The Savannah morning news., 1903-10-25
PREFACE.

PREFACE.
Doubtless 1 shall tell this tale but
poorly. since have no skill Of writing
or rhetoric and must, for the most
part, proceed by blunt sentences and
short one-syllable words to the end
that 1 be understood. This record is
worth while, l think, for it exhibits
the growth of favor for the Union
within the Generals breast; and to be
corollary thereunto, his wrath against
States Rights as "A doctrine, together
with a hatred of Calhoun, its cham
pion, and what other folk were found
TO uphold the Vice Presidents hands
in those i'll courses of nulhtcation and
separation and secession he laid down
for national misguidance.
l myself had been with the General,
war and peace, for thirty years on end.
He was like an elder brother to me,
and l apprehended no man better. And
knowing him thus well-havtng his
thought and feeling and emotion of
politics at my mental finger ends-it
is in my strong belief that not until
he came and made oath as chief mag
istrate, did he conclude his position
touching this claim of right on a state S
part to nullify general law ana STRIKE
her name from the roll of our common
sisterhood. | was with him, say, Wheh
InG SGeQ OF lllG NIentl al hCNtA AAA'itN
to stand for union, one and lndiVlslDle'
was planted: and | witnessed It's quick
upgrowing and broadening until 1t smell
tered and Swallowed with wide Sa1ety
the very integrity of the country. we
had arrived at a fork in the road, the
ways were about to part. Calnouh
would have led us to the LETT, Whefe
no man could be sure of national con-
tinuance over night. But the General
ruled; he was for the right hand. by
his iron courage, and the brisk, white
clearness of his mental lights, the Cen
eral was to triumph. AS descendant OF
such victory the states were TO be uni
fed and secession beaten down. NOR
shall that hour find its morning IN all
time when the mighty eXcellences OF
the Generals labors are not to nave
their evidence, and the tree he plant
ed bear into the hands of men its fruits
upon the earth. He was a tremendous
mechanic of state, was Gen. Jackson;
and the world in it's construction VIII
wear his hammer-marks with those or
Cromwell and Napoleon while the ages
keep to their procession.
And yet, as may the Amazon have ul-
innate well-head in some rivulet as thin
as a thread, or a spring so little that
gourd might serve for its exhaustion,
so did the General come to select his
place in this business of UNFOLDING the
Union against those who would pun II
down, as incident to bucklering a wom-
an-poor and slight and feeble, she
was; the beautiful Peg O'Neal!-who
for her loneliness was envied and for
her goodness was hated and for her
origin as a tavern-keeper's daughter
was condemned by those proud folk
who named themselves the nations
court of fashion.
The General was a sentimentalist;
justice and to do right were with him
instincts, and came not as grist ground
coldly in the mills of calculated sell
fishness and reason. Scotch-Irish he
was in his strain; but more Irish than
the Irish and more Scotch than the
Scotch, he in a manner wonderful could
in the same moment be cool and warm,
and cautious and headlong, and pru-
dent and reckless, and close and frank
at once a Fabius and a Scipio. In
glow of sentiment made molten hot by
the recent death Of his wife-to him the
goddess of his worship-the General
would extend the power of his place and
name to be a refuge for the fearful
beautiful Peg, whom, as a child, his
wife had known and loved, and whom
he now found evilly crushed beneath
the social wheel And in a rush of
feeling he rescues her and sets her high
among the highest. Still, while it owns
it's hot inception to impulse wholly
Irish, this rescue; the carrying out
thereof, when now the General goes
about it, turns to be all Scotch in the
cautious yet indomitable character of
its execution.
Also, for that the General is ardent
and prone to mix private passion with
his public thought, he arrives at hat
red of notification, finding it a prime
principle among those enemies whom
he faces for the sake of poor Peg
ONeal. It is the great fire kindled of
a small thing, this, the Generals war
to sustain the Union against ones who
already searched for it's life. He rides
into the lists for a womans name. and
all unlxnowingly he bears the country's
future on the point of his spear. And
so comes this story; TO the purpose
and the hope that what in this good
way the General did. and why and how
he did it, may not die and disappear
upon the memories of men.