Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/432

 422 Southern Historical Society Papers.

12. I quote in full two paragraphs on page 316 and three para- graphs on page 318, in order that those who have not access to this book may see for themselves what our children are taught by this History of the " Results of the Civil War : "

" 574. The war once over, all reasonable men were ready to join in repairing its wastes and forgetting its enmities. Doubtless there were selfish Northern adventurers, who cared only to make their own for- tunes out of the poverty of the exhausted South and the ignorance of the freedmen ; while there were disappointed politicians, who, hav- ing failed to destroy the Government, used every opportunity to obstruct its action. Both these classes presented obstacles to the thorough restoration of peace, but their influence could not be last- ing.

" 575. The strength and the clemency of the great Republic were equally proved by the circumstances attending the close of the war. The hopes of its enemies were disappointed. It had been said that the peaceful, industrious pursuits of the majority of the people had unfitted them for war ; and that, used as they were to personal inde- pendence, they would never submit to the needful discipline of the army. But it was found that men will fight most cheerfully and bravely for a government that represents their will and promotes their prosperity, and that happy home-life, so far from destroying courage, is a strong incentive to it. "

" 581. If we ask what was gained by all this suffering and expendi- ture of life and treasure, we find that the South, before the war was over, gave up the two principles for which it was ostensibly made. The right of secession was indeed a principle which no government could admit, and, notwithstanding its assertion of State sovereignty, the Confederacy was from the very beginning more strongly central- ized than the Union had ever been. Its leaders found, just as their fathers had found in Revolutionary times (§ 234), that a rope of sand is not strong enough to bear the strain of war. One flag, one uni- form, were seen all through the South, and one will at Richmond controlled all movements.

" 582. Abandonment of Slavery. — The other principle was far more reluctantly abandoned ; but before Lee's surrender the Confed- erate Government, like that of the Union two years before, had come to the resolution to arm the negroes, and thus in the end to set them free. The two purposes of the war being thus given up, it might