington, the adj
miration of patriots for three quarters of
a century, been the theme of eloquence
anu iii ptSblOueu aIBuuleII lOT burp;tSSilB
minds. A thousand times have the youth
of the land been intreated, not without
tears, never to abandon it or to turn
against it. No, no, our cause requires
nothing of human speech to commend it
to posterity. / will not even predict their
Judgment.
Our recent intercourse with foreign ma
tions has been no loss satisfactory than our
domestic affairs. We are literally and
tRnly at peace with all the world, not eX-
cepting the predatory tribes lowering on
our frontiers. During our mortal struggle,
a few IF them were friendly, the most of
them indifferent, and some actively hos
tile. Among the last were Plus TX, Ma
poleor III and the British government,
all too eager, impatient for our undoing.
The first, who alone of potentates re-
cogniZed the rebellion as a nationality, and
by consequence the complete dissolution
of the Union, after proclaiming his own
infallibility, was stripped of all temporal
power by men of his own church, and as
he himself chooses to express it, impris-
oned in the Vatican. The Emperor of the
French is in exile, his capital in ruins, and
the finest parts of his empire held in
pledge by an invading and victorious enc
my. The negotiations just concluded with
sNafu. laar.W