[
31]
Chapter 3: hindrances to the revival.
Our soldiers, though worthy of the eulogies we have recorded, did not escape the vices of a military life.
In the first months of the strife the call of the war trumpet was heard above all other sounds.
The young men rushed to the camps of instruction; and, freed from the restraints of home, and the influence of pious relatives, thousands of them gave way to the seductive influences of sin.
Legions of devils infest a camp.
Vice grows in it like plants in a hot bed, and yields abundant and bitter fruits.
“In the Old Testament it is said, ‘ One sinner destroyeth much good.’
If so, what destruction of good must be effected by a large body of ungodly soldiers in close and constant contact, where one may, without extravagance, consider them as innoculating each other daily with the new infection of every debauch through which they pass.”
The “strong man armed” keeps watch and ward over a camp of soldiers, and is not overcome and cast out without a tremendous struggle.
All that can hinder a work of grace confronted the revival in our army.
Before the “soldiers of
Christ” addressed themselves in earnest to the work, gambling, profanity, drunkenness, and other kindred vices, prevailed to an alarming extent.
The temptation to recklessness is strong among all soldiers.
Religion is supposed to be well suited to the pursuits of peaceful life, but not to rough, uncertain army life.
“We are led by custom,” says the celebrated
Adam
[
32]
Smith,
to annex the character of gaiety, levity, and sprightly freedom, as well as of some degree of dissipation, to the military profession.
Yet, if we were to consider what mood or tone of temper would be most suitable to this situation, we should be apt to determine, perhaps, that the most serious and thoughtful turn of mind would best become those whose lives are continually exposed to uncommon danger, and who should, therefore, be more constantly occupied with the thoughts of death and its consequences than other men. It is this very circumstance, however, which is not improbably the occasion why the contrary turn of mind prevails so much among men of this profession.
It requires so great an effort to conquer the fear of death, when we survey it with steadiness and attention, that those who are constantly exposed to it find it easier to turn away their thoughts from it altogether, to wrap themselves up in careless security and indifference, and to plunge themselves, for this purpose, into every sort of amusement and dissipation.
A camp is not the element of a thoughtful or melancholy man; persons of that cast, indeed, are often abundantly determined, and are capable, by a great effort, of going on with inflexible resolution to the most unavoidable death.
But to be exposed to continual, though less imminent danger, to be obliged to exert, for a long time, a degree of this effort exhausts and depresses the mind and renders it incapable of all happiness and enjoyment.
The gay and careless, who have occasion to make no effort at all, who fairly resolve never to look before them, but to lose in continual pleasure and amusement all anxiety about their situation, more easily support such circumstances.
This is the language of a very eminent philosopher.
There is truth and error in it. This effort on the part of the soldier to turn away his thoughts from death is only the more open manifestation of his former indifference to
[
33]
the truth.
It is sad, indeed, to think that great dangers are often made the occasion and excuse for great neglect of our highest interests.
The philosopher overlooks the great means of overcoming the fear of death--“Repentance towards God and faith towards our
Lord Jesus Christ.”
This sustains the soul with the strength of God, and gives the assurance of eternal happiness.
This reckless spirit, we must admit, greatly prevailed, and was much encouraged by many who had been long in the military profession, and brought with them into our armies the vicious habits of many years of sin.
The general demoralization which spread over the country was a great barrier to the progress of the truth.
War brings all evils in its train; and though founded in justice and right, and conducted on the highest principles of civilization, will leave its frightful marks on every feature of society.
In the
Revolutionary War good men shuddered at the evils which overspread the land.
Ignorance of God and divine things greatly prevails.
Unbelief, hardness of heart, worldly-mindedness, covetousness, hypocrisy, a loathing of the heavenly manna, almost universally prevail.
Many count gain to be godliness, and the most part are seeking each one his gain from his quarter.
There is a grievous inattention to religion and virtue among our civil rulers, which, nevertheless, are the only permanent foundation of good order in civil society; while a gospel ministry is neglected by those who ought immediately to support it.
Whoredom, adultery, and all the lusts of the flesh, defile our country.
Horrid profanation of the sacred word of God, perjury, violation of the holy Sabbath, neglect of secret and family religion, and of relative duties, pride, hatred, malice, envy, revenge, fraud, injustice, gaming, wantonness, extortion, and dissipation, have come in like a flood-and all this while we are under the chastening hand of God.
[
34]
Such was the work of sin during one of the holy wars of the world.
