The duration of the war.
Some of the
Yankee newspapers seem much edified with the idea of a Southern journal, that the
Yankee nation are beginning to accept with satisfaction a state of war as their probable condition for the next half century.
That which pleases them in this fanciful notion is, that it implies a vast deal of martial order and persistent pugnacity in their characters; that it gives hope of great profits to contractors, and is calculated to dampen the hitherto and hopeful patriotism of the
Southern people.
In all these calculations the
Yankees are as wide of the mark as usual.
What we have never been of those who to the
Yankee race the common quality of animal courage, we are as little inclined to believe that they can accept with the condition of war, which interfere with their favorite pursuits of commerce and trade, or that they can persist in it one day after it has ceased to be profitable.
The war of the Revolution, it is true, lasted seven years, but that was a wailed by a Southern chieftain and supported by Southern arms.
The last war with
England was of brief duration, but, brief as it was, the
Yankees illuminated their house and fired their cannon in frantic enthusiasm when peace was declared, although the war left the questions at issue between the two, nations just where it found them.
And if they could now have peace with the
South on any terms, the great mass of the nation would be electrified with delight, and throw up their hats a good deal higher than they did at the end of the war of 1812.
We do not predict that this will be a short war; we see no signs of its termination so long as the demagogues and speculators control the
Yankee Government.
But we simply desire the
Yankees to understand that when they talk in a magnificent way of waging this war for fifty years, and when an unguarded admission falls from some individual in the
South that such may be their honest purpose, ninety-nine out of every hundred of our people regard with equal incredulity and contempt their idle vaporings, and are making up their minds to accept, with fortitude and resignation, war as their natural condition for the remainder of their earthly existence.
If the
Yankees are willing to fight fifty years to subjugate the
South, the
South is more than willing to fight a hundred rather than be subjugated.
The war has now lasted more than two years, and we are beginning to be accustomed to it. Habit, which is a second nature, is reconciling us to a condition which we now perceive was inevitable, and could not have been avoided without the deepest degradation.
The war has hardened our nerves and sinews; it has discovered to us our strength; it has developed our industry; it has delivered us from the loathsome and corrupting embrace of a demoralized people, and from the most vulgar and detestable despotism that ever disgraced the earth.
There was a time at the beginning of the contest when there was not powder enough in
Virginia to fight one great battle, nor
percussion caps enough to supply a single regiment, nor any other arms or munitions of war of either the quantity or quality demanded by the crisis.
If the
Yankees had rushed upon us then, we should have been almost at their mercy, but in that
Providence which then restrained them, and has ever since confounded their devices, we see the sure guarantee of our final triumph.
We have now more than arms enough for our wants, and the enemy is farther now than he was a year ago from the coveted prize of his ambition and vindictiveness.
We have, therefore, no fears of any Yankee prolongation of the war. The longer it continues the stronger we shall grow; and the poorer will the enemy become.
Nor will it always be a war of invasion on his part, and of defence on ours.
No wonder that he should be reconciled to a long war at other people's doors ! It requires no super-human valor and resolution to attain to that state of mind.
Let us see how long he will want the war to last when all the horrors that the
South has witnessed are transferred to Northern soil !
