The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1891-10-12

= Spouse to the toast, "The War is Over
Let US Have Peace" spoke as follows
a THE GLOBE believes that this is the key
: note to the s~ituation-that it is the hon
est truth, and when all believe as the
!, gifted editor of the Louisville Courier
Journal believes, that then the south will
be more prosperous. This is what WAT
TERsoN said:
81 believe that at this moment the PEG.
; pie of the United States are nearer to-
gether, in all that constitutes kindred
feeling and interest, than they have beer
at any time since the adoption of the fed
eral constitution. If it were not so
should hardly venture to come here and
talk to you as l am going to talk tonight
AS it is, surrounded though l be by union
soldiers, my bridges burned and every
avenue of escape cut off, I am not in the
least discouraged or alarmed. On the
contrary, I never felt safer or happier or
more at home. Indeed I think that, sup
ported by your presence and sustained by
these commissary stores, l could stand a
seige of several months and hold out
against incredible odds. 1t is wonderful
how circumstances alter cases; for it was
not always so.
II am n of many witnesses who live
totell the story of a journey to the moon
and back 1t may not be that | have
any marvels Of \personal adventure or
any prodigies of individual valor to re-
late, but l do not owe my survival to
the precaution taken by a member of the
confederate battery commanded by the
brave CAPTAIN HowELLs, ofGeorgia. 1t
was the habit Of this person to go to the
rear whenever the battery got we'll under
fire. At last CAPTAIN HoWELLs called
him up and ~admonished him that, if the
breach of duty was repeated, he would
shoot him down as he went, without a
word. The reply came on the instant
That's all right, cap'n; that's all right
you can shoot me, but I'll be dadburned
if I'm going to let them darn'd Yankees
do it! I at least gave you the oppor-
tunity to try, and | am much your debtor
that, in my case, your Workmanship was
SO defective.
"1ou have been told that the war is
over. l think that I, myself, have
heard that observation. I am glad of it.
Roses smell sweeter than gunpowder;
for every. day uses the carving knife is
preferable to the bayonet or the sabre,
and, in a contest for first choice between
cannon balls and wine corks, l nave a
decided prejudice in favor of the latter.
"The war is over; and it is well over.
GOD reigns, and the government at Wash
ington still lives. I am glad of that. I
can conceive nothing worse for ourselves,
nothing worse for our children, than what
might have been if the war had ended
otherwise, leaving two exhausted COM
batants to become the prey of foreign in
tervention and diplomacy, setting the
clock of civilization back a century, and |
splitting the noblest of the continents
into five or six weak and warning repub-
hes, like those of South America, to re-
peat in the new world the mistakes of
the old.
THE war is over, truly; and, let me re-
peat, it is we'll over. If anything was
wanting to proclaim it's termination from
every housetop and doorpost in the land,
that little brush we had last spring with
SIGNoR MACARoNI furnished it. AS to
the touch OF an electric bell, the whole
people rallied to the brave words of the
secretary Of state, and, for the moment,
sections and parties sunk out of sight and
thought in one over-mastering sentiment
~racehood, manhood and nationality.
u shall not stop to inquire whether
the war made us better than we were. 1t
certainly made us better acquainted and,
on the whole, it seems to me that we
are none the worse for that better &C.
quaintance. The truth is, the trouble
between US was ever more than skin
deep and he curious thing about it is
it was not our skin, anyhow 1t was
q black skin that brought it about.
"As l see it, u great sectional contro
Versy was, from first to last, the gradual
Of a people from darkness to
light, with no charts or maps .to guide
them, and no experience to lead the way.
The trainers Of our constitution found
unable to fix decisively and to
define accurately the exact relation of
he states to the federal government. On
hat point they left what may be described
an open clause" and through that
open clause, as through an open door, :
he grim spectre of disunion stalked. It ,
vas attended on one hand by African i
slavery; OBJ the other hand by sectional ,
ealousy, and between this trio of evil 6
the household flower of peace WIS
orn from the Intel and tossed into the .
of war. ,
In the beginning all Of us were
and equally guilty, for African =.
1t was the good fortune of the