The Daily Dispatch: March 15, 1865., [Electronic resource]

The election for members of the Legislature is close at hand. The crisis is the most important one in which the country was ever placed — the necessity of having the right men in the right place — more imperative than it ever was before. It is not that any great amount of additional legislation is required.--The present Legislature has done nearly all that could be done in that respect. It is but fair to the larger body of them to say that they have been fully up to the times, especially during the last session.

What we would particularly impress upon the people is, that men are required both for Congress and the Legislature who have the firmest and most abiding confidence in the success of our cause, and who have in their vocabulary no such word as "fail." They must not only think success absolutely certain, but they must say so on all occasions when it may be necessary to express an opinion. This is no time to look out for amiable tempers and mild manners in a delegate. Men are required of iron will and indomitable energy, but, above all, as we have endeavored to explain, of firm and unyielding faith. Never give up, never say die, hold on to the last, and when the weak-kneed begin to shiver and totter, then take a new and a stronger resolution than ever, never to think of submitting. The old Roman story of Varro and the Greek has been often told, but it deserves to be repeated here for the sake of the lesson it inculcates.--That officer, flying from the unparalleled slaughter of Cannæ, where he had left the bodies of seventy thousand Romans slain through his own rashness, was nevertheless met by the Senate in a body, dressed in their senatorial robes; and it was made known that he was thus honored, because, even in that crisis, "he did not despair of the Republic." That sagacious body of politicians, long inured to political exigencies of the most dangerous description, knew well enough the value of faith in such a crisis as that which presented itself. They knew that it covered not only a multitude of sin, but every other sin. In such circumstances, we hesitate not to say it is worth all the mild and amiable virtues that can adorn the human character, where it is not to be found. We must have it now in all our public men if we wish to succeed; and if we do not succeed, a ruin so deep that the imagination is not able to fathom it. The injury which a single weak-kneed disciple in public life may do is enormous. People are apt to attribute to him much better intelligence than he generally possesses, and his words are therefore supposed to possess a weight to which they are, in the majority of instances, far from being entitled. A large circle thus becomes despondent; the contagion spreads until it finds its way into the army. Away, fellow-citizens, with all such men. Let them stay at home, and send men in their places who have undying confidence in the cause, and the pluck not to go into an ague every time they hear of a reverse.

What has been said of members of the Legislature is even truer of Congressmen than of them. Throw the weak-kneed overboard, for you know not the harm they may do. Send your men of nerve and faith to represent you, and leave the demoralized at home. These are times when everything is to be won by boldness — when it is within the power of boldness to win everything, and when, if everything be not won, all is lost. "Audacity, audacity, audacity!" That is what is wanted.