In some sections of the
South during the late war the state of morals was almost as bad-nay, we might say, fully as bad. “Many churches,” writes one, “are vacant, their ministers having gone to the war. Most of our Sunday-schools are disorganized, and but few, I fear, will be revived until the war closes.
Intemperance and profanity abound, and are fearfully on the increase.
Religion is at the lowest ebb. Such a thing as the conversion of souls seems scarcely to enter into the mind of either clergy or laity.”
Some may think this picture overdrawn, but there are thousands of living witnesses who can attest its correctness.
Among the soldiers the great, overshadowing evils were lewdness, profanity, and drunkenness; among the people at home, the “greed of gain” was the “accursed thing.”
It was a melancholy fact that many men entered the army the avowed enemies of all intoxicating drinks who alas!
very soon fell victims to the demon of the bottle.
With many there seemed to be a conviction that the fatigue and exposure of their new mode of life could not be endured without the artificial stimulant of ardent spirits.
This was a great and fatal error.
The soldier does not need, even in the worst climates, and in the hardest service, his rations of rum.
Carefully collected and arranged statistics, prepared by the sanitary officers of the
British Army, through a space of thirty years, establish the following facts:
1. That the total abstinence regiments can endure more labor, more cold, more heat, more exposure, and more privations, than those who have their regular grog rations.
2. That they are less liable to fevers, fluxes, pleurisies, colds, chills, rheumatisms, jaundice, and cholera, than other regiments.
[35]
3. That when attacked by any of these diseases their recovery is much more certain and speedy.
4. That they are much more readily aroused from the effects of concussions and severe wounds, and are far less liable to lockjaw, or mortification after wounds.
5. That only about six in the temperance regiments die, from all causes, to ten of the other regiments.
These facts were collected from various fields of observation:
Africa,
Canada,
Greenland, the
East Indies,
West Indies, and the Crimea.
Robert Southey wrote the following to a kinsman, a lieutenant in the
British Army:
General Peche, an East Indian officer here, told me that in India the officers who were looking out for preferment, and who kept lists of all above them, always marked those who drank any spirits on a morning with an X, and reckoned them for nothing.
‘One day,’ said he, ‘ when we were about to march at day-break, I and Captain----were in my tent, and we saw a German of our regiment.
So I said we'd try him; we called to him, said it was a cold morning, and asked him if he would take a glass to warm him. I got him a full beaker of brandy and water, and he drank it off. When he was gone, I said, ’ Well, what do you think?
we may cross him, mayn't we?
‘ ’ Oh, yes, ‘ said he, ’ cross him by all means.
‘ And the German did not live twelve months.’
It is related of the
Duke of
Wellington, that during the Peninsular war he heard that a large magazine of wine lay in his line of march.
He feared more for his men from barrels of wine than from batteries of cannon, and instantly dispatched a body of troops to knock every wine-cask on the head.
General Havelock, in speaking of the forbearance of his troops after storming the city of Ghunzee in Afghanistan, says: “The self-denial, mercy, and generosity of
[
36]
the hour were, in a great degree, to be attributed to the fact that the
European soldiers had not received spirit rations for several weeks, and that they found no intoxicating liquors among the plunder of the city.
Since, then, it has been proved that troops can make forced marches of forty miles, and storm a fortress in twenty-five minutes without the aid of rum, let it not henceforth be argued that distilled liquors are an indispensable portion of a soldier's ration.”
The cause of
Christ was hindered, and that of Satan promoted in the
Southern armies by the influence and example of wicked and licentious officers and men.
One who had observed the course of intemperance in the army wrote:
The prevalence of vice,--drunkenness and profanity in our camps — is attributable to the officers themselves.
By far the larger number of the officers of our Southern army are both profane and hard drinkers, where they are not drunkards.
Another says: “There is an appalling amount of drunkenness in our army.
More among the officers than the men. This evil is now on the increase.”
A surgeon writing from the army says: “I was greatly astonished to find soldiers in
Virginia whom I had known in
Georgia as sober, discreet citizens-members of the different churches — some deacons, and official members-even preachers, in the daily and constant habit of drinking whiskey for their health.”
An officer who had visited many portions of the army gave it as his opinion that with the exception of the reverse at
Fort Donelson, we were defeated not by the
Federals but by whiskey.
A distinguished General is said to have remarked that “if the
South is overthrown, the epitaph should be ‘
Died of Whiskey.’
