GENERAL STONEMAN--OUTRAGES--COLD-BLOODED MURDERS--GENERAL
GILLAM--PROGRESS THROUGH LENOIR, WILKES, SURRY, AND STOKES--STONEMAN'S
DETOUR INTO VIRGINIA--THE DEFENSE OF SALISBURY--THE FIGHT IN THE
STREETS OF SALISBURY--GENERAL POLK'S FAMILY--TEMPORARY OCCUPANCY OF
SALISBURY--CONTINUOUS RAIDING.
On the same day that General Sherman entered Raleigh, General Stoneman
occupied Salisbury, April 12-13th, thus completing the chain of events
which was closing in upon the Confederacy. Among the prisoners kept at
Salisbury were some of the better class, who were at large on _parole_.
This they broke in the winter of 1864-'5, and, making their escape over
the mountains into Tennessee, carried such accounts of the accumulation
of stores, etc., at Salisbury, as made its capture an object of
importance.
General Stoneman entered the State during the last week of March, by
the turnpike leading from Taylorsville, Tennessee, through Watauga
county to Deep Gap, on the Blue Ridge. His force was probably six or
seven thousand strong, though rumor increased it to fifteen, twenty,
thirty, and in one instance to sixty thousand.
They entered Boone, the county-seat of Watauga, on the twenty-sixth of
March. The village was completely taken by surprise. No one was aware
of the approach of an enemy till the advance-guard dashed up the main
street, making no demand for surrender, but firing right and left at
every moving thing they saw. Mrs. James Council, hearing the noise,
stepped into her piazza with her child in her arms, and immediately a
volley of balls splintered the wood-work all around her. She, however,
escaped unhurt. The people of this county had been warmly attached to
the Confederate cause, and had bravely resisted East-Tennessee raiders
and marauders. The county-seat was therefore, perhaps, especially
obnoxious; and whatever may have been General Stoneman's policy, there
were subordinate officers in his command who were only too happy in the
opportunity to retort upon a defenseless and unresisting population.
The jail was burned by order of General Gillam. For this it is said he
was sternly rebuked by General Stoneman; but all the county records,
books, and private papers were destroyed. Private houses were of course
plundered, and the citizens were consoled by the assurance that "Kirk
was to follow and clean them out." Several citizens were shot under
circumstances of peculiar aggravation. A party of the raiders went into
the field of Mr. Jacob Council, where he was plowing with a negro. He
was over the conscript age, a prudent, quiet man, who had taken no part
in the war. He was shot down in cold blood, notwithstanding his piteous
appeals for mercy, because, upon the negro's statement, he was "an
infernal rebel." Another, Warren Green, was killed while holding up
his hands in token of surrender. Another, Calvin Green, was pursued and
surrendered, but they continued firing upon him after his surrender.
He then resolved to defend himself, and fought, loading and firing
till he was shot down and left for dead. He shattered the arm of one
of the Federal soldiers, so that it had to be amputated that night.
But instead of dying himself, he recovered, and is now living. Steele
Frazier, a lad of fifteen, was chased by a squad of half a dozen. He
made a running fight of it. Getting over a fence, he coolly waited
till they were within range, and then fired and shot one through. He
then ran again, loading, and turned again and killed another of his
pursuers; and notwithstanding the pursuit was kept up some distance,
the balls whistling round him, he finally made good his escape, and
will probably make none the worse citizen, when he is grown, for his
adventurous boyhood.
Through the whole of this raid General Stoneman is represented to have
been apparently anxious to mitigate the distresses and horrors of
war as far as was practicable, by courteous and humane treatment of
the people. His record and that of General Palmer are in refreshing
contrast to those of his subordinate, General Gillam, and of certain
other higher names in the Federal army. There is one story, however,
told of him in Boone, which, after all, may be due to his quartermaster
or commissary-in-chief. Mrs. Council had been kind to some Federal
prisoners confined in the jail; and the invaders hearing of it,
requited her by affording her protection during their stay. Kirk's
raiders, however, came down after Stoneman had passed on, and stripped
the place of all that had been left--the gallant Colonel Kirk himself
making his headquarters with this lady--keeping her a close prisoner in
her own room, while he and his men made free with the rest of the house
and the premises. That they left little or nothing but the bare walls,
may be inferred from General Stoneman's remark on his return to the
place after the capture of Salisbury. Standing in the piazza and taking
a survey of what had once been a happy and beautiful home--the fencing
all gone, the gardens, shrubbery, and yard trampled bare, covered with
raw hides of cattle and sheep, decaying carcasses, and all manner of
filth--he turned to the lady and said, "Well, Mrs. C., I suppose you
hardly know whether you are at home or not." Gratefully remembering
his former courtesy to her, she exerted herself to entertain him with
such scanty stores as the raiders had left. A firkin of uncommonly fine
butter had been overlooked by them, and she placed some of this on the
table. The General commended this butter especially, and asked her if
she had any more of it. She told him it was about the only thing to
eat she had left, and congratulated herself on its safety under his
protection. What was her mortification, a short time after, to see the
firkin ordered out and placed in the General's own provision-wagon. So
much that is favorable to General Stoneman's character has reached me,
that I can not help hoping he was ignorant of this unspeakably small
transaction.
