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War as a popular Educator.
When the historian comes to write a truthful narrative of our civil war, the many able and varied accounts of different incidents connected therewith, that have been published in the weekly will be a source of profound satisfaction.
No statement that will shed any light upon the causes, that will illustrate the condition of the people, or the progress of that dreadful contest, will be considered as useless.
In the hope of contributing something toward a true history, it is here proposed to make a short statement of the general condition of the people other than of the
Southern States, and more particularly of the
State of Pennsylvania, when the insurrection in the
South became an assured fact.
The mutterings of discontent that for thirty years previous to 1861 had been heard from the
South had made but little impression on the minds of the staid people of
Pennsylvania.
Their faith in the form of government, and the successful working for many years of the institutions engrafted into it, had given them a settled confidence in its efficiency to deal justly with all parts of the country.
The people of
Pennsylvania could not entertain the thought that the majority could inflict any wrong upon the minority that would be irreparable, or that would warrant any resort to rebellious measures.
This conviction was no mere sentiment; it was based on an educated understanding of the principles which underlie the government itself.
It is not claiming too much to argue that the marked agreement in the opinions of the people, on the questions which were raised at that time affecting the teachings of the
