Page:Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade (1906).djvu/28

12 But in the great whirl of passion and prejudice their efforts proved in vain; their voices hushed, and they found themselves powerless to avert the inevitable. The die had been cast; the line drawn; the decree had gone forth, and no mortal hand could stay the tempest or arrest the calamity.

And when, at last, the crash came, even the conservative element had nothing to do but to drop into line, according to their feelings or mutual interests.

There was no half-way ground to occupy; war knows nothing but decision, and if one could not decide for himself there was a fate to decide for him.

"He that is not for me is against me" is an inexorable decree of battle, and to that decree men were compelled to bow, whether they would or not. Thus, as the mighty avalanche, or the terrible cyclone, were they swept on.

America was young, and filled with younger sons, sons each of whom felt himself a king. With him to be an American was to be a freeman, and he stood proudly upon his royal rights; to dare to trample upon these inherent privileges was an insult to his honor, to his Americanism. The fires of seventy-six were rekindled into a blazing, burning flame, as each pictured to himself the long catalogue of grievances.

The cannon of 1812 echoed and re-echoed over the plains of South Carolina, while the defiant tones were hurled back from the mountains of New Hampshire, rousing the young blood of the sons of New England.

The young men, full of martial fire, pictured the American flag borne, with proud, victorious arms, into the very Halls of the Montezumas, showing that our arms had been victorious on every battle-field; that never had we crossed swords with any foe but that victory had followed.

The American eagle, proud, victorious bird, belonged to each, and each felt called upon to see that that bird soared unfettered in the clear, bright sunlight of heaven.

Each thought himself the special guardian of freedom and the protector of American liberty. None stopped to ponder the old adage, "When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war."