On the twenty-seventh of March, the column was divided. General
Stoneman, with one division, went direct to Wilkesboro. The other,
under General Gillam, crossed the Blue Ridge at Blowing Rock, and
went to Patterson, in Caldwell county, thence rejoining Stoneman at
Wilkesboro. At Patterson General Gillam took the responsibility of
ordering the extensive cotton factory there to be burned. General
Stoneman is said to have regretted this destruction especially, as Mr.
Patterson, the owner, had received a promise that it should be spared,
and the people of East-Tennessee had been largely supplied from it.
But General Gillam, when not immediately under General Stoneman's eye,
could not restrain his propensities. He announced that "the Government
had been too lenient, and rebels must look out for consequences," and
ordered the torch to be applied.
While the raiders were in the Yadkin river-bottom, they were detained
three days by freshets. Small parties scoured the country, carrying
off all the horses and mules, and burning the factories. There seemed
to be no systematic plan of destruction; for while some mills and
factories were burned, others in the same neighborhood and quite as
easily accessible were spared. Much depended on the personal character
and disposition of the commanding officer of these detachments.
If he happened to be a gentleman, the people were spared as much
as possible; if he were simply a brute dressed in a little brief
authority, every needless injury was inflicted, accompanied with true
underbred insolence and malice. The privates always followed the lead
of their commander. The factories on Hunting Creek, in the upper part
of Tredell, were burned with large quantities of cotton. Eagle Mills
alone lost eight hundred bales. Among General Gillam's exploits in
Wilkesboro, was the finding the horse of the late General James Gordon
in the stable of a brother-in-law of the General. This, General G.
immediately, with great intrepidity, "captured;" and further to impress
the family with a sense of his heroic achievement, he had a man to
mount the animal and parade him slowly up and down before the door of
the house for an hour or two.
Leaving Wilkesboro on the thirty-first of March, General Stoneman moved
over into Surry county, in the direction of Mount Airy, and thence
into Virginia, aiming for Christiansburg, on the Tennessee Railroad.
A portion of the command being detached to Wytheville, was met near
that place by General Duke's cavalry, and repulsed, but rallying, took
the town and destroyed the depot of supplies there. Having effectually
destroyed the road above Wytheville, between New River and Big Lick,
General Stoneman turned back upon North-Carolina, reëntering it from
Patrick county, Virginia, and marching rapidly through Stokes county,
appeared suddenly in Salem and Winston on the tenth of April. Here he
sent out various detachments to cut the North-Carolina Central Road and
the Danville and Greensboro Road, destroy bridges, supplies, etc., etc.
One of these parties, as I have said before, narrowly missed capturing
the train conveying the whole Confederate government, in its flight to
Greensboro. They burned the bridge at Jamestown, and were about to fire
the depot, but upon a sudden false alarm, fled precipitately without
finishing their work. At High Point they burned the depot and large
quantities of government stores, also seventeen hundred bales of cotton
belonging to Francis Fries, of Salem. The public buildings and stores
at Lexington and Thomasville were saved by the arrival of a body of
Ferguson's cavalry, who chased the raiders back to Salem. The general
plan of the whole raid seemed to contemplate the destruction of stores
and the cutting off communications without risking a battle.
At Salem and Winston private property was protected, no pillage being
permitted. This was probably owing to the fact that the inhabitants
having had notice of the approach of the raiders, sent a deputation to
meet them and make a formal surrender of the town. I am not aware that
a demand for surrender was made of any place during the entire raid, or
that any place beside Salem and Winston, which may be regarded as one,
offered a surrender. The first notice of the presence of any enemy, in
most cases, was given by the unlooked-for arrival of the advance-guard
galloping in and taking possession.
