The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-01-02
NUMBER ONE.

lustrious parsonage who appears TO us
to have been mirrored upon the fore
ground of events like some titanic
silhouette.
The irony of fate has dealt with such
n man as the creation of an hour-hold-
ing him in leash in time OF peace 10
become the storm centre IN monstrous
crises. When he dies, the perspective
of history is changed, and a twilight
suddenly falls upon the world. Such
parsonage may be fifty called the
courier of fate-the tragedian OF revolu-
ton. He cannot be weighed or meas
ured by the definite Judgment OF
contemporaries. When he flies the
stride of conquest is checked; sword
blades dripping with slaughter are
thrust back into scabbards.
in war he is it's inspiration-Iits pro-
violence. / make no allusion ito that
splendid effgy-that is as yet dscerned
in the haze that lowers over Vienna,
Berlin and Moscow, that Incompetent
sible tutor of strategic SCIENCE who,
with sword and cannon cut q swath
through the capital cities of Europe,
and partitioned the world into two do
minions as if he were only cutting in
twain an apple.
/ speak of him whom this nhn that
Embarrassed God" found a 'Naif and
made a giant" the duke of Mobtebello.
His death FASTENED to it's decline that
magnificent Imperialism that Napoleon
the Great erected on the ruins of the
Commune. The fall of Stonewal Jack
son at Charlottesville thrust between
the Confederacy and independence a
pail so dense that it could not BE hewn
asunder by the sword.
j can compare Stonewall Jackson with
no military hero living or dead He
stood in the foreground an undue per-
sonality-a phenomenon--witlA the
genius of war he was almost stpernat-
urally mated. Whether his | unpar-
alleled victories were the resefit OF
method, logically conceived, or the re-
suit of AN intuition-a God-like ipercep-
ton that almost without effort forced
his genius upon vast evolutiolks will
perhaps be never known.
The plain outlines of this mani remind
one of the hard-hitting, rougah-riding
Roundhead. His dispatches plainly
gmacked of the Calvanism of Ir2 ton and
Cromwell "God blessed our ar with
victory at Mcdowell yesterda Wher-
ever there was a downpour ieaden
rain Jackson and the "IronsiV would
have been in full accord. His
genius that resolved all c0mblna N
b;s favor His. that mastery an brehen-
sion of results that diminished tie earn
age by plucking the fruit of sue less be-
fore it was fully ripe. In war Ps else
where he was absorbed by a #atallsm
such as Mahometans sum up wh@n they
say what will be will be-" Napoleon,
like an astrologer, believed in a star.
Stonewall Jackson, unlike an astN rologer,
believed in Him who made the 81 tar and
lighted it in the candelabra of might.
A few years ago an AmericaI asked
q halting, mutilated soldier of I'll pc old
Guard in Paris, if he could ell him
how Napoleon died. 1.-THE GreSat En-
peror dead? You don't know hi# n lie
will not de- replied the old M who
had fought at Marengo and W aterioo
under the imperial eagle. 1t WIS with
something of this vague superstN ton OF
this heoric belief in old StoneWyall as
their providence that one Of tile "OId
Brigade" would hearken dubio #lsly to
such a challenge, '"TelI Us howl Stone
wall died."
Critics who have judged witt more
or less asperity, have said that A his ca
pacity as a commander was hmNlt to
the manoeuvres of a corps Strange
fatuity A score of battleield# prove
the opinion false. If such hal been
the case, the history of Port Republic,
of Harper's Ferry, of GroyetonH would
have been written the other wa
I saw this man Of destiny Cold
Harbor Again he initiated tie pre-
destined leader of the "IronsideMs, If
the enemy stand at sunset presAs them
with the bayonet.n All con mands
issuing from him found their A climax
in this supreme order. The zero OF
Toulon never loved the fret hroated
twelye-nounder more than did jackson.
He would have swept every obstruction
from the field with a single battery or
failing in this he would have still
pressed" them with the bayone#.
1 shall speak of the campaign Nof this
wonderfully endowed son of the South.
The camp fires Of Jackson are extin-
guished. The old army Of the henan-
doah is an aggregation Of ph#ntoms.
1, chichester. Front Royal, Fre#ericks-
burg and charlottesville apmear as
mirage. "reminiscences that steal unbid-
den upon the soul when its dep#hs are
full of darkness and shadows
We walk today hstlessly Ger the
great rough, heroic life OF St8neWan
Jackson, but ON either side OF uE there
are monuments to his glory eNermore
Frightening to a higher lustre. 1T is
stern business this going to waf. Re-
Cancellation is problematical-mdr ire
quently impossible. The PUBLIC pulse
in 1861 was intensely excitingN One
boastingly said upon one side Nhat all
the blood that would be shed could be
wiped up with a pocket handkR rchief
Another on the other side equally boast
full averred that he would live Ito call
the roll of his slaves at the loot OF
Bunker Hill and thus there werR braV-
ado and bandinage, until the 4 Ana
conda'' turned as many hued SCALES to
the sun on the Dist of July, 1861. The
scene from the northern point q view
was excitingly dramatic-a gtlihcent
host all in tinsel; a composite rapresen-
tation of war and carnival.
A flash as Of gun-powder-a Eblazing
up as of dry heath, a shout over SO
frightful and half internal and tho whole
universe seemed wrapt in faIhe and
wild tumult, but the fire has dieM out
tumultuous passion is allayed-tMe uni
verse with its old mountains and glades
its stars above-its soil beneath, \ is still
there.
Jackson believed in the cause hs il it
had been a revelation from Cod Crom-
we'll said: "Let us obey Gods W#ill," so