The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-01-13
gn1tttraI.
TIE C1vIL WAR IN HISTORY.

DbllA III ANp POboOppASAE ~~N
phrase because it would be idle to over.
look the existence of widespread sus'
picion that these records in the various
departments of the Government have
been tampered with to greater or less
degree and from various motives by diff
ferent persons having access to them
since the conclusion of the war. Whe
ther we'll or i'll founded, this suspicion
is not likely ever to be completely set at
rest, and it is ex remedy important,
therefore, that whatever materials the
Government controls for Just and ade
uuate study of one Of the most sanguin-
ary and 6eplorable episodes in modern
nistory should be authentiCally given to
the world at the earliest possible mo
ment. The most vital interests of the
American people have already suffered
severely from the temper in which the
story of those dark and evil years has
thus far been recited, not only in the
North but in the South. Whether the
mischief thus done can ever be fully re
paired may be question, but there can
be no question that the politicians, the
orators and the bookmakers who have
contributed to do it must be classed
among the worst of our public enemies
What the country most needs in regard
to the civil war is to be fairly and fully
confronted once more with the spirit of
mingled horror, alarm and inCredulity in
which the vast majority of the Ameri-
can people and of the most estimable
public men of the United States contem-
plated the actual approach of that dread
calamity. A habit has sprung up all
over the country Of talking about the
civil war with all its hideOus waste of
human life and of the accumulated re-.
sources of great and industrious peo-
pie as if it were glory and not
reproaCh to the patriotism and states
manship of republic originally founded
with an express eye to averting from its
people forever the disasters and the dis.
grace of such conflict. 1t deeply con.
Germs not the active men and women of
the present generation only, but those
who are to take up the burdens and in
cur the perils OF carrying on this vast
experiment in human society after we
have passed away, that we should be
called back from this false and danger.
GUS way, and look upon the recourse of
the most original Of republics to the
hackneyed and ruinous "last resort of
kings" as all good people in the U lited
States looked upon it twenty years ago. |
If we except a handful of busy and un-
principled agitators in both sections of |
In country, the whole American people |
in 1860 regarded the idea Of an armed |
contest between the North and the |
South as a crime against the very life of
liberty. That it could be forced upon
them by any contrivanCe they did not |
and would not believe. There are few
persons, probably, in New York to-day |
who expect to see fleet ofSpanish iron
clads anchored in New York Harborand |
this great city held to a ransom N of hun
dred millions of dollars under the guns
of such a feet, though it is quite certain
that in the actual condition of our coast |
defenses and of our navy such Catas-
trophe would be among the immediate
probabilities of war between Spain
and the United States, But there are
a hundred grown men in New York to-
day who expect to see this, where there |
was one grown man in N9w York TWEEN.
ty years ago who would not have nsid-
cred you lunatiC had you told him on
the first of December, 1862 that the b |
of July, 1861, would see a President of
the United States surrounded by one |
American army in Washington and |
trembling at the prospect of the imme.
diate capture Of the capital by another |
American army arrayed beyond the Pc.
tomaC for that purpose. The profound |
disbelief of the people in the possibility
of armed strife between the different
parts of the Union had grown up with
the growth and strengthened with the
strength of the nation, and when it was
rudely dissipated by the Outbur5t of hos.
tilities the fabric of our institutions
suffered serious shock from which it |
has not yet by any means recovered.
Everything which ends to make the
Americans Of the present day realize
this is of grave Importance to the public
veal and nothing can further this object |
more efteCtually than such public ,tions
as this which the Government has now
undertaken. The account given in this
,-ok yvn1,rp,n ne tha of - &c EDrk
is of particular importance for the light
which it throws on the reluctance of all
parties concerned in that affair, and es.
peCially of Major Anderson, to bring the
issue be ween the seeded States and the
rest of the Union to blows. 1t will be
remembered that a good deal of discus.
sion was excited some time ago by the
publication in the North American Re-
view of several papers in the nature of
extracts from the diary of public man
kept during the eventful months which
preceded the explosion at Sumter. 1t
has never been asCertained who kept
this diary, but it certainly reflects the
temper Of those times with amazing |
f lelity, and in one of the extracts from |
it published by the North American Re-
view the following account was given of |
the state of mind of Major Anderson !
just before the attack was made on him |
by the Confederates at Charl eston:
Washington, March 6 To-day
10 see me, having come directly through |
from Montgomery, stopping only day
in Charleston on the way, where be saw
and had long conversation with Major
Anderson, who is connection by mar.
riage of his wife, and with whom he has
long been on terms of particular good
will. He astonishes me by his state.
ments, which cannot doubt, as to the
real status of things at Fort Sumter.
That Major Anderson transferred his
garrison from Fort Sumter to FL. Moultrie
Of his own motion on discretionary in.
structions received last winter from the
War Department, he has no sort ofques
tion and indeed his very particular &C.
count given to me Of the circumstances
attending the act of transfer ia most in.