Page:Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade (1906).djvu/27

 It is not the purpose of the writer, in giving the events that happened in the four years' struggle between the North and South, to enter into a detailed account of the causes that led up to the war.

These are matters of history, and have gone upon record, according to the prejudices and passions of the contending parties; or they have been given from the different points from which men viewed them.

When the Mason and Dixon line was first blazed out the country was divided into two powerful, distinct and widely diverging factions, differing radically in the policy of the government and financial interests, and these of such magnitude that the casual observer will understand at once they must not only lead to a disruption of the government, but to war and bloodshed.

From that very hour the two factions began forming their ranks for the final conflict; the coming was as fixed as fate itself.

Nor did either think of grounding their arms. True, one was aggressive and the other defensive. But if the aggression was persistent, the defense was determined. In both the North and the South the worst passions of men were appealed to, and in the name of patriotism each was called upon to stand for their homes, their firesides and their country. South of the Mason and Dixon line were the homes and firesides of the Southerner, and north of it the homes of their former Northern brethren.

True, there was a large element, both North and South, whose patriotism arose above sectional lines, and who looked with dark forebodings upon the coming conflict, and who were ready to interpose in behalf of peace and good government, and whose love of country reached beyond the sectional strife that was raging.