Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/341

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\\omen. children and prisomT.-.; plunder, rapine, devastation, mur- der, all the old horrors of barbarous warfare, which Europe is be- ginning to l>r ashamed of, and new refinements of cruelty thereto added, by way of illustrating the advance of knowledge. It has also produced qualities and phenemona the opposite of these. Ardour and devotedness of patriotism which might alone be enough to make us proud of the century to which we belong; a unanimity such as has probably never been witnessed before; a wisdom in leg- islation; a stainless good faith under extremely difficult circum- stances; a clear appreciation of danger, coupled with a determina- tion to face it to the uttermost; a resolute abnegation of power in favor of leaders in whom those who selected them' could trust; with an equally resolute determination to reserve the liberty of criticism, and not to allow those trusted leaders to go one inch beyond their legal powers; a heroism in the field and behind the defences of be- seiged cities, which can match anything that history has to show; a wonderful helpfulness in supplying needs and creating fresh re- sources; a chivalrous and romantic daring, which recalls the middle ages; a most scrupulous regard for the rights of hostile property; a tender consideration for the vanquished and the weak; a determina- tion not to be provoked into retaliation by the most brutal injuries, which makes one wonder, recollecting what those injuries have been, whether in their place, one would have done as they have done. tlic good qualities have been on the one side, and all the bad ones on the other.
 * * * And the remarkable circumstance is * * * that all

In other words, he says that all the bad qualities were on the side of the North, and all the good on that of the South. He then says of the South:

" I am not going a hair's-breadth beyond what I soberly and sin- cerely believe, in saying that the Confederates have in almost every respect, surpassed anything that has ever been known.

"The most splendid instance of a nation's defence of its liberties that the world has seen before the present day, was perhaps (I am not sure, but I think so), that of Sicily at the end of the thirteenth century; and the Confederates stand much above the Sicilians."

He then goes on to enumerate the splendid instances of sacrifice and devotion of the people, especially of the women of the South, and of the valor and heroism of the soldiers in the field, but to re-