Year: 1868

eager 10 serve lne OOInnIOuhCdiln; ~


to them in her reverses than in her days
, of pride and glory and thousands dis
G cover that they are capable of suffering
and sacrifice for the sake Of their fellow:


and the State.


All the sympathies of humanity awake
and with them its antipathies, which
make the people scorn and despise those


who counsel the country for dishonor, III


the hope of finding baseness profitable


and are even willing that she shall pledge


her faith, with mental reservation that


upon the first convenient opportunity


she will break it. These are the Prophets


of Baal, whom God and all good men


detest


War is not always and altogether an


evil. 1t sometimes restores the brother


hood of men or States, in letters of fire. "


When men are seated in their pleasant


places, inclined to ease and Incidence, or


when they are hurrying after wealth,


pulling down those above, kicking lower


those below, crowding from the pavement


those by their side, trampling on and


over those who fall, then, as Baalzebub


is Emperor and as there is no longer


any Gods World, but only the Devils


World, war is the sharp discipline that


admonishes men, like the rod of a severe,
lust father. 1t is the hurricane that


brings the elemental equilibrium, and


sweeps away the pestilential miasma of


which the sick State languishes. There


is greater brotherhood in the common


dangers of the field, in the camp and


biyouac, than in the peaceful quiet


homes, where the sword is sheathed, and


in the great temples of the law, justice
alone decides controversies.


| do not know that have made very


manifest to you the drift and connection


Of much that have said. | fear that in


following my own thoughts, and rather


communing with myself than addressing


you. | have more than once led you


astray, and we have lost ourselves to-


gether.


l mean to say, that it is perhaps bet


ter for the South that she was defeated


in her great struggle for independence.


l think that her people needed the dis


pline of adversely and the Christening of
calamity and that they would have been
spoiled by victory. You do not need to


be told how over-eonident and vain-glo-
rious we were at the commencement of
the war, nor how we overrated ourselves
and underyalued the enemy. l greatly
doubt whether we were fit for indepen-
dence; and whether, to fit US for it, we
did uot need the very discipline through
which we are now passing, and the terri
Bile lessons of the war. Victory, foster
inc as it always does, the spirit of vain
glory. the desire to Oppress the van
duished. the base spirit of cowardly re-
venge. might have sunk US to the level
to which it has sunken our victOrs. The
consequences Of defeat are partly good
and partly evil but the good preponde-
rates for misfortune ennObles and exalts
the soul that does not yield to discour-
agemet and despair.


1t is then. as | have said, that all the
great latent sympathies of Humanity
awaken, differences Of opinion disappear,
and men disinterestedly devote them
selves to the service of the Common
wealth, speaking boldly the truth and /
doing manfully all that duty demands, at
whatever risk, of bonds or of the seaf-
fold. Then the people, wiser than when /
prosperous, turn reverentially TO their /
wise and great men, and demand that
they shall become their leaders. Then
Providence raises up great men and sets
them in the places that are theirs by Di
vine right; and so, at last, by arms or
peaceful revolution, deliyerauce comes.


We need not fear that We shall be ma
Iigned by History, or misjudged by Pos
terity. We shall not always be called
rebels or traitors Clarendon wrote the
.. History of the Great Rebellion" but
History has reversed the decision. The
History of the late Civil war viii not al
ways be Byitten by partizans. By and
by there VIII be for US Tacitus or



And if any people hereafter attempt
to subjugate another, ss civilized as sitself,
Just cause, or if one portion of
a people compel by arms another por-
ton to rehnquish an attempt to win po-
litical independence, the failure Of the
will have been permitted by God,
for the ruin of those who win, and seem
to be justified by success. The example
will ever after stand as a warning 10 the
world. If, in such a war, the invaders
should license their troops to plumber
and to murder, History, no longer writ
ten by parasites, or dedicated with cring-
ing servility to Kings, or lying to crafty
the vanity or the hatreds of people, OF
becoming the hired apologist for Ma
tional crimes, will not fail to record the
whole for the benefit of posterity.


For God has given to the oppressed,
not only the voice and the pen, but the
press, that they may be heard by the
world, and have reversal Of the judg
ments rendered by the oppressor, whose
victory avails him nothing, so long as he
cannot conquer free thought and stiAe
speech and manaele the press. When
man could but speak to man with the
voice, the thoughts of no one could
reach more than few of his fellow crea-
NulCo, thOoC lhhShAatOiy dIOAHu hlth I
and his words, even when registered in
the memory, soon faded away. Thoughts
fell and died like the leaves foated.
fainting, away, like the songs of the
birds; vanished, like the short-lved col
ors painted by the setting sun on the
shifting clouds But now Thought has
all the world for its audience and the
Hermit in his cell, the Thinker in his
chamber, OF the Statesman in his cabinet,
may send his Thoughts throughout the
Universe, and the appeal of Truth
against Falsehood be heard by all men of
all races.


The South has won immortal glory in
arms. Now let her encourage her sons
to gather laurels in the fields Of litera-
ture. Wealth and honor consist in more
than territory. A pins head covers
Athens, on the map of the Globe; Rus
sia spreads over vast regions Of Europe
and Asia. Yet, in its influence on the
human intellect, and human destinies,
v hat is Russia compared to Athens
Small States, friendly with each other, T
are better governed, more prosperous