Civil War Overview
Civil War 1861
Civil War 1862
Civil War 1863
Civil War 1864
Civil War 1865
Civil War Battles
Robert E. Lee
Civil War Medicine
Civil War Links
Civil War Art
Republic of Texas
Civil War Gifts
Robert E. Lee Portrait
NOVEMBER 8, 1864.
WE breathe more freely now the
struggle's done, Now that the glorious victory is won;
The grandest civil triumph which
shall stand Recorded in the annals of the land.
We trusted in the causeŚwe knew
that Right Must conquer Wrong, however hard the fight; That not in vain by
patriots had been shed The precious blood with which our soil is red.
No, not in vain ; today the
pledge we give, That by that blood the Union yet shall live; And from the strong
lips of the loyal North
In thunder tones the promise now
Faith in that promise makes my
eyes to see Peace rising through the smoke of victory; And as the cloud of
battle drifts away I see the white dawn of a future day.
Above the din of war I seem to
From tower and roof the
sweet-toned bells of cheer Ring out the welcome tidings to the skies, While
joyful paeans on the air arise.
I see bold Freedom with a giant's
Hurl to the earth the bondman's
heavy yoke; I see her strike from off his horny hands
The galling chains and fetters
where he stands.
I see a temple; from its dome on
A glorious banner greets the
broad blue sky; The starry emblem of a mighty land,
Whose people all are one in heart
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1864.
FOUR years have not exhausted the
hands or the hearts of the people. Yet
we do not suppose that any expectation of an immediate end of the rebellion had
a perceptible influence upon the election. That an end is hoped for and prayed
for by all loyal and thoughtful men is unquestionable; but the very duration of
the war has taught us the tenacity and the resources of the rebellion.
No man who is fitted by study and
observation to pronounce an opinion will imagine that under any circumstances
whatever the war could have been a short one. To suppose that a victory at
Run would have terminated the rebellion is to betray the most profound ignorance
of the real condition of the country at that time. If the North had been
unanimous if it had understood that the rebellion was not a riot but a
revolution if it had had a vast trained army and navy, with their
properly-skilled officers if it had determined once for all, and by common
consent, that whatever was necessary to save the Government was constitutional,
and that no hint of negotiation with armed rebels should ever be tolerated and
then, having conquered at Bull Run, had pushed forward by land and sea, and
occupied and possessed the rebel section, the war might sooner have ended.
But if this had been the
situation it would never have begun. It was precisely because the rebel chiefs
knew that the North by which term we mean the loyal citizens were very far from
unanimous because they knew that there was no army and no navy, and that so many
naval and military officers inclined to the rebel side because they knew that
the Constitution would be constantly pleaded for the rebellion and because they
believed, as they had good reason to, that the surprised country could he forced
to terms by the timidity of trade, by party spirit, and by fear of bankruptcy
it; was because the rebel chiefs knew that we had not the conditions or the
possibility of speedily ending a war that they took up arms.
They have ever since counted upon
our fatigue. They have been willing to endure any extremity themselves, in the
hope of seeing us exhausted. They knew that we were rich and populous ; but they
were willing to take brown paper for money, and to send every man into the
field, so confident were they that we should presently be tired of the war, and
insist upon ending it. The election undeceives them. They know now that we are
not willing to admit the separate sovereignty of the States, or to allow that
the Government of the United States is overthrown. They understand that the gage
is thrown down for war to the end.
That the rebel leaders will be
disappointed is beyond question. Governor BROWN, of
Georgia, evidently expected
a different result. We have constantly misjudged them in many respects, but not
less have they misapprehended us. Governor BROWN'S error was in believing that
the Chicago leaders represented the real feeling of the people. It is true that
they would gladly have peace, but they will more gladly have war than a truce.
The rebel leaders will be disappointed, doubtless, but they will not yield. To
relax their authority in the least, to seem to waver even in their design of
securing absolute independence, would he to see every thing fall from them, and
to be suddenly ruined.
