American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1879-11-08
After the Battle.

AIUer Tie BatLlcs
Notwithstanding the result of the
election in Ohio on Tuesday, we firmly
believe that the late civil war in Amer
lea will one day end. 1t may not be
in this day and generation, but that war
will some time close. We have faith
like a quart of mustard-seed-a faith
surprising that of sacred history. We
say this, not unmindful of the faith of
Gideon, and of Barak, and of Sam
son, and of Jephtha, and of David,
and of Samuel, and of the Proph-
cts, who through faith subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, OBJ
tanned promises, stopped the mouths of
lions, quenched the violence of fire, es-
capped the edge of the sword, out of
weakness were made strong,
waXed valiant in fight, and turned
to fligh the armies of the aliens We
have no wish to undertake the in
stances of faith that float down to us
from the days of Abraham. We
only desire to emphasize our own.
We arc inclined to take a cheer
full view of things. Almost
half generation of men have
come and gone since the war closed,
and still the war is not ended. This
would discourage people without faith,
! but it does not discourage us. There
are little boys and girls prattling in
play-yards, riding in baby-carriages,
nursed beneath the pine or swinging in
hammocks, who cannot read the news
papers of to-day, or of the day before
the last election, who will grow up and
become voters, or the wives of voters,
who will look upon the war of 1861 as
ended. AS these babies get older they
may sing together, beneath the same
apple-trees,
"My country, tits of thee" &c.,
"Away down South in the land of cotton" &C.,
and the childish voices may chime to-
gether just as though there had been no
civil war. And as little boys and girls
grow older they may mingle together
in the same schools, and attend the
same church, and look at the same pic
lures, and read the same books side by
side, without knowing that some are
Montagues and some are Capulets. And
by and by the lustrous-eyed, tropical
girl may be wooed and won by the
manly Northerner, and through nu-
merous romances the opposite banks of
the Ohio may be more closely welded,
and the war may become a tradition.
Even if this is too severe strain upon
the Imagination, our faith stretches
out and sees children yet unborn
who will surely grow up, and in
the professions of seed-time and
harvest, as life and love and death
run on, as marriage and business and
society draw closer together, the peo-
pie of the orange and the palm and the
people of the hills and the hemlock will
certainly discover that the war of 1861
is ended. Or, even if these unborn
children do not consent to regard
the late civil war as closed, their
children or their children's children
surely will. That war is bound to end.
Our faith tires not We are the more
encouraged about this because the
beauties of this social, and commercial,
and political Union have really attract
ed the attention of the politicians. The
Administration saw them more than
two years ago.
We have faith, also, that the tune
will come when valor and heroism for
the Union may relieve a Democrat from
the charge of treason, and when the
loss of two legs and an arm in the fight
for the Union will be considered 20riT1G
fdcie evidence of devotion to it on the
part of Democrat. 1t is already
demonstrated that the loss of one leg
is insufficient. We have faith, further
more, that the day will come when men
will not be afraid to vote for the Decla-
ration of Independence because it hap
pens to bear Democratic label. We
also believe that the time will come
when the people of this country will not
be anxious to hire and substitute corpo-
rations to loan their debts.
But we see these things only by the
eye of faith. The blessed time of which
10 ia nf
Ohio have just voted upon some of these
questions. They have said that they
don't want Union soldiers to be at the
head of the State Government. They
have said that they wish to retain the
National banking system in power; or,
if they do not so wish, they have sue
cumbed to the seductions of the ''spe-
cial measures which the National
Banks announced that they would take
to carry Ohio for Mr.. Foster. The
voters of OhioI at all events, have said
that they prefer National Bank notes to
greenbacks and silver, and the chast-
ened but indomitable people of this
great State have voted that the Secre-
tary of the Treasury spans the heavens
with his right hand, and balances upon
his finger the sunshine and the storm,
exercising, in some mysterious way, a
controlling influence over the soil, and
being himself the industry, and enter
prise, and energy of millions of men,
which no vicious legislation could alto
gether overcome. Sometimes intelli-
gent men are incapable of rendering
unto Caesar the things that are Ciesars,
and unto God the things that are Gods.
Ohio has chosen to vote against sill
yer, against greenbacks, against sol
diers, against the Declaration of indie
pendence, against the entire sentiment
of Union, against the principles of civil
liberty. Cincinnati Enquirer.
A NEW feature in the way of suspen-
sion bridge across the Housatonic River
in Connecticut is reported by local pa
per. 1t was single thread of SPIDERS