What is the spirit of the South?
The London Times, in one of the most intelligent articles which, has yet appeared on American articles, sate forth the impossibility of conquering the
South, If the
South is really in earnth.
Everything, in its view, depends upon the simple point, in the
South in earnest?
It refer to the vast extent of Southern territory and the courage of its defender, and says the
North is imitating the folly of
Napoleon in his
Russian campaign and of George the Third in the
American Revolution.
The same cause which referred the
British monarch, says the
Times, will defeat the
North, but all depends upon whether the
South is in earnest.
There never was more truth expressed in the earns number of words.
Certainly, if we are not in earnest, we have become a most degenerate race since the days of 76.
The men of those days were terribly in earnest, and yet we doubt whether they had the same personal animosity to their British enemies, and we know they had not the same political reasons for eternal resistance.
They went to war upon a principle which, in all probability, would never have involved any great practical grievances.
Spent upon the ground of principle, there was a good deal which might have been said in behalf of the right of a Government to tax its colonies without according to them representation, when they had themselves, in accepting-their charters, relinquished that right for the more valued privilege of making money.
But, however that might be the
British Government never contemplated nor perpetrated such outrages upon all that makes life worth having as the
Lincoln despotism.
And yet our revolutionary ancestors having put their hand to the plough, never looked back, but through seven long years, through storm and sunshine, defeats and successes, straggled on, until they had wearied out the patience and the power of
Great Britain--the most persevering and the most perfect empire under the sun.
We do not believe that the
Southern people have Regenerated since that era. The politicians may be corrupt; the speculators may surpass the greediness even of the
Yankee of that era, who used to fight the
British by day, and sell them their "notions" at night, and Even the
South was not without its Johnny Rocks; servile place hunters may be found there, who are in earnest only open the subject of feathering their own needs, but the great body of the people are as pure as the driven snow.
What means have they of proving their earnestness that they have not already exhibited?
We have the words of inspiration for it, that a men can give no greater proof of love than to lay down his life for his friend.
This is what the
South has done
en masse for this cause.
The London
Times, which has access only to mendacious Northern newspapers, which constantly assert that there is a strong Union party in the
South, and that our armies are made up of men forced into the ranks, would never have uttered a word implying a doubt of the
South's earnestness, if it could see the ardor with which our whole population is offering its life for the cause; the perfect willingness with which mothers give up all their sons, sisters their brothers, wives their husbands, to this glorious cause.
Aye, more, far more, than this.
Look at these noble men in the ranks, clad in coarse clothing, who have been accustomed all their lives at home, many of them to luxuries, and all to plenty, independence, and comfort!
See them lying on the cold ground, without a tent even to shelter them enduring the summer's sun and the winter's snows, suffering for days from hunger and thirst, often eating what they would not have offered their own negroes at home; sick in camps and hospitals, and sometimes tyrannized over by heartless and bintal officials, who if there is a God in heaven, will yet cry out with
Dives from the hottest flames of hell for some poor
Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool their parched sungnes; and yet, for the sake of their cause, have borne all thin, and are ready to bear as such more, that they may secure their dear country her freedom and deliver her from an accursed despotism.
If the London
Times could learn these facts, it would never say it is impossible to conquer the
South if she is in earnest, but that, the
South has given such proofs of earnestness as were never exhibited in the history of the world, and cannot be conquered.
The immense debt piled up by the federal Government would of itself previous the
South from ever submitting to a despotism which will heap upon its shoulders the whole of the enormous amount expended in our subjugation, as well as the loss of all that we have expended in our own defence.--If would involve the confiscation of every dollar that every man is worth, and that which is even more intolerable — the degradation of our whole people.
If the
South is not in earnest in fighting against such evils as must follow subjugation, there are no causes which can make any nation in earnest.
