21 “ Then,” you say to me, “ you do not care for the loss of men and the anguish of women ? Your liberty is a hyena which snatches a loathsome feast from lost fields of battle ? ” No more than she was when Washington seized her hand as he retreated, and nourished her in his winter-tent upon the gloom and foreboding of America. No—I am so little careless about the blood which has been shed, that I want to see for what use it has gone forever out of the dear hearts of Northern homes. It is not enough for me that you repeat the hackneyed sentiment that it is beautiful to die for one’s country. There must be use as well as beauty, or there is no such thing as a country to die for. Things that are useful lay the corner-stones of a great Commonwealth, and build the shafts around which beauties cluster. If you wish to see the men who care nothing for the blood of your kindred, look at those who shout how beautiful it is to die to keep the cause of death alive, the men who could stretch a hand to slavery across three hundred thousand graves, with a welcome back into a country full of the widows and orphans she has made. We thank God that His thoughts are not as such thoughts. A balance in His hand has held a scale weighted with the glorious truths of this Republic; into it He has thrown free-labor, knowledge, art and beauty, the common school, the pulpit and the plough, all of these moulded into liberty in the shape of a winged victory. Into the other scale the lacerated days of two campaigns have dripped with blood ; every precious drop has been marked by that unslumbering eye to be heavy with New England and Western homes, and rich with privileges dearly bought; the scale sinks slowly—they are almost even—the winged victory rises to its equivalent of blood. And what thought of the most ardent worshipper of the liberty that costs so much can embrace the future which waits at the outposts of this emancipating war ! After every field-battery has rolled away into the distance of peace, and the bayonet hides a strange blush within its sheath, and the last tent is folded, that future shall step from grave to grave, bringing new life, new duties, great trials and appropriate joys into the heart of America. Nations who have been astonished to see how a free people can organize war by sea and land, will admire its
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