ing, of deprivation, of humiliation, of bitter loss,
and stern retribution. And the end is not yet. Deeper chagrin and
humiliation must be theirs; more loss, more devastation, more death, and
ruin, before their proud hopes and visions are utterly crushed out of
life. Oh, are _they_ not being educated, too, as well as we of the
North?
When I think of all the grace, loveliness, and generosity of the many
Southern women I have known and loved; when I recall the admirable
qualities which distinguished them, the grace of manner, the social
tact and address, the intellectual sprightliness, the openness and
hospitality of soul, the kindliness and sympathy of heart, the Christian
gentleness and charity; I can but say to my Northern sisters, These
deluded women of the South would, in themselves, be worthy of your
esteem and love, could the demon of secession and slavery once be
exorcised. And I believe that when it is, and the poor, rent South sits
clothed and in her right mind, subdued through sheer exhaustion of
strength, and so made fit for the healthy recuperation that is one day
to begin, the cause of our beloved country, and of humanity through this
country, will have no more generous or loving supporters, ay, none so
enthusiastic and devoted as they. I glory in the anticipation of the
time when the ardent, impulsive, demonstrative South shall even lead the
colder North in the manifestation of a genuine patriotism, worthy of the
land and nation that calls it forth. We shall then have gained _a
country_, indeed, instead of being, as heretofore, several sections of a
country.
The consistent moulding of society in the spirit of our political ideas
is essential to securing us the respect of the world, and to vindicating
the principles, themselves, on which having built, they are our sole
claim to such honor and respect. As long as we fail so to do, we may be
the wonder, and we are likely to be the jest of the onlooking world, but
we never can be what we ought to be, its admired and beloved model. It
seems to me there is less danger now than formerly of our failure in
this important respect. The dangers, the expenses, the burdens, and
losses of this fearful civil war will surely create in the hearts of the
people everywhere, North and South, a revivified if not a new-born love
for, and appreciation of, republican principles, and will teach them
where the most insidious danger to them lies; not from open foes,
foreign or dom
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