foreign belief that the
Secessionists were to be the winning party, and that they were competent
to do all their own work; but if it had not soon been followed by signal
reverses to the Rebel arms, it is certain that the Confederacy would
have been acknowledged by most European nations, on the plausible ground
that its existence had been established on the battle-field, and that we
could not object to the admission of a self-evident fact by foreign
sovereigns and statesmen, who were bound to look after the welfare of
their own subjects and countrymen, whose interests were greatly
concerned with the trade of our Southern country. Fortunately for all
parties but the Rebels, those reverses came suddenly and with such
emphasis as to create serious doubts in the European mind as to the
superiority of the South as a fighting community. In an evil hour for
his cause, General Lee abandoned that wise defensive system to which he
had so long and so successfully adhered, and made a movement into the
Free States. What was the immediate cause of his change of proceeding
will probably never be accurately known to the existing generation. On
the face of things no good political reason appears for that change
being made; and on military grounds it was sure to lead to disaster,
unless the North had become the most craven of countries. So bad was
Lee's advance into the North, militarily speaking, that it would have
been the part of good policy to allow him to march without resistance to
a point at least a hundred miles beyond that field on which he was to
find his fate. A Gettysburg that should have been fought that distance
from the base of Southern operations could have had no other result than
the destruction of the main Southern army; and that occurring at about
the same time that Port Hudson and Vicksburg surrendered, the war could
have been ended by a series of thunder-strokes. Not a man of Lee's army
could have escaped. But the pride of the country prevented the adoption
of a course that promised the most splendid of successes, and compelled
our Government and our commander to forego the noblest opportunity that
had presented itself to effect the enemy's annihilation. Gettysburg was
made immortal, and Lee escaped, not without tremendous losses, yet with
the larger part of his army, and with much booty, that perhaps
compensated his own loss in _materiel_. He was beaten, on a field of his
own choosing, and with numbers in his favor;