At Mocksville, a number of the citizens, supposing it was only a small
squad that was hurrying through the country and plundering, prepared
to give them a warm reception, and a short distance from town fired
upon the advancing column. Soon finding their mistake, they retreated.
Threats of burning the village for this audacious thought of
resistance were made, but as General Stoneman was pressing forward with
all speed upon Salisbury, no time was allowed for any such exchange of
compliments.
General Stoneman's _detour_ into Virginia had completely mystified the
people of North-Carolina. They breathed freely as he passed over the
border, and congratulated themselves that the dreaded raid, which for
weeks had been anticipated, was so soon at an end. The troops which had
been posted by General Beauregard at Salisbury, for its protection,
were moved off to Greensboro and to the railroad bridge across the
Yadkin, and the town was left with little or no defense. If Stoneman
had marched thither from Wilkesboro, he would probably have been
repulsed with disaster; for a large body of infantry, with artillery
and cavalry, had been concentrated there; but when Salisbury was
attacked, on the morning of the twelfth of April, the whole effective
force did not much exceed five hundred men, including two batteries
on their way to join Johnston at Raleigh. Of these five hundred two
hundred were "galvanized" Irish, recruited from among the Federal
prisoners--besides artisans in the government employ from the various
shops, Junior reserves, and a number of citizens who volunteered in
defense of their homes. In the absence of General Bradley T. Johnson,
the commandant of the post, General Gardner took command, and disposed
his handful of men at various points on the road toward Mocksville, so
as to man and support the batteries, there being nowhere more than one
hundred and fifty men at any point.
The attack began at daylight. By eight o'clock the batteries were
flanked. The artillery-men fought bravely, but were of course soon
overpowered and compelled to leave their guns in the hands of the
enemy. A few of the "galvanized" Irish fought well, but the majority
went over in a body to the Federals soon after the fight commenced,
leaving the artillery without support, and of course betraying the
weakness of the Confederates. A desultory fight was kept up till the
suburbs of the town were reached, and then all order and subordination
were lost, the Confederates scattering through the town and to the
woods beyond. Several of them were wounded, and one or two were
killed in the town. The loss of the Federals is unknown, but several
were buried on the battle-field. A number of Confederates were taken
prisoners, some citizens, negroes, etc. By nine o'clock the place was
in quiet possession of the enemy, who galloped in with drawn swords and
full of strange oaths. Many of the citizens, negroes, and children,
were in the doors and on the sidewalks gazing for the first time at
the Federal uniform. In the desultory running fight that was kept
up through the streets, one of the Irish recruits before mentioned,
fighting bravely, was shot through the lungs; but he continued to
load and fire as he retreated till he fell on the piazza of Mrs. M.E.
Ramsay. Though the balls fell thick about him, and she was alone with
her little children, she went out to him and managed to get him inside
the house, where she nursed and stimulated him the greater part of the
day, till she could get a physician to him and have him removed to the
hospital. He said to her, "They have killed me, but I die a brave man;
I fought them as long as I could stand." She supposed that of course
his wound was mortal, but a fortnight after, to her astonishment, he
returned to thank her for her kindness.
Captain Frank Y. McNeely was found in the Arsenal and shot. Lieutenant
Stokes, of Maryland, was sitting on his horse in front of General
Bradley Johnson's headquarters, when a squad of the enemy dashed
into the street. An officer in front cried out, "There's a d----d
rebel--charge him." The Lieutenant waited till the officer was in
point-blank range, and then shot him through, and putting spurs to his
horse fled--hotly pursued. One of the pursuers was gaining on him,
considerably in advance of the rest, and probably intended to sabre
him; but the Lieutenant suddenly reining his horse aside, let the
raider pass, and as he passed fired and killed him, and then made good
his escape. The officer shot proved to be one of General Stoneman's
staff.
A small squad of the Confederates retreated fighting through the yard
and premises of Frank Shober, Esq. One of their number was killed in
the piazza of the house.
This hand-to-hand fighting in the streets--such incidents as these,
and the fact that Salisbury was an especial object of hatred to the
invaders as the prison depot of so many of their unfortunate comrades,
whose graves were to be counted there by thousands--these things
certainly gave General Stoneman every excuse for the plunder and
destruction of the whole town had he chosen to interpret the laws of
war as did General Sherman. But he did not so interpret them; he did
not even fall back upon the reserve that he was unable to restrain his
justly infuriated soldiers. He declined to avail himself of General
Gillam's burning zeal for the honor of the Union. This latter officer
was heard to say that, if he had his way, he would make the people of
Salisbury think "all hell was let loose upon them." Another account
states that he declared that "_though born in Salisbury_, he would be
glad to lay it in ashes."[16]
But General Stoneman's policy toward the inhabitants of Salisbury is
a very striking illustration of the principles which, in a previous
chapter, I have endeavored to show were the only true and generous
and really politic guide for the commanders of an invading army.
