Seven Score and Ten The Civil War Sesquicentennial Day by Day January 6, 1865: Need to put Lee in charge The New York Times reprints an editorial from the Richmond Examiner advocating that Gen. Lee be given overall control of the Confederate armies, much as Grant has of the Union forces. The editorial points out what should be obvious, that defeat of a nation (or a would-be nation) is achieved not by exhausting all the resources of the nation, but by exhausting the will of the populace to continue fighting. Apparently the remedy for that sort of exhaustion is a military leader in whom the people have confidence, and that leader would be General Lee. Left unsaid is the obvious corollary that Jefferson Davis’ attempt to act as his own General-in-Chief has been unsuccessful. THE FAILING MORAL STRENGTH OF THE SOUTH A MILITARY DICTATORSHIP. From the Richmond Examiner. Several persons have employed themselves lately in preparing statistical tables of the wealth, food, and fighting men, remaining in the Confederacy subject to the command of the Government. They prove conclusively that the amount of all these things is still very great — enormous — sufficient to support far greater efforts than the Confederacy has yet made. To question the accuracy of their facts is far from our purpose; indeed their truth has been so long and so well known to all who have examined the subject, that the proof and tabular exposition seem to them quite superfluous, and even uninteresting. Material exhaustion is not yet felt by the mass of the nation; not felt in the slightest or most distant degree. It will never be felt. But the nation may soon suffer from moral exhaustion. The country will never be unable, if willing, to supply the wants of its Government, but it may easily become unwilling, and then no pressure of legislation will be of much value. Pressure will obtain only those few drops which trickle from the squeezed orange, and soon get nothing at all. These Southern States are Lands of Goshen. A hot Summer and a fertile soil will always produce a superabundance of bread and meat. They contain five millions of the most fighting people of the world, and can always supply three hundred thousand arms-bearing men in the prime of life. The extent of their territory is so great, that its real occupation by the armed forces of two or three such nations as that we are fighting is inconceivable. The enemy is perfectly aware of the fact, and does not base his hope of subjugation on the practical application of main strength, but upon the submission of the will and consequent inability to contend in the last extremity, which he expects to see at some time spread over the land. That is, in fact, the only contingency on which the subjugation of the South is possible, The Southern States are in no danger so long as the spirit of the people is what it has hitherto been; but let us not be blind to the truth, that there is such a thing possible as decay of national confidence and a death of national spirit. There is such a thing as heart-break for nations, as for individuals. There are such things as hopelessness and despair, lethargy and apathy. A conviction that all that it will do must come to nought, all sacrifices if can make be rendered vain, by an irremediable cause — a conviction resting on rational grounds, both of reflection and experiment, will produce this state of feeling in any nation, however heroic and however obstinate. No people have ever or anywhere displayed more patient courage, more constancy in misfortune, or a greater magnanimity toward its Government than the Southern people. Neither SIDNEY JOHNSON’s evacuation of Nashville, nor LOVELL’s of New-Orleans; neither Murfreesboro or Missionary Ridge, or Vicksburgh were sufficient to damp their energy or their hope. Armies lost have been replaced by other armies. Resources squandered have been only the signal for the production of new treasures. No single calamity will dishearten them, nor twenty, nor a hundred, if, by any ingenuity, they can persuade themselves that they are the chances of war and accident, and not the necessary consequences of unfailing causes, which must produce the like again and again and again forever. But it is impossible to bear up under such a weight as that painful conviction; and the conduct of the Government is likely enough to produce it in the end. The unparalleled absurdity of that management which sent HOOD to Nashville and SHERMAN to Savannah, has produced a certain gloomy impression upon the public mind, too deep and strong to be removed by an ordinary anodyne. Words are now useless. Eloquent appeals, manifestoes, high-spirited resolutions, theories, nostrums of all kinds, will now be thrown away. Nothing will remove the cloud — or rather the ill-omened light — which now rests on the future, but measures that touch the root of our evil. Such a measure there is. A remedy for all discontent has suggested itself to the mind of every man who thinks, and has been advised by a thousand mouths in the same breath. It is the creation of a new officer — a new Commander-in-Chief — who shall exercise supreme control over the armies and military affairs of the Confederacy, and the appointment of Gen. LEE to be that officer. Such an act, if made in good faith, and solemnly guarded against counteracting influences, would restore public confidence, and give the country heart for a new effort equal to that which it has hitherto made. It would do more to bring down the price of gold and restore faith in the currency than any law Mr. TRENHOLM can devise, however wise in principle and however ingenious in detail. The people would be satisfied that their means would not be thrown away; that the best use of their blood and property would be made that could be made. The adoption of such a measure would be the new birth of the Southern Confederacy. But it must be the real, substantial measure, guaranteed by the representatives of the nation; not a sham, not a duplex general order, creating another Beauregard or Johnson “Department under the control of the President.” And it must be adopted in time — that is to say, now. We utter the general opinion, but confess that we see little encouragement to suppose that this present Congress has the decision of character necessary to give it force. gathkinsons.net/sesqui/?p=7255
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 18:45:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015