Year: 1861

It is not to be denied that the cost OF
war to all concerned will be very heavy
The pecuniary loss and the material destruc-
ton will be great. 1t will doubtless be tar
greater to the North than to the South but
it will be sore and grievous to each. 1t is
in this form that the evils of war are most
severely felt. But the losses of all honor
able war have their compensations


War stamps new character upon society.
Prolonged peace briugsinto play all the sor-
did principles Of human nature War
brings out the heroic qualities, and gives
them supremacy in the aspirations and in
the conduct of men. The best casuists,
while deprecating war in itself, have held
that it would be we'll if every generation
could have some experience of it. When
people devotes itself for two or three gen.
erations to the uninterrupted pursuit of
wealth, and to the enjoyment of the ener-
vatiug and demoralizing Incidence which
wealth induces, it is only the ex;gencies of
war that can recall them from lethargy and
sel6shness to sentiments of honor, patriot
ism and glory. The sentiment of patriot
ism is one of the most ennobling in the
human breast; but how little is it exercised
in the dull and selfish routine Of peace -
The difference between peace and war In
the impression they make upon character,
is the difference between Shylock and
Othello; the thoughts of the type of one
are upon Mammon, Of the other upon glory.
Avarice is the passion predominant in one
condition, honor in the other. A nation
could afford to sacrifice the gains of half
century of peace for the elevatiug sentl-
ments of honor and patriotism which sim
gle year of war will inspire. One year of
self sacrifice in noble cause is worth more
to the character of man and of nation
than lifetime of selfseeking, self-indul-
gence and pecuniary thrift. Heaven mourns
the growth of wealth and luxury; He'll
delights in it. All the vices flourish in the
time of prosperous peace; the priVations
and trials of war nip them all in the bud.


1t is mistake to suppose that peace, a.
loae, is propitious to the growth of free
principles. On the contrary, it is war which
best fits men for freedom and elfgovern.
ment. Liberty fourished in Greece as long
as the heroic character of thatpeop!e lasted;
when they ceased to be warriors, they ceased
to be freemen. The grandest days of Rome
were those of the Republic, when the Tenn
pie of Janus was most rarely closed. The
foundations of the greatness Of Rome were
laid in the ages of perpetual war, while the
Romans we're freemen. 1t required many
centuries to destroy the mighty fabric, but
the decline began in the hour when the
liberties of the people were taken away, and
it was then that the legions ceased to be
invincible.


Great Britain has been the theatre of
perpetual wars; and there it is that the fires
of liberty have never been extinguished.-
Ireland has been the scene of but little or
ganized war, and when was not Erin more
or less in state Of subjugatiou? Switzer-
land has been the refuge of liberty in Eu
rope through all modern times; and has,
during the whole period, furnished their
best soldiers to its sovereigns


Itis not pretended that war does not Of
ten crush out all the vestiges of liberty, des-
troying it as ehectually by force as does
peace by undermining and corrupting it.
But liberty aourishes no better in China and
Japan, where they never fight in earnest,
than it did in Europe while Bonaparte con-
verted the Continent into camp. 1t was
the perpetual wars of the aborigiues of our
own country that kept them stripped of all
the comforts of life, but it was these very
wars that kept them free. The Mezicans
subdued by Cortez, enjoyed much higher
state of luxury and civilization, but it is
hardly question whether the condition of
the half.starved children of the northern
forests was not more desirable than that of
the subjects of Montezuma. The war-like
Tartars are certainly nobler race than the
sordid Chinese, the abject Hindoos, or the
fetisch Africans.