Private property was protected, guards were stationed, and General
Stoneman repeatedly gave strict orders for the enforcement of quiet and
protection of the citizens. He himself in person inspected the public
stores, which were of course by the laws of war doomed to destruction,
and refused to allow the Confederate Quartermaster's depot to be burned
lest it should endanger the town. The officers, whether willingly or
not, seconded their commander. Whatever plundering and insolence the
people were subjected to--and there were a number of such cases--was
very evidently the work of unauthorized bummers, who appeared in mortal
dread of the guards, and did their work hurriedly and furtively.
Corn-cribs and smoke-houses were entered, horses and mules and arms
were seized; but, on the whole, the general policy was the sound one of
protection to non-combatants.
Early in the morning of the attack several large trains with
government stores made their escape from Salisbury toward Charlotte
and Greensboro, but a passenger train on the Western road was not so
fortunate. Having proceeded a mile or two from town, the track was
found obstructed; and as soon as the train stopped, a volley was poured
into it without any demand for surrender. Several passengers were
wounded, but happily none of the ladies, among whom were the widow and
daughters of General Leonidas Polk. The cars being set on fire, much
of the baggage belonging to the passengers was burned--all that was
rescued was plundered--and among Mrs. Polk's valuables were found the
sword, uniform, papers, and other cherished relics of her husband.
These things were all seized with great triumph, and though much that
was taken besides was afterward restored to Mrs. Polk, no inducements
could prevail upon the gallant Colonel Slater of the Eleventh Kentucky
Cavalry to return to the widowed lady these mementos of her husband. He
claimed them as "taken on the battle-field," and kept them.
As soon as the town was quiet, a strong force was detailed to attack
the railroad bridge across the Yadkin, six miles distant. Here strong
fortifications on the Davidson side of the river had been erected,
under Beauregard's supervision, on a hill commanding the bridge and
the Rowan shore. General York of Louisiana, with ten or twelve hundred
men--home-guards and "galvanized" Irish--defended the bridge: its
preservation was of the greatest importance to the Confederate cause,
and strict orders had been issued by General Beauregard to defend
it at all hazards. At two o'clock P.M., on the twelfth, the raiders
arrived, and brisk skirmishing was kept up on the Rowan side. At
three o'clock some of the cannon captured in the morning on the other
side of Salisbury, were brought down, and opened on the Confederate
batteries. Heavy cannonading between the two continued till dark, when
the raiders, thinking the place too well fortified to risk an assault,
returned to Salisbury, destroying the railroad as they went. A few
Confederates were wounded, one or two were killed. The Federal loss, if
any, is unknown.
The assailants returned to assist in the destruction of the public
stores at Salisbury, which I have before stated were immense. They had
been accumulating there for weeks from Columbia, Charlotte, Richmond,
Danville, and Raleigh. The clothing, provisions, medical stores, etc.,
were collected in the main street and fired. The length of four entire
squares was occupied by the burning mass, valued at at least a million
in specie. Much was given away to negroes and the lower class of the
white population--much was quietly appropriated, and by some who should
have known better. The distresses and privations of war make times of
strong temptation, and the general demoralization that prevailed all
over our country was no greater at Salisbury than elsewhere. To people
who had been half starved for months, and many of them half clothed,
it was hard to see such quantities of sugar, coffee, spice, flour,
bacon, luxuries to which they had long been strangers, burning in their
streets like so much rubbish. The stores were all emptied besides of
private property--and many people were to be seen passing along the
streets loaded with what they chose. Many soldiers had dozens of coats,
shirts, etc., piled up before them on their horses.
The value of the medical stores alone was estimated at $100,000 in
gold. It is a little curious that, while such an amount was being
thrown into the flames, one of the surgeons of the Federal army entered
the office of one of the principal physicians in the place--Dr. J.J.
Summerell--and was about to carry off all his scanty store of medicine;
but upon remonstrance, he agreed to _divide_, saying, he could not bear
to rob a brother practitioner.