They have staked every thing upon
the chance. They will still stand sullenly at bay. While they can persuade
people to give a bushel oil corn for a piece of brown paper two inches
square, so long they will have
enough to eat. They will sit down behind their earth-works, and the sternest
military despotism and the melancholy suicidal pride which supports men in the
last extremity, will sustain them yet for many a month, forbidding them to
speak, almost to think, against the authorities over them. Their soldiers may
not be paid, but they will be fed. The rebellion will resolve itself into an
inert mass of resistance which must he crumbled away.
Upon this mass the disintegrating
superior force of the loyal country will be thrown, and the issue, although in
the nature of things sure, can not be very sudden. There is a great deal of
truth in what Davis says. In a certain sense no particular spot is essential to
the rebellion. Richmond may fall with Atlanta, Charleston and Mobile with New
Orleans, and still the fire creep and smoulder on. The resistance will be made
where men can be massed in small or large numbers. There will be no end of the
war as in a treaty of peace with a foreign foe. It will ravel out. It will be
extinguished as a fire is upon the prairie, which is trampled out here and
there, and flames up again beyond. But when it is out it is out forever. There
are no sparks, no cinders, no points in which the fire hides to leap forth again
This process has begun. The
election does not mean that we expect perfect peace next month, but that we
intend to continue the smothering. No man can be so blind as not to see the
internal condition of the rebellion as revealed in all the late accounts. It
does not indicate a " collapse," but it does show consumption. What we have to
do is to wait patiently and steadily, putting out all our force all the time.
The rebels have no reason for holding out that we have not in a hundred fold
greater degree, and the 8th of November teaches them that we are fully aware of
FREDERICK THE GREAT'S Silesian
campaigns were not more remarkable than
General SHERMAN'S. A more skillful and
accomplished soldier has not been known in our history ; and, compared with him
and his operations, how poor sounds the old talk about the " Great Captain"
SHERMAN forced his way straight
through the enemy's territory, over mountains and rivers, baffling all attacks,
outwitting all hostile designs, driving the whole mass of the rebel army
backward until he planted his flag where he set out to plant it, and sat down in
Atlanta. The victory extorted a wail of anguish and rage from the rebel chief,
for he felt the mortal wound. In utter desperation he ordered HOOD to throw his
army upon SHERMAN'S rear and to threaten
Tennessee. SHERMAN turned upon him,
drove him from his intended line, detached
General Thomas with his army to hold
him in the corner of Alabama or to coax him across the Tennessee ; while now,
with all his banners flying and bugles blowing, his futile enemy confounded,
SHERMAN shakes out his glittering columns and advances to the sea.
There is no considerable force to
oppose him. The ample breadth of Georgia lies open to him. The finest and
richest tract of the rebel region is his parade ground, and ALEXANDER H.
STEPHENS'S own State is about to learn the truth of his prophecy that, if it
drew the sword, it would miserably perish by it.
Whether SHERMAN is moving upon
Mobile, or Savannah. or
Charleston, or whether he is moving at all, is not
known. But whatever be his destination, he will reach it and occupy it. There Is
no force and no generalship in the rebel lines which can compare with his. And
the coming of his army, although it necessarily leave a path of desolation, will
be the shining of a bright light in the darkness of the South. It will show
rebels that the Government of the United States has irresistible power, and that
it is useless to contend with the inflexible resolution of the American people
that their Government shall be maintained.
The people of the rebel section
have seen the progress of our arms in the last three years. They have not
forgotten that they were themselves apparently successful until the Government
could create and collect its forces and bring them to bear. They have seen the
loyal part of the country submitting to taxes, to drafts, and to the necessary
conditions of war. They have seen an angry and malignant faction arise and
threaten to paralyze and divide the loyal nation. They have seen the slow and
painful process by which we have ascertained who are our real military chiefs,
and they see them now in command. They have seen the opening of the Mississippi,
the occupation of the Southwest, the baffling at every point of their attempted
invasions, their constant shrinking before the national hand, as JOHNSON shrank
from SHERMAN. They have seen the hope of foreign interference expire, cotton
dethroned, and their finances ruined. They have seen the defection of their
army, and have heard it confirmed by DAVIS himself. And now at last they have
seen the attitude of their loyal fellow citizens perfectly unchanged, and hear
them in the fourth year of the war, by a unanimity which is marvelous, declare
that whatever may be the
further cost of the struggle it
shall go on until the authority of the mildest, fairest, and best government in
the world is every where and entirely restored.
