The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1888-04-26
THE INFLUENCE OF THE GREAT
CIVIL WAR.
BY A. E. EWING.


Prize Grafton at Amphictyon Freshman
Contest, March IL, 1888.
The fall of Sumpter shook the con-
tinent The thunder Of her tumbling
battlements rang round the globe.
The nations of the earth were awak-
ened when the voice of treason poured
forth its bitterness at our national
fortress. The eyes of the world were
looking for the result of the Great
American Conflict.
More than score of years have
filed by us in the grand march of time,
since that struggle ceased; yet, hang
ing low in the horizon of our politi-
cal landscape, may be discerned traces
Of the smoke Of battle fought nearly
| three decades ago. The boom of can
non has scarce ceased to echo from
the hills of Chickamauga to the sea-
bord, and the sharp clash of steel is
only disguised in the muffied clash Of
opinion.
The war which robbed the United
States Of six hundred thousand of her
sons and a million homes of their
happiness was but the inevitable
eruption produced by the collision of
two opposing forces, each Of which
had been gaining momentum for
more than two centuries. The one
breathed the atmosphere of freedom,
believed in the equality of men, drew
its inspiration from the noblest in
stincts. of mankind. and was in full
j harmony with the advancement of
civilization The other was nurtured
the soil of selfshness; between it
and the pure sunlight of heaven were
The thick, dark clouds Of moral
debauchery; at the bidding Of tyrants,
by the hand of degraded conscience,
was welded the implement Of its
cultivation; it was barrier to civiliz-
alton. The one received it's impetus
when the great God Of creation
breathed life into clay and sent man
down through the ages with the
power'of discrimination between right
and wrong. The other, set in motion
by the fall of Adam, has left indelible
stains ON every page and tablet OF
history all along the line of sixty
centuries. Thus liberality and selfish
ness fought out their battles on
southern soil score of years ago.
! Was it right? Did justice demand
a life for the liberty Of seven2 All
let your conscience answer. Under
God it was right. The liberation o1
four million slaves was great con-
sideration, but the triumph of the
principle which did it was greater
one. With slavery removed, with the
question of national supremacy OF
state sovereignty forever settled, with
aristocracy dethroned and our national
glory redeemed, the position Of Amer,
lea as a factor in civilization was
placed inestimably higher than ever
before.
The conflict was great; so the in
fuence Of the result. It was an elec-
trio spark on the great cable Of sue
ceeding centuries which will be felt
to the end of time.
State sovereignty drew its last breath
at Appomattox, with the surrender OF
Lee. The great object for which it
lived had received it's death-blow two
years before at the hand Of Lincoln.
When the banner of oppression fell
the standard Of morality began to
rise; our land was relieved of foul
stigma. Christians breathed freer,
patriots no longer blushed at the
mention of ''our free country" and
the Declaration Of Independence, the
Americans pride, was made doubly
true. And has not this moral infu-
ence gone out beyond old Atlantic s
billows to Ethiopia's dusky shores,
there to nourish the germ Of civiliza-
tion which must eventually give all
Africa to enlightenment? The des-
TIMES Of nations yet unborn may be
nodded by the influence of the civil
war in America.
From 1890 to 1850, slavery in
creased about thirty per cent. each
decade. Had it continued at the
same rate until now, eight millions Of
our boasted sixty would shrink before
d masters frown and c,inge at the
crack of the cat-o-nines. Instead,
that man lives not who, under the
protection of our flag, can say to
another, "you are my slave" With
the last pulse-beat Of slavery came
the light heartbeat of the freedman.
Our political law recognizes no color
line. Prejudice cannot forever stand
against the light Of reason, and the
time is coming when the sentiment of
the people all over the states will be
the sentiment Of the fifteenth amend
| ment.
The march Of the intellectual in
fuence has only fairly begun. AL
ready there are no less than eighteen
thousand schools for colored children.
This means that three quarters of
million children are learning at least,
to read and write, who under the in
fuence of slavery were doomed eter-
nally to the shades Of ignorance.
Eighteen thousand schools built up,