Subjugation of the South.
We have no disposition to conceal or underrate any of the calamities of the war.--When beaten, we shall own it; when the sky looks dark and lowering, we shall say so. We shall not prophecy smooth things, when the sea is rough and the storm increasing in intensity.
But we have never heard of a war in which there were no reverses, and in which one party was always victorious and the other always beaten.
If a defeat entails no dishonor, if it be a defeat of a weaker by a stronger party, and the defeated nobly put forth all his energies, so that he is only overcome at last from sheer weakness and exhaustion, there can be no cause in such a defeat for shame and discouragement.
Such has been the character of every disaster we have suffered during this war. In
Roanoke Island we had but twenty-five hundred men against ten thousand of the enemy and a hundred ships, at
Fort Donelson, our Spartan band seems to have been literally crushed under the dead weight of enormous superiority of numbers.
We may the result, but there is no cause of mortification either in it, or of any emotion but pride in the patriot heroes who so long and resolutely struggled against overwhelming forces, and only gave way at last from the utter physical impossibility of farther resistance.
A nation which fights bravely and falls contending to the last against heavy odds, may lose for the time its cause, but it cannot lose its honor.
It will be admired and respected throughout the world, while its cowardly enemy, who glories in victories achieved by brute superiority, is as universally despised and detested.
What names more respected by mankind than those of
Hungary,
Poland,
Greece, and
Italy, and what more execrated than those who over whelmed them by their vast preponderance of numbers,
Austria,
Prussia, and
Turkey?
There is not a spot in the civilized world which does not respect the oppressed more than their oppressors, and which does not wish well to them in every effort they make to throw off their chains.
When
France and
England went to war against
Russia, and when
France at a late period took up the gauntlet for
Italy against
Austria, all Christendom rejoiced at the retribution which was visited upon the head of
Goody and brutal despots.
Even if the
North could be successful, by virtue of her superior numbers, in this wicked invasion, she would only win throughout the world a reputation as odious and execrable as that of
Russia,
Austria, and
Turkey, and infinitely more vulgar and beastly, whilst the
South would be enshrined in the sympathies and respect of all lovers of liberty and national independence by the side of chivalric
Hungary and heroic
Poland.
But the dream of Southern subjugation is as idiotic as it is execrable.
As
Mr Massey, member of the British Parliament, in a late speech at Tolford, declared, ‘"If the eleven
Confederate States were determined to be free, no power on earth could reduce them again to subjection.
No high spirited people, no people of the
Anglo Saxon race, had ever been held down in slavery, however small might be the area of their country or the military force that overshadowed it. He defied any man to put his finger upon any State in
Europe and say that it was so. An exception might be made regarding
Poland, but he believed that before this generation had passed away they would see a free and united
Poland"’--a declaration which his audience received with cheers, showing that the generous heart of mankind always sympathises with the weaker party, even if borne to the earth, so long as it retains its honor, and despises and abominates the vile brute who has triumphed, not by reason of his superior courage, but because of his greater physical strength.
Three ruillians, powerful in bone and muscle, fell upon a little fellow, indifferently provided with means of defence, and, after a long fight, in which they are knocked down half a dozen times, succeed in inflicting one or two serious, but not fatal, injuries upon their antagonist.
Instantly they set up such a yell of triumph as makes the walking ring!
Who but the basest of mankind would rejoice in such a victory?
It is precisely the case of the
North, which boasts that she outnumbers the
South three to one, which has had the national exchequer, the army and navy, unlimited command of men and means, the most approved kind and enormous amount of weapons of warfare, and fresh sources of supply both of arms and ammunition in all her own innumerable work shops, and those of
England and
Europe.
Is it wonderful that, under such circumstances, she should be able to inflict upon us some calamities, and is there not greater cause for wonder that those calamities have been so few and so long delayed?
What nation, but herself, would rejoice in victories gained against an adversary so inferior in numbers, with no navy, with poor weapons, with no means of supplying them except by running the blockade?--But her successes strike no terror to Southern hearts.
We have saved our honor.
We shall resist her at every step, and she need never expect to hold one inch of our soil, except that which is occupied by her armies.
And the further their advance, the greater will become the difficulties and dangers of their wicked and impracticable enterprise.