The coming of SHERMAN'S army will
be the visible proof of all the things they have seen. Desperate they may be,
brave and furious, but they are men still, and there is a point at which all men
yield. If that point is not nearly reached, very well. We can wait, They know
now that SHERMAN is the personification of the loyal country, and that the war
will continue until that point is reached.
FEELING OF THE NORTH.
THE President's two speeches in
acknowledgment of the serenades after the election are the noblest expression of
the universal public sentiment. There is no personal or partisan exultation. The
issue was too solemn for that. There is the sane sober joy as after a great
victory or a narrow escape.
It has been customary for
foreigners, and many among ourselves, to speak of
Mr. LINCOLN as the rebels
speak of him, and to celebrate JEFFERSON DAVIS as a gentleman and a polished
intellectual statesman. Will such persons compare DAVIS'S recent speeches at
Macon, Columbia, and elsewhere, or his earlier speeches in the war, with any
speech of Mr. LINCOLN, and especially these two last, and then say which of them
are the manlier and more honorable ? With malignant fury, which not even his
trained coolness can conceal, DAVIS hisses that he would sooner fraternize with
hyenas than Yankees ; or in his foolish rage speaks of the "Beast"
this the style of a statesman ? Are these specimens of the intellectual
superiority which distinguishes JEFFERSON Davis ? Or is it the scurrility of a
baffled conspirator, and the venomous malice of a disappointed rebel?
Nothing in the history of the war
is more striking than the different spirit in which it is waged by the loyal
citizens and the rebels. Indeed, the murderous and wicked olive branch policy,
which has so prolonged and embittered the struggle, is due to the want of proper
insight and a more wholesome indignation upon the part of loyal citizens. From
the beginning it was not only war, but war made upon the Government by men who
had been taught to hate "the North" and "Northerners." And while rebels have
been starving and slaughtering in every horrible way Union men at the South, and
Union soldiers from the North, we have gone on mumbling " conciliation," until
we were likely to be overthrown by our obstinate refusal to understand our
We have learned now what they
are. The election plucks off the olive branches and throws them away ; and
declares that conciliation is a word to be spoken to rebels when they have
submitted and not before. Yet there is no personal hate mingled with this
resolution. As a class the rebels are regarded by the most strenuous loyal
citizens as sophisticated and deluded ; as men who must be taught by superior
force to regard their obligations as citizens, of the United States, but that is
all. In no official paper or speech of the Union authorities has there been any
expression of malignity toward the insurgents, nor will there be. Engaged in
defending their Government, which is the sole security of their peace and
prosperity, the people of the United States yield to no unworthy emotion. They
are faithfully represented by the man whom they have again made their President.
They feel in their successes " no taint of personal triumph ;" but they are
resolved, as he says, through every fortune, " to stand by free government and
the rights of humanity."
PARTY AND FACTION.
WHAT is a party, and what is a
faction? It is very necessary to understand the difference between them, that
every honest party man may not find himself in the dishonest position of a
In a word, then, legitimate
parties in a free country represent the different policies which different
citizens think the Government ought to pursue. A legitimate party presents and
defends the measures by which it thinks the Government can best be sustained. If
the country is at war, it brings forward its plans for its prosecution, and
explains and defends them, having in view the integrity of the nation, the
national honor, and the maintenance of the Government. Its attacks, if it be out
of power, are directed against the method by which the war is waged, not against
the war itself, especially when it is a civil war imperiling the existence of
the nation. A legitimate party is of necessity patriotic ; for when it ceases to
be patriotic it has become faction.
Faction, then, is the spirit
which incessantly thwarts and opposes the operations of the Government for the
purpose of overthrowing it. It considers the fall of the Government a smaller
calamity than its own exclusion from political power. Consequently, when the.
country is engaged in war, however necessary, honorable, and jest, however
essential to the very existence of the nation and government, faction denounces
the war under the pretense of
high humanity and religion, appeals to every base emotion, every mean and
unworthy passion, seeking to paralyze the hand and chill the heart of the
Government and the people.