”
This was one of the giant evils.
Hundreds all over the land, moved by an unholy desire for gain, engaged in
[
37]
the manufacture of ardent spirits.
It was estimated that in one county in
Virginia, and that not one of the largest, the distillers, in one year, consumed 31,000 bushels of grain, enough to furnish 600 families with food for the same period.
While the commissioners, appointed by the court of that county to procure grain to feed the families of soldiers, could not purchase enough for that purpose, the smoke of fifty distilleries darkened the air; meanwhile, the cries of the poor mothers and helpless children went up in vain for bread.
The same was the case in other States.
In one District in
South Carolina 150 distilleries were in operation.
A gentleman in
North Carolina said he could count from one hill-top the smoke of 14 distilleries.
One of the Richmond papers declared that a single distiller in that city made at one period of the war a profit of $4,000 a day.
In
Augusta county, Va., it was estimated that 50,000 bushels of grain were consumed monthly by the distilleries in operation there.
A writer on this subject estimated that in the second year of the war 1,600 barrels, or 64,000 gallons of ardent spirits, of the worst sort, were daily manufactured in the
Confederate States.
Men who flourish and grow rich in such business forget the counsel of Lord Bacon, to “seek only such gains as they can get justly, use soberly.
distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly.”
The temptation to drink in the army was very strong; men were cast down in spirit, away from home, wife, children, mothers and sisters, all that makes life dear.
Many that ventured to drink at all under such circumstances found it hard to avoid excesses.
But this evil was not confined to the soldiers.
In the councils of the
General government and State governments its baleful influence was felt.
And some bold, stupid men declared that “they had never heard of anything
[
38]
great being accomplished in war without the aid of whiskey.”
Such a remark could not have been made in seriousness; it was the senseless babbling of some wretched votary of
Bacchus.
The best and ablest officers of the army sought by example and by precept to suppress this vice; and the following noble language from
General Bragg is a sample of the general orders issued from time to time against the evils which infested our armies:
Commanders of all grades are earnestly called upon to suppress drunkenness by every means in their power.
It is the cause of nearly every evil from which we suffer; the largest portion of our sickness and mortality results from it; our guard-houses are filled by it; officers are constantly called from their duties to form court-martials in consequence of it; inefficiency in our troops, and consequent danger to our cause, is the inevitable result.
No one is benefitted but the miserable wretch who is too cowardly to defend a country he is willing to sell, by destroying those noble faculties he has never possessed.
Gallant soldiers should scorn to yield to such temptation-sand intelligent and honorable officers should set them an example.
They should be encouraged to send to their families at home the pay they receive for their services, instead of wasting it in their own destruction, and at the risk of the holy cause in which they are engaged.
Small as the amount is, it will cause many a dear one to rise up and call them blessed.
“ Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine to those that be of heavy hearts,” --but for us, the glorious cause in which we are engaged should furnish all the excitement and enthusiasm necessary for our success.
When ardent spirits were offered to our great warrior
Jackson, in his last illness, as a medicine, he exclaimed, “Give me pure water and milk.”
And among the soldiers
[
39]
there were many that followed the example of this great leader.
An occasional instance of moral heroism appeared amidst the wreck and ruin wrought by indulgence in strong drink:
A little drummer-boy in one of our regiments,
says an army correspondent, “who had become a great favorite with many of the officers by his unremitting good nature, happened on one occasion to be in the officers' tent, when the bane of the soldiers' life passed around.
A captain handed a glass to the little fellow, but he refused it, saying, ‘ I am a cadet of temperance, and do not taste strong drink.’
‘But you must take some now — I insist on it. You belong to our mess to-day, and cannot refuse.’
Still the boy stood firm on the rock of total abstinence, and held fast to his integrity.
The
Captain, turning to the
Major, said, ‘ H-is afraid to drink; and he will never make a soldier.’
‘How is this?’
said the
Major, playfully; and then assuming another tone, added — I command you to take a drink, and you know it is death to disobey orders.
‘ The little hero, raising his young form to its full height, and fixing his clear blue eyes, lit up with unusual brilliancy, on the face of the officer, said, ’ Sir, my father died a drunkard; and when I entered the Army I promised my dear mother on my bended knees that, by the help of God, I would not taste a drop of ruin, and I mean to keep my promise.
I am sorry to disobey orders, sir, but I would rather suffer than disgrace my mother and break my temperance pledge.”