On the night of the 12-13th the ordnance stores, arsenal, foundry,
with much valuable machinery, the Government steam distillery, the
depots and other buildings belonging to both the Central and Western
roads, and other public buildings were fired. The night being perfectly
still, the sheets of flame rose steadily into the air, and the great
conflagration was plainly visible at the distance of fifteen miles;
and for several hours the incessant and distinct explosions of shells
and fixed ammunition conveyed the impression to the anxious watchers,
miles away, in the adjoining counties, that a fierce battle was raging.
There was no hallooing by the soldiers--no shouts--only the crackling
of the flames and the bursting of the shells. Now and then a mounted
troop swept through the streets, the horsemen in profound silence,
the lurid flames from the burning distillery making their rough faces
look ghastly enough, while the buttons and other mountings of their
equipments sparkled in the firelight. No one thought of sleep that
night, not even the children.
A large building, three stories high, originally built for a cotton
factory, but for some time past occupied by Federal prisoners--all of
whom a few weeks previously had been sent to Richmond and Wilmington
for exchange--together with the barracks and all other buildings
connected with it, were burned; and it may be well imagined that the
Federal soldiers felt a peculiar satisfaction in the destruction of a
spot so memorable to them--the scene of so much wretchedness and want
and despair. Many of the men with Stoneman had been among the prisoners
there, and many had had brothers and other relatives there. I have
heard that General Gillam himself had been one of the number before
his promotion. No one who knows what the condition of these prisoners
was, can wonder at any amount of rage expressed by the survivors
and avengers. The way in which both sides, during the war, treated
their prisoners, is an exceedingly curious commentary on the boasted
Christian civilization of the whole country, from Maine to Texas. For
the Northern side there is no excuse. For the Southern side there is
one--and but one. Our prisoners were starved, as I have said before,
because we were starving ourselves; our children were crying for bread,
and our soldiers were fighting on half-rations of parched corn and
peas. We could not tell our enemies this! We were not to confess to
them this fatal weakness in our cause! But what we could do to induce
their Government to take these poor wretches home and give us our own
in exchange, we did do. Every inducement was offered to them again and
again in vain. So far, then, our skirts are clear. But brutality of
speech and behavior, cruel indifference to their situation, unnecessary
harshness and violence to helpless unarmed men, diseased and dying--of
this there may have been much among certain of our officials, and for
this we will yet have to repent before Him who hears the sighing of the
prisoner.
It has been estimated that the loss in buildings alone, which were
mostly of brick, would reach to half a million in specie, and the
total loss of all property to several millions. Had the war continued,
the capture of Salisbury would have been a stunning blow to General
Johnston, and would have severely crippled his movements. As it was, it
is a matter of great regret that such a vast amount of most valuable
property should have been destroyed just at a time when its destruction
was no longer necessary to the overthrow of a cause already dead.
General Stoneman might safely have held Salisbury from the hour he
entered it, and preserved every dollar's worth of its stores for the
advantage of his own government. He might have prevented the further
flight of the Confederate Government, and President Davis and all his
cabinet might have been forced to surrender with General Johnston. And
it would have been better if they had. But General Stoneman did not
know what a brilliant part he was playing in the last act of the great
tragedy, and he hurried to get through with it and leave Salisbury as
rapidly as he had entered it. On the 13th a terrific explosion of the
magazine finished the work, and that evening the Federals moved off
toward Statesville, riding most of the night as if under apprehension
of pursuit.
General Stoneman must certainly be allowed to have accomplished his
ends with a skill, celerity, and daring, which entitle him to high
praise as a military leader. Add to this the higher praise of humanity,
and the ability to control his troops, and he well deserves a higher
niche than some who led grand armies on great marches. Salisbury,
comparing her lot with that of Columbia and Fayetteville, may well
afford to hold General Stoneman's name in grateful remembrance.
I have taken no pleasure in this recital of injuries, insults,
inhumanity, and breach of faith. The truth of history demands that
the facts shall be told on both sides calmly and with impartiality.
The world, which has heard so much of one side, should hear the other
too; and posterity, at whose bar we shall all stand for this four
years' work, should have every opportunity afforded for a righteous
verdict. And there are other ways in which the truth plainly told
may do good. People will be enabled, looking at these details, to
arrive at a just estimate of what war may become, even among Christian
people, and shudder to invoke its horrors lightly, and may teach their
children so. How many of us knew in the spring of 1861 what was about
to break out among us--what wide-spread ruin, what raging passions,
what furies of hell, which once evoked will not down at our bidding?
