The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1894-06-01

officers at her house with wine, refresh
ments and vivacious conversation To
give General Putnam time to retreat
from New York. Nor Rebecca Mott,
who furnished lighted arrows with
which to fire the roof OF her own dwell
ing which the British were occupying
for a fort. Nor did they any longer
hear singing in their souls the glories
of Perry's victory, Sacketts Harbor,
Lumlys Lane, Bladensburg, Washing
ton and New Orleans-battles OF the
war of 1879. Nor did the battles of
Palo Alto, Monterey, Beuna Vista,
Cerro GordO, Molino del Rey, Chapul-
tepec and Cherubusco, which had shed
lustre on the American arms, thaw the
frozen current of Il once fervid patri-
Otism.
1t was i'm this frame of mind that the
south i'm 1861 threw down the gauntlet
of civil war. We did not want war.
We deprecated it and earnestly pleaded
for peace. We made concession after
concession to avert the coming storm,
and were willing To sacrifice everything
for it, except honor and the Union. We
wee met in a spirit of the utmost dis
dain, and were informed at every step
that no terms would be accepted except
such as looked To an immediate and
perpetual dissolution of the Union. This
ultimatum left us no alternative but to
fight. We loved the Union as we did
our lives and were determined TO pre-
serve and perpetuate the blessings 1t
had brought. They knew that by the
valor and great deeds of their fathers,
and of ours, these blessings had been
secured To all alike.
The southern people had been taught
and no doubt honestly believed, that
one Of their number could successfully
encounter and overcome in battle five
Yankees" as they opprobriously
dubbed us. The yankees" had de-
scended in large degree from Puritan
ancestors, who were of the common
people of England and who were de-
spised and held in contempt on account
OF their lowly and inconsequential con-
dition, as well as on account of then
opposition TO aristocracy and the en-
forced religious forms of the mother
country; also on account of their infleX-
ible adhesion To a growing demand for
greater freedom, not only In matters of
religion but in the liberty of the sub
iect The south professed, with pride,
to trace its lineage through long line
of noblemen and cavaliers. 1t looked
upon the north as being in every re-
spect inferior to itself. With these
views and feelings, and its overweening
attachment to its peculiar institutions,
it plunged the country into war which
lasted for more than four years. That
war is without parallel for its cost,
the amount of property destroyed and
number of lives lost. Its cost cannot
be estimated, much less computed.
Who will undertake TO visit the graves
of the brave men that went down in the
awful shock of battle? Who will search
out the numerous hospitals of that war
and follow to their last resting place
the loyal sons of the north who Ian
guished and died there from the effects
of sickness contracted and wounds re-
ceived in the line of duty? Who courts
the horrifying task of making pill
grimage to the prison pens of the south
and calling up the departed spirits of
seventy thousand true soldiers, who
like heroes died from starvation and
exposure rather than turn their backs
upon their comrades and the flag of
their country? Where is the man that
would have pass in review before him
the emaciated, naked and, in many