Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/522

 516 Southerm Historical Society Papers.

his aged cheeks : " Get your knapsack, William ; the ranks must be filled !" Surely it may be said that the pure soul which can thus triumph over nature like him that ruleth himself is greater than he who taketh a city !

Such were the efTorts made in North Carolina, public and private, to avert the calamities of war and to sustain the spirits of the people. I attribute the comparatively great efficiency of the North Carolina troops to these efforts. In my opinion the causes of our ultimate failure begun by neglect of those at home. Our civil administrators lost the cause of the South. Had it been equal in ability and tact to that displayed by our military administration — had the civilian done his part so well as the soldier — very different would have been the result. I do not mean by this to attack Mr. Davis and his Ministers. By no means. They doubtless did what men could, situated as they were. I mean that class of men to whom the management of public sentiment in a Democratic government is usually entrusted failed of their part. The morale of our people at the beginning and for two years thereafter v^-as excellent; and, if it had been sustained, I main- tain that we could have won, notwithstanding the fearful disparity of numbers and means. But it was not kept up; and to that defective statesmanship, which permitted the popular enthusiasm to die out, and even aided to extinguish it, must be attributed our ill success. Few of our political leaders comprehended the situation at all when the troubles began. In the first place, the war was resorted to in order to avoid aniicipated, not existing evils; and the great masses of mankind who do not read Burke and Hallam are only stirred per- manently and deeply by present oppressions, which they feel. Had a tenth of the outrages perpetrated since the war been inflicted upon us, or even attempted, before a blow had been stricken, there would have been no flagging of popular enthusiasm, no desertion, no Ap- pomattox, no military satrapies instead of States under the Constitu- tion. In the Second place, the war once begun, our leaders either did not grasp the magnitude of the struggle, or, with an unwise want of candor, concealed it as much as possible from the popular intelligence, which reacted most injuriously upon the cause. A frank avowal that the war would be long and desperate, and a call for volunteers to serve through its whole duration would have brought out the entire military strength of our people as well as the call for six months. This short-sighted policy had to be repaired by a conscript act, and although it was necessary at the time, the blunder of those who created the necessity remains the same. Our people never recovered