4 into insignificance all modern wars, hardly excepting the mi!i tary operations of Napoleon I. And it must, be remembered that education and habit bad trained us to an implicit reliance on the sufficiency of our laws and the competency of our Constitution to meet and decide every isgue that could possibly be presented. We could conceive of no public wrongs which could not be redressed by an appeal to the ballot-box, and of no private injuries for which our statutes did not provide a suitable remedy. We were not only a law-abiding, but a peace-loving people. The report of the revolver was not heard in our streets, nor was the glitter of the bowie-knife seen in our bar-room. We deprecated mob-violence, and disliked the summary proceedings of Judge Lynch. We took no pains to conceal our horror of unnecessary bloodshed, and shared the views of civilized Christendom a^out duelling. We still clung to our plebeian pre- ■ judices against lawless violence, and persisted in believing that a swaggering bully could not be an ornament to cultivated and refined society. In fact, some excellent individuals at the North went so far as to seek to disseminate these old-fashioned notions among their Southern brethren, and made annual subscriptions to what was known (alas, that we must use the historic tense!) as the “Southern Aid Society,” having for its praiseworthy object the support of ministers who should preach the gospel to our ardent and impulsive neighbors. What a sad atid significant commentary is it upon the ingratitude of de- . praved human nature, that the condescending clergyman who whilom consented to collect the offerings of these discriminating philanthropists is now a chaplain in the Confederate army, and is invoking the most signal judgments of Heaven upon his former friends and fellow-laborers ! This, then, was our condition, and these were our habits, when we were rudely awakened from our dreams of peace by the roar of cannon and the clash of arms. What wonder that the startling summons found us all unready for such a crisis ? What wonder that our early preparations to confront the issue thus forced upon us without note of warning were hasty, incomplete, and quite inadequate to the emergency ? Is it discreditable to us that we were slow to appreciate the bitterness and intensity of
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