This boy hero, and thousands of others, have had reason to make the following thrilling lines the expression of their abhorrence of drunkenness:
A young lady who was in the habit of writing considerably and in stirring tones on the subject of temperance, was in her writings so full of pathos, and evinced such deep emotion of soul, that a friend accused her of
[40]
being a maniac on the subject of temperance, whereupon she wrote the following:
Go feel what I have felt,
Go bear what I have borne-
Sink 'neath a blow a father dealt,
And the cold world's proud scorn;
Then suffer on, from year to year,
Thy sole relief, the scalding tear.
Go kneel as I have knelt,
Implore, beseech, and pray-
Strive the besotted heart to melt,
The downward course to stay,
Be dashed with bitter curse aside,
Your prayers burlesqued, your tears defied.
Go weep as I have wept,
O'er a loved father's fall;
See every promised blessing swept-
Youth's sweetness turned to gall-
Life's fading flowers strewed all the way
That brought me up to woman's day.
Go see what I have seen,
Behold the strong man bow,
With gnashing teeth, lips bathed in blood,
And cold and livid brow;
Go catch his withering glance, and see
There pictured his soul's misery.
Go to thy mother's side,
And her crushed bosom cheer;
Thine own deep anguish hide,
Wipe from her cheek the bitter tear;
Mark her worn frame and withering brow;
The gray that streaks her dark hair now-
With fading frame and trembling limb;
And trace the ruin back to him,
Whose plighted faith in early youth
Promised eternal love and truth,
But who, foresworn, hath yielded up,
That promise to the cursed cup;
That led her down through love and light,
And all that made her prospects bright,
[
41]
And chained her there, 'mid want and strife,
That lowly thing, a drunkard's wife-
And stamped on childhood's brow so mild,
That withering blight, the drunkard's child.
“Go bear, and see, and know,
All that my soul hath felt and known,
Then look upon the wine-cup's glow,
See if its beauty can atone-
Think if its flavor you will try:
When all proclaim, 'tis drink and die!
Tell me I
hate the bowl-
Hate is a feeble word,
I loathe-abhor-my very soul With strong disgust is stirred When I see. or hear, or tell,
Of the dark
beverage of hell!”
But the revival had other foes to fight besides the beastly devil of intemperance.
History teaches that periods of great national calamity are marked by great public demoralization.
Our war gave powerful witness to this sad truth.
Worldly-mindedness, a vaunting pride, relaxation of morals, self-seeking, desperate gambling, hard-heartedness, and a host of other evils flourished amidst the woes and wants and consuming sorrows of the war.
But perhaps the most prominent, and in view of the condition of the country, the most appalling evil was the eager greed of gain which fostered a wide-spread and cruel spirit of extortion.
If there ever was a time when the apostolic warning, that “the love of money is the root of all evil,” received a full confirmation among any people, it was in those mournful days of the
Confederacy when, in all the avenues of trade, and even close on the rear of our war-stricken, but unfaltering army, like a dreadful portent, the extortioners sat, croaking day and night their horse-leech cry, Give!
Give!
All classes, all trades, all professions, and both sexes
[
42]
alas!
seemed infected by the foul contagion.
So universal was the practice of cutting out the “pound of flesh,” that whenever an exception occurred it was thought worthy of special notice in all the public prints, and was referred to in the pulpits as an instance of one, at least, in
Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal.
This cursed lust of gain, this Shylock exaction, more than all things else, embarrassed the
Government, impaired public credit, depreciated the currency, caused great distress among the poorer classes, sowed the seeds of disaffection broadcast over the land, and finally broke the spirit of the people and the army.
The pitiful fallacy about the inexorable “laws of trade,” which some, retaining a slight degree of sensitiveness, plead as an apology for extortion, the merest tyro in political economy would hardly think of applying to a besieged city, or a country closed by blockade against the commerce of the world.
The evils which hung like an incubus on the
South, and finally, with the help of heavy Northern legions, laid her banners in the dust, and her hopes in the grave, were faithfully portrayed by many patriotic citizens who watched the progress of events.
The following extract from a discourse delivered in the city of
Richmond during the war by
Rev. Dr. Moore, of the Presbyterian Church, gives a dark but truthful picture of the times:
There are evils inevitable to war from which we cannot expect to escape.
