Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/399

 Rh In the North to-day no name stirs human hearts like that of Lee, no fame electrifies the people like Stonewall, no flag flashes, no sabre glitters like that of Stuart. Neither Grant nor Sherman nor Sheridan, the great and successful soldiers of the victorious side, have left such an impression on the imagination or the hearts of the people as have the leaders of the Confederates, who died in battle or yielded to overwhelming force, where further resistance would have been criminal.

I do not mean to intimate, for I do not believe that the North has changed its opinion as to the wisdom of our course. They thought then and they think now it was foolish to attempt to break up a Union, because first it was so unprofitable, and second because it was impossible before overwhelming forces for us to succeed. But I do mean to say that the idea is dimly pressing itself upon the Northern mind that we tried to avoid war—did not want war; that war was brought on, waged and continued for the purpose of keeping a faction in power, and enabling the controllers of the faction to make a profit out of it. It was not a patriotic war to preserve the Union, but a contractor's war to secure the men in power permanent control in government. Pensions and bounties are the degrading consequences of the mercenary motives which brought it on.

Our women whose mothers and grandmothers had decorated the most brilliant courts of modern Europe and formed the highest social organization of America, whose ancestors had founded Virginia and framed the Union, were forced to the menial duties of the kitchen and the laundry for husband and children. A man can face death with joy, he can endure hunger and cold without flinching, but to see the tender hand that has been given him by sweet girlhood toughened by menial toil, the delicate forms upon which the winds of heaven were wont not to blow harshly, and which he swore to cherish and protect, bent by daily labor, this sight, I say, tried the nerves and tested the heart ten thousand times more than the guns at Malvern or the artillery at Gettysburg. But the women never flinched during that ordeal of temptation and of suffering, of fidelity and of fortitude. They encouraged their fathers, husbands and lovers. By them and through them the men were kept firm and straight.