Year: 1861

x
October 20, 1881, by HENRY REED.l


But what of the future-that future of
which we only take cognizauce-the future
which we are so impatient to reach-thst of
to morrow, next week or next year; not
that of the next century or decade of centu-
ries2 What will next week bring, or next
month? Will the war end this year; aud if
so, how; and what will be the terms of its
close, and the condition afterward? II a
man were gifted with the spirit of true
prophesy, and were to employ it to answer
these questions, IL is not probable he would
be believed. He might be hanged.


Csssandra received from Apollo-so says
the GIecian mythology gift tof soothsay-
ing; but, in consequence Of disagreement
in respect to the terms upon which it was
conferred, it was coupled with the condition
that what she foretold should not be believed.
She was therefore looked upon, when under
the influence of the prophetic spirit, as a
mad woman. Her predictions failed to be
credited, and it was not until her country was
laid in ruins through disregard of her warn
ing that her claim to prophetic prescience
was established. 1t is in this fable that the
wisdom Of ancient times has embalmed the
maxim that the true prophet is not the
one to whom the world listens. In times of
trouble and excitement, when men, fright
ened at the aspect of the present, seek to pry
into these things which are hidden under the
vail of the future, it is not to the temperate
and the impartial that they turn for an
sugury, but to those who are injected by
tie same fears or heated by the same passions
with themselves, and even in higher de-
gree. When we seek for predictions, we
want such as are in harmony with our state
of feeling: and if we are disappointed In the
tenor of those we receive, we are ready to
set down their utterer either as fool or an
enemy.


Had q man FIVE months ago truly foretold
the condition in which the United States
would stand at this time, who would have
believed him2 Nothing but contempt for his
folly would have saved him from persecution
for his enmity. Granting that his predictions
were founded upon the most accurate ad-
measurement of the elements of the problem,
they would have done the world no good ;
but would have rendered him suspected and
unhappy. Even had he given the most un-
answersble reasons for his opinions, they
would only have added to his offense in the
eyes Of those who had no taste to be dis.
abused of the errors which they loved. Had
he brought to the enforcement of his views
all the learning that history has treasured,
and all the wisdom that experience has
evolved, the reward he would have received
for pains VIZ u have been to | o condemned
as visionary or hated as malignant.
Yet there is nothing in the present con-
ditiop, the elements of which did not exist
from the beginning. Accident has not
entered in to vary the working of the prob
lem more than it usually does in human
affairs. Leaving out of the estimate any
special agency which God or Providence
may have exercised - concerning which
they who are most ignorant are most prone
to dogmatiZe-in the mere sublunary, natu-
raj and human aspects of the case we are
precisely where we belong. Impartial
history, when it comes to review the cir
cumstances, will find nothing in them that
the antecedents have not rendered necessary.
And in time to come, just as has been the
and .njoy them, or suffer through the ab-
sence of the proper wisdom and energy-so
will be that Of ours.


There is one great and solemn truth con-
nected with the contest which it is proper to
enunciate. Thus far we have fought this
battle as if we were upon the wrong side;
the other party as if it was uPcl the right.
This appearance has been noticed, and many
| who suppose themselves empowered or in
spired to inquire into the Divine DEGREES,
have been looking into our national and in
dividual manners and habits, to discover, if
! possible, the cause, with view to provide
the proper remedy for the disease that has
turned our councils to folly and our strength
| to weakness. Not only SO, but essays have
| been made at venture-by multiplied relig-
ious exercises, days of fasting and humilia-
| ton, professions of extraordinary regard for
the sanctity of the Sabbath, and other doings
| of like character, to remove this-it is to
| be hoped-temporary cloud upon the brow
of the Almighty, that things may go on in a
| better fashion.


There is no need to depreciate the value OF
religious rites and ceremonies. They are
excellent in their places but alone, they are
good for nothing in war. The time when
the walls of fenced cities fell down at the
chanting of litany and the blowing of the
sacred trumpets has passed away; and all the
rams horns of the Mosaic tabernacle would
do less service on the battle. field than one
six.pound howitzer.


The truth is, that in these times the doc.
triue of Cromwell is better than that of tht
Leviticus. "God," said the stern old re
former "does not do our work; we do his
We are not to look to him to help US: ht
looks to US to help him. "This was the spiri
in which the English Revolution was won
and it is the spirit in which, if at all, thu
the Union is to be restored. So long as w
depend upon the blowing of oratorical rams
horns in the market places, or of religious


rams horns in the churches, upon days o
fasting and prayer, upon hypocrltical whln
iDgs over our national sins, upon presidential
proclamations to the Southern negroes, upol
the destitution OF woolen goods, bacon, qul


nine and shoe-leather in the Confederacy


upon assevertions of the justice of our cause
upon the sympathy of foreign governments


in short, upon any thing but serious and har


fighting, just so long we shall continue 4


fight the battles as five were upon the wron


side of the question.


A master disciplines his servant, and


driver his horse, unit, ,sas he says, he ha


taken the nonsense out of him, and then h


takes to his work kindly and honestly. W


want the nonsense taken out of u.s. and theI


this work, so far as it should be, will


done. Our whole conduct is full of false Ell


Inmates of the value of things. We begi


by exalting the institution above the man


by placing the fate OF our country upon th


Constitution or the Union which it create


instead of the people. We say things 9


ridiculous as the speech of Anacharsis Cloot


in the French National Assembly, who d.
clared that the democratic principle woul
be cbeaply conserved by the destruction {
I the entire human race. We talk Of fe'
rules written and printed in book, as
priceless estate left US by patriotic ancestor
which we are bound by every obligation, an


at the expense of life and all we hold dea


to preserve; and which to part with woul


leave US orphans and disinherit, with nott
; ing for which to live, and with no hoI
worth living for in the future.


These are simply rhetorical amplihcatioT


which the excitement of the times hi


caused to be received for truth. In accePtin
" them we degrade ourselves unnecessary.