The National tribune., 1911-01-05

so discouraged that they absolutely re-
fused to lend the Government any more
money at any price.
The Secretary of the Treasury and
his agents, who went begging to the
money centers, returned empty-handed
and discouraged. The only undiscour-
aged people in the country seemed 10
be the men who were at the front
actually fighting the battle of the coun-
try, while the Copperhead orators in
their rear were bowling about the awful
losses of life, the sanguinary waste or
the Nations blood to no purpose, and
the imperative necessity CT at once
stopping the war. The men who were
carrying the salvation of the country
upon their bright bayonets and doing
all the fighting and suffering were full
of hope and confidence and eager for
the war to be pushed to victory. They
would hear of nothing else.
When the Secretary of the Treasury
was repulsed by the finaneiers every
where, happy thought struck him to
appeal to these soldiers. He did so, and
out of their slender pay they at once
sent him s2O,0O0.O00, or enough to
tide over the crisis. 1t was
a magnificent exhibition of American
manhood and spirit.
1t was something that put the
American volunteers brilliantly ahead
of any other army { ever mus
tered. Those men were not fighting
for any hope of personal gain, for any
advantage or pecuniary benefit, such as
have animated most armies. but solely
to save their country; and they knew
they were saving it, no matter what
might be the walls of COpperheads in
the rear. Though they had left a
ghastly trail of dead to mark every
step of their long marches into the
enemy's country, though they had seen
their comrades fall day by day on their
right and their left hand until their
the strength they had mustered in the
glad Spring time, yet their magnificent
courage pushed them on to other bat
ties and other losses until the victory
they could see in the distance was as
sured.
One shudders to think what would
have happened il, after the slaughter in
the Wilderness, at Spotsylvania, at Cold
Harbor and at kenesaw. the veterans
of the Army of the Potomac or of
Sherman's army had said: I'VE are
utterly weary of this thing. Let us
stop and see if some compromise cam
not be made"
Looking at it to-day, we are amazed
that they did not. 1t is simply beyond
human comprehension in these happy
times of peace that they did not be-
come so utterly disheartened as to
stop before the impregnable works of
Petersburg and Atlanta and demand a
cessation of hostilities. Had they done
so, there would have been at least
a half dozen confederacies in this
country, and all the fruits of the peo-
ple's labor and enterprise would have
been eaten up in supporting the great
standing armies ana incessant fights
over boundaries.
The most amazing exhibition of all
was the way this unquenchable valor
and patriotism of these volunteers was
coined into solid money for the finan-
ciers. Sheridan's followed Early's in
solent army into the Shenandoah VAL
ley and utterly crushed it at the Ope-
quon, Fishers Hill and Cedar Creek.
Sherman's men charged over the
breastworks at, Jonesboro and captured
Atlanta. Abraham Lincoln's reelection
was made certain, the war would go
on, and the value of the greenback
sprang up to 4S cents. Every man who
owned 800 bond, a note or a Sc
curity was made 500 richer by the
fighting. In those few days they had
earned far more for the monied men
than can ever be paid out in pensions.
no matter how liberal.
In the worlds long history of wars,
there is no chapter so lustrous as that
written by the American volunteers.