Thus, in the last session of
Congress, when certain representatives voted steadily against every measure
proposed by the Government for prosecuting the war, without offering any
substitute, they voted to deliver the country naked into the hands of its
enemies. When some of their associates said to them, " Here we are, sworn to
maintain the Government, and if our party has any measures to propose for that
purpose we are ready to support them," the only answer they received was : " We
are going to propose nothing. We are going to let the Administration go to the
dogs in its own way." This was the reply of the most malignant faction. It was
exactly the spirit of BENEDICT ARNOLD. It was the very reverse of a legitimate
party opposition, for it was a blow at the life of the Government, under which
alone legitimate parties exist.
At the next session the true
Opposition has but one course to pursue, unless it acknowledges
a purely factious character. Its
only honorable course, as a party, is to propose wiser measures for the surer
and speedier victory of the nation over the rebellion than the Administration
proposes. Merely to block the wheels and to cast impediments in the path, merely
to snarl, and growl, and hiss, is the course of cowards and sneaks. When CHARLES
JAMES Fox led the Parliamentary opposition to WILLIAM PITT, it was not when
England was struggling with a foreign or domestic enemy, but when Fox and PITT
differed as to the means by which war was to be avoided and the authority of the
British Government maintained intact. That was a legitimate opposition. But to
oppose whatever the Administration proposes during the war, merely because it
proposes it, is to make the welfare of the country a football, and to deserve
the contempt of all true men.
Let the Opposition learn by last
winter's experience, and by the prodigious emphasis of the election, that when
the Government itself is directly assailed, the only honorable party question is
how most surely to save it.
THE breakfast given by members of
the Union League Club to Professor GOLDWIN SMITH was a tribute worthy of the
city and of the guest. Among the names of our foreign friends, friends who have
constantly and with masterly power and eloquence vindicated our cause, none is
fairer than that of GOLDWIN SMITH. Professor of History at Oxford, and a close
and wise student of the times and the men around him, he comprehends the exact
significance of this great war of ours, and speaks to his countrymen with a
historical knowledge of the career of England as a belligerent power which is
most dangerous to provoke, and overwhelming when it is launched against English
Before he wrote or spoke of our
affairs Professor SMITH was known to intelligent observers not only by the
lectures from his University chair and his comprehensive, luminous, and noble
little work upon Ireland, but from his sagacious practical service as a leader
of the liberal thinkers who inspire the liberal party in England. He was before
COBDEN in bearding the London Times. Early In 1862 he wrote : "The leading
Journal has indeed waged war against ' thinkers' for a quarter of a cent my with
no questionable success." And with a fine exaltation, which recalls the better
days and men of his country, he adds : "I am most willing to be called a '
thinker,' or, if possible, worse names, if I can contribute in the slightest
degree toward inducing however small a section of the public to exercise
forecast in politics ; to study our position in the community of nations, its
changes and its necessities; to mark the ways of Providence, and subdue ambition
to them; and to lay, by deliberate action on intelligible principles, the solid
foundations of happiness and greatness."
The opinion of foreigners upon
car affairs is often compared to that of posterity ; and certainly the views of
a man like GOLDWIN SMITH have the kind of equity that we attribute to those who
come after us, and who are removed from the gusts of party opinion in which we
live. How fully this is recognized, and how gladly our great debt to him is
acknowledged, Professor SMITH'S reception in this country must have proved to
him and to his companions in our vindication, COBDEN, BRIGHT, CAIRNES, NEWMAN,
and the rest.
It was fortunate that AUGUSTE
LANGEL, who, with GASPARIN, LABOULAYE, HENRI MARTIN, and other noble Frenchmen,
have not less comprehended these events, was in the city and at the breakfast.
M. LANGEL, in response to an honorary sentiment, spoke with a fluency and
felicity which would have been charming in an American, but in a Frenchman
expressing himself in a foreign tongue was extraordinary. And when Professor
BOTTA, with his historic Italian American name and traditions, spoke in the same
English tongue and with the same generous sympathy, it was impossible not to
feel that the generous heart of every truly civilized na- (Next