We must expect to find personal ambition in the guise of patriotism; itch for office, with its horse-leech cry of
give, give; “favoritism and nepotism, by which the sons, relations and friends of those in office will be placed over the heads of better and older men, who are unable to command this kind of patronage, and must, therefore, drudge in humbler and harder positions; wastefulness in the use of public funds and the granting of public contracts; blunders in movements,
[
43]
both civil and military, that are hard to explain; provoking circumstances and red-tape delays in the transaction of public business; insolence and petty tyranny in men raised from obscurity, and dressed in a little brief authority, who lord it with arrogance and sometimes with cruelty over braver and better men placed under their command; heartless brutality in drunken surgeons and drunken nurses allowing sick men to pine and suffer, and even to die from sheer and inexcusable neglect; drunkenness in the ranks, as well as among the officers, preparing many a gallant man for disgrace and defeat in battle, and a drunkard's grave when the war is ended; profanity, gambling, pillage and speculation at least in small matters.
All these evils are well-nigh inevitable in a time of war, with our poor fallen nature as it is, and can only be diminished by looking to that God before whom we bow this day in reverent supplication.”
Sins so enormous and prevalent, spreading like dark clouds over all the land, and casting their deep shadows on our brightest hopes, aroused the faithful in all the
Churches to the most earnest efforts against the rising tide of iniquity.
The pulpits, and the religious and secular press, warned the people of the rocks on which the ship of State was fast drifting.
In the general assemblies of all the evangelical Churches, the most decisive measures were adopted, with a view to bring about a thorough reformation among our people.
At the
Bible Convention in the city of
Augusta, Ga., composed of the leading ministers and laymen of the different Christian denominations,
Bishop Pierce, of that State, in an able discourse, depicted the condition of public morals in the following language:
The history of the world confirms the testimony of the Bible as to the moral dangers of accumulated treasure.
Wealth is favorable to every species of wickedness.
Luxury, licentiousness of manners, selfishness, indifference to the distresses of others, presumptuous confidence
[44]
in our own resources-these are the accompaniments of affluence, whenever the safeguards of the Divine word, both as to the mode of increase and proper use, are disregarded.
As to the higher forms of character and civilization, unless regulated and sanctified by Scripture truth and principle, opulence has always been one of the most active causes of individual degeneracy and of national corruption.
Under the influence of its subtle poison, moral principle decays; Patriotism puts off its nobility and works for hire; Bribery corrupts the judgment-seat, and Justice is blinded by gifts; Benevolence suppresses its generous impulses, and counts its contributions by fractions; Religion, forgetting the example of its Author and the charity of its mission, pleads penury, and chafes at every opportunity for work or distribution; Covetousness devours widows' houses and grows sleek on the bread of orphans; Usury speculates on Providence and claims its premium, alike from suffering poverty and selfish extravagance; Extortion riots upon the surplus of the rich and the scrapings of the poor, enlarges its demand as necessity increases, and, amid impoverishment, want, and public distress, whets its appetite for keener rapine, and, with unsated desire, laps the last drop from its victim and remorselessly sighs for more.
The world counts gain as godliness, prosperity as virtue, fraud as talent; and money, money, money, is the god of the land, with every house for a temple, every field for an altar, and every man for a worshipper.
The Church, infected by popular example, adopts the maxims of men, grades the wages of her servants by the minimum standard, pays slowly and gives grudgingly, and stands guard over her treasures, as if Providence were a robber, and they who press the claims of Heaven came to cheat and steal.
Whenever the conservative laws of accumulation and distribution, as prescribed in the Bible, are ignored, then not only does the love of money stimulate our native
[45]
depravity, but the hoarded gain furnishes facilities for uncommon wickedness.
The attendant evils are uniform.
They have never failed in the history of the past.
When commerce, manufactures, and agriculture, pour in their treasures, then, without the counteracting power of Scripture truth and Gospel grace, they infallibly breed the sins which have been, under God, the executioners of nations.
Such is the suicidal influence of unsanctified wealth, that the greater the prosperity of a people the shorter the duration.
The virulence of the maladies superinduced destroy suddenly, and that without remedy.
Now, mark how apposite, how prophetic, how descriptive, the word of the Lord: “They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts.”
“He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.”
“ He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye.”
How these passages rebuke the spirit of speculation, the greedy desires, the equivocal expedients, the high-pressure schemes of the people!
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.”
“Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches.”
0, ye who make, and save, and hide, and hoard, hear ye the word of the Lord: “Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten; your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.”
0, ye who strut and shine in plumage plucked from the poor and needy, “ye have received your consolation ;” “weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you.”