Quiet men, who were familiar with the pages of European history and
knew what Christian armies had done again and again in the fairest and
most civilized portion of her empires, these came gravely from their
studies with words of warning to the gay throngs of young people who
were cheering each other on to the impending strife. But these were the
old fogies of that day--cold-blooded--unpatriotic--who did not love
the South. What a short and brilliant programme was laid down! The
girls made their silken banners, and the boys marched proudly off to
glorious victory; England and France would see fair play; and this dear
and sunny South was to spring at once upward and onward in a career of
glory. One of the most influential journals in the South--one of the
soberest--dealing lightly and easily with the great issues of the war;
settling at a word the boundary lines of the new Southern republic,
and dotting what were to be our frontier States with a chain of forts;
establishing the new war office, and the standing army, henceforth to
be a necessary feature, grew enthusiastic over the splendid resource
thus to be afforded to our "aristocratic young men of family and
fortune." The army was to be especially for the _gentlemen_ of the
South. Alas! and alas! Now, torn and bleeding and broken-hearted,
humiliated, stripped, crushed, disfranchised, and helpless, we may look
back and learn a lesson.
It may be well, too, if public attention can be directed by such
narratives to an investigation of the laws of war, and some inquiry be
suggested as to the necessity of their being revised and mitigated. And
it can not but a have a beneficial effect that even victorious military
heroes shall be made amenable to public opinion for the manner in which
they have wielded the great powers intrusted to them, and find, in some
cases, their fresh-plucked laurels withering in their grasp.
The actual loss and injury inflicted by the enemy, in the progress
of the war, on personal and public property, was very far from being
the greatest evil which its continuance entailed upon us. I speak not
now of losses by death. _Inter arma leges silent_ is an old saying;
and though framed in a dead language, its drift is well understood
and acted upon by people who can not even read it. The longer the war
lasted the more evident became the demoralization of our people, and
their disregard for laws and principles of action by which they had
been guided all their lives. At the break-up respectable citizens, who
would once have shrunk from even the imputation of such conduct, helped
themselves unblushingly to Government stores and public property,
even when it had been intrusted to them for safe keeping. When their
betters set such an example, the common people of course threw off
all restraint; and we could then plainly see how petty, compared with
the advantages gained, are the taxes which we pay for the support of
law and government. There seemed to be a general feeling, during the
last ninety days, that there was no government outside of the military
pressure for conscripts, deserters, and tithes. I am reminded of a
poor neighbor as I write, who, during the winter of '64-'65, like many
others, provided his family with wood to which he had no right. Being
remonstrated with, he said with energy, "There is no law in the land in
these days," and continued his depredations openly. And I do believe
the general feeling was, "What else _can_ he do, with wood at forty
dollars a cord?"
Nor are such fruits of war confined to the Southern side of the
Potomac. The fires that have lit up so many Northern cities; the tales
of murder, robbery, and riot, which have crowded the columns of their
journals for the past year; and the general lawlessness and contempt of
authority which prevail there, point unmistakably to the dangers which
accompany a triumphant and utterly undisciplined army, whether in the
enemy's land or returning home flushed with victory and demoralized
with licensed rapine and riot. Did Northern people soberly believe that
it was zeal for the Union and hatred of secession that prompted such
wholesale plunder in the South? Let their own experience since, and
the records of their criminal courts within the last year, show, that
when plunder is to be had, lawless and unrestrained men care little
whether it belongs to friend or foe; and that lust, once aroused and
let loose, can not distinguish, and is amenable to no laws. Herein, as
in thousands of other instances, is that saying true, "The measure we
mete is measured to us again."
Human nature is indeed a wild beast that has need to be chained and
continually surrounded with restraints, or we should prey upon each
other as savages do, and so lapse into barbarism. Let the experience of
the last five years teach the people of this great Republic henceforth
to preserve indissolubly the bonds of PEACE, that so, as a nation, they
may do their appointed part toward hastening on the coming of that
PRINCE of whose kingdom there shall be no end.
"Te duce, qui maneant sceleris vestigia nostri
Irrita perpetuâ solvent formidine terras."[17]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 16: _Is_ General Gillam a son of North-Carolina? I put
the note and query for the future historian. If so, then we have
only another proof that decency and good principles are not always
hereditary.]
[Footnote 17: With Thee for our guide, whatever relics of our crimes
remain shall be taken away, and free the world from perpetual fears.]