Year: 1864

There is buoyancy after all in the
| Confederate atmosphere. The air
/ grows lighter and clearer around US,
/ and men begin to feel with full assu-


rance that our Confederacy is going


right through This improved tone in


public feeling is partly due to the reso-
/ lutte action Of Congress on the bills for


maintaining an efficient army and re-
covering financial health. Over and


above the actual operation of those
/ laws, there is virtue in them: that the


bold consistency with which they 90
| straight to the root of the matter, and
the ready appreciation with which they
are accepted on the part of the people,
give warranty that the country means
to use and exhaust all its powers and
resources of mind, body and estate, but
it will win and wear the dear prize of
independence There is nobody now,
nobody worth mentioning who has the
sad courage to say or hint that we may,
after all, be subjugated by the enemy.
None so irrational now as to speak of
any possible "compromise" that sac
ramental word in the old Federal poll
tics, which we could wish to have ex-
plunged forever from the Confederate
vocabulary We can all see and appre-
ciate what is to be our dreary tate in
one event, our noble recompense in the
other; and that between these two
there is nothing. This intimate convic-
ton, and the open public pledge given
by Congress, that all of us shall submit
to equal sacrifices in sustainment of
the common cause, makes any nation
of white men, of the right breed and
blood, truly invincible State is now
surer Of State, and each man surer Of
every other man, than they were three
months ago.


Therefore, in spite Of maladminis-
tration, or perverseness, or imbecility,
there is a healthier confidence that the
people will bring all right in the end
We are to have splendid army in the
field this coming spring, and one way
or another it will be fed That is
enough. With that, nothing can fatally
hurt US. We can bear even Gen. Bragg,
for he is not to command any arm in
action, and he will scarcely order Lee
to fall back, or Johnston's troops to
hunt the duck in Mississippi, or Beaure-
gard to evacuate Charleston, or Polk
and Maury to raise the white flag on
concede that in his present dignity he
may be rather useful than otherwise;
and at any rate this Confederate people
is going to carry our cause through, and
the whole Government along with it.
On the march for Independence and
victory, inspired by such fiery passion
and strong hope, we have force to make
light of every weight no incubus, or
Old Man of the Sea, will weigh q
feather By Heavens blessing we will
carry them all on our shoulders: will
pull through the very quartermasters,
and even, if that be possible, the COM
missaries themselves-there viii be a
heavy drag indeed


Sometimes there is comfort in calling
to mind that tiresome saying of the
Swedish Chancellor-that it is wonder
full how little wisdom goes to the gov
ernment Of men: Comfort, we mean, I
to the governed; for, as to the govern
ing (for the time being) they rather
disrelish that maxim while in Office. !
They are in the trade, and must look I
wise-it is impossible to be 50 wise as
they look; and at any rate, even if the
maxim were true, and they most potent /
ly believed the same, yet they hold it
not courtesy to have it thus set down I;
and for a great Chancellor, Minister
of State and brother Of the craft, to
decry his own wares and spoil the trade /
in that kind Of way, is piece of weak /
ness they cannot pardon in the too
candid Oxenstiern. But to those who
are, for the time being, not governing
but governed, it may be consolatOry, {
while they see the incompetence and /
perveTsity of rulers, 10 remember that 4
this is the way such things are done 1
that we may not be much worse off
than others, as men usually go--that /
most great things are accomplished in 1
the main; not by governments, but by |
the resistless viii of a reused national /
heart--that through all; and in spite Of
all the unwisdom Of rulers, a nations I
destiny sceomplishes itself, more or 4
less, according to that nations deserts I
and that the world, on the whole,
Wags


Here is the moral: that if we are
resolved 10 be free, and worthy TO be
free, we shall be, in spite Of the very
devil


Yes, matters viii all come right Not /
only from within, but from without, we
draw this assured hope and faith not
only from the improved confidence and I
intensified resolution Of the Confeder-
ates do we draw bright omen, but also
from the increasing bitterness of dis
cord and opposition Of interest in the
enemys country Their blindness
grows deeper and darker. They are in
the great year Of their Presidential
election and the two parties that are TO
contest that prize are actually making
their issue upon the ouestion-whet
they are 70 dc with Us and All that e .
ours after they shall have conquered 4
our country On this issue they viii +
build platforms and vote, or even lF7hat /
would be still more worthy Ct tneir n 4
teIIgence and uatriotisE1j build forts 4
,,,1 l~l.t Ara they To 20 for Lincoln, i