The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-31
SENTIMENT AND srRrNGrH.

We sometimes wonder IL those dread
days should come again when our sons
were summoned to battle, whether we
could count on the warlike manliness of
the nation to do its devoir as nobly as be-
fore. We have grown in national refine
ment; we have grown in certain kinds Of
culture; we care more for that ornamental
art that flatters and fascinates the few; We
think less of utilitarian industrial art that
blesses the many; we have grown greatly
in non-essentiais. Have we grown, or
even held our own, in martial manhood?
There are worse things than war for a
nation. The sword of Cromwell did more
than a century of debate for civil and re-
iigious liberty; the sword of the Puritan
against the Indian was the first plowshare
of New England civilizations: the sword
of Washington founded the State that the
swords of Grant. Sheridan, Sherman,
Hancock and Thomas have deep bottled
TO the bedrock of nationality. Even the
sword of Napoleon. by the confession of
the ablest Englishmen of our day, wrought
immense good to continental Europe.
Both Germany and Italy owe their pres.
ent unity to the work of Napoleon, with
whom "despotism was q means. not an
end" Our civil war burnt ont more
moral and political malaria than it left
behind. War is better than the decay,
the rust, the cankers of a calm world and
= long peace.
The future of America may not include
that of Venice. that is today simply a
gondola, where once she was a war galley.
gallant guardian Of the cross, terror to
the Turk and mistress OF the Mediter-
ranean, bat if the South was as absolutely
plutocratic and insanely utilitarian as the
North we should expect n deterioration of
those virtues which are essential to the
successful conduct and endurance of q
great war for national existence The South
has Its serious infrmities of mind and
manners; we call it provincial, and laugh
at its clustering speech at times. but this
very local pride and self esteem that al
WAYS prevailed at the South saves her war
like virtues from decay. While the South
was always boastful and arrogant of
speech, 1t must be confessed in candor. that
like the French Gascon. the South was AZ
bold and fearless with its sword as il was
with its tongue.
This provincial pride of race and sec.
ton; this exaltation of manly courage
above every other quality. has kept the
South from ever growing careless or indif
ferent to her military record and renowu.
The universal regard and respect with
which the South to this day treats the
name and fame Of all her soldiers and
statesmen, from Lee down to JEFF Davis.
NAV seem sometimes to lack discrimins-
ton between high and low degrees of tai
snt, patriotism and public service, but it
il better far than the mood of the North.
where the youth of the country
are become so grossly utilitarian
that the Union veterans who COM
pose the A Il. are iiippantly spoken Of
with derision in the mass. In the mass
these veterans will compare favorahly with
any class of citizens in the country. and
the folly or i'll conduct Of individuals who
have discredited themselves is no more 20
be counted against them than the indi-
yidual unworthiness Of . member OF the