Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-08-30
WAR AND IT'S RESULTS.

j Some of the organs of Radicalism'
conscious of the atrocious acts and |
character of their party, plead in ex-
|tenuation, the assumed fact, that de-
moralization and aggressive vices are
necessary and unavoidable results of
war. Was it so with the war of " 1872
We think not, and the reasons obvious.
The soldiers and civilians who took
part in that conflict, felt that their
cause was just, and the ends aimed at,
the highest and noblest of human as
pirations-liberty for the citizen and
independence for the government.
The pure and patriotic motives
which suggested the achievement
of such glorious results, elevated
all who participated in the move
ment, far above the groyelling and
mercenary instincts of selfish am
bition and the degrading vices of
hireling soldiery. The same noble
ambition which prompted the war ruled
in the hour of alternate victory and
defeat, preserved all of humanity CON-
patible with rigid discipline In dealing
with friend and foe, and, the final tri
umph won, they who had achieved it,
carried with them, into pursuits of
peace. the elevated views and feelings
which had sustained and ennobled
them in all the trials of a seven years,
war.
Did the results of the war of 1912,
or the war with Mexico-though of
very questionable justice-sustain the
Radical plea, that the ills we bear are
the necessary results of war? 1fun-
true, in the three cases cited, why is it
so painfully true of the war of 1861 T?
Simply, because it was deliberate,
war of aggression upon the cOnstitu-
tional rights of States and individuals
"a war for the overthrow of the gov
eminent and the consequent destruc-
ton of free institutions. Such a war
was of necessity, demoralizing, in the
extreme, because Of the villainy which
engendered it and the savage brutality
that marked its entire conduct, on the
part of the North And the fact that
the feelings of malignity towards the
South and enmity to the Constitution
the growth of years-suryived the
war, is sufficient to account for the dis
astrous peace that has followed
peace marked by every wrong that ty-
ranny can inhict and corrupt ambi.
ton suggest.
But, in justice to the South, history
will record the fact that this frightful
degeneracy is as sectional as the north
erna ggressiOns which led to the con
flict. The corruption which blurs it,
good name is not indigenous, but o.
northern growth and importation. With
a few notable exceptions, the honor anC
integrity of the South is as character
istic as in the days of its prosperity
the war has ruined, but not degraded
it. and the few of its own children who
betrayed it, are the Judases bought vi
by the corruption fund, at Washing
ton, gathered from the ruins of gov
eminent and people. Before the piou'
Harlan reurges his plea of necessity
let him ask himself whether he was ;
thief by nature, or made such by thu
war. An honest answer will be Sc
we're, but wholesome, test of his theory
Andasimilar determination by ever!
prominent Radical will furnish ample
proof, to themselves, that all who plead
the war in extenuation of their rob
berries, were thieves by nature, or edu
cation, and that the war did no more
than to give them the opportunity.