, though like Rachael's
"weeping for her children and would not be comforted," all this to
appease the Moloch of war and to gratify the ambition of fanatics.
The people, too, of the North, who had to bear all this burden, were
sorely pressed and afflicted at seeing their hard earned treasures or
hoarded wealth, the fruits of their labor, the result of their toil
of a lifetime, going to feed this army of over two millions of men, to
pay the bounties of thousands of mercenaries of the old countries and
the unwilling freedmen soldiers of the South. All this only to humble
a proud people and rob them of their inherent rights, bequeathed
to them by the ancestry of the North and South. How was it with
the South? Not a tear, not a murmur. The mothers, with that Spartan
spirit, buckled on the armor of their sons with pride and courage, and
with the Spartan injunction, bade them "come home with your shield, or
on it." The fathers, like the Scottish Chieftain, if he lost his first
born, would put forward his next, and say, "Another one for Hector."
Their storehouses, their barns, and graneries were thrown open,
and with lavish hands bade the soldiers come and take--come and buy
without money and without price. Even the poor docile slave, for whom
some would pretend these billions of treasure were given and oceans of
blood spilled, toiled on in peace and contentment, willing to make
any and every sacrifice, and toil day and night, for the interest and
advancement of his master's welfare. He was as proud of his master's
achievements, of our victories, and was even as willing to throw his
body in this bloody vortex as if the cause had been his own. The women
of the South, from the old and bending grandmothers, who sat in the
corner, with their needles flying steady and fast, to the aristocratic
and pampered daughter of wealth, toiled early and toiled late with
hands and bodies that never before knew or felt the effects of
work--all this that the soldier in the trenches might be clothed and
fed--not alone for members of their families, but for the soldiers
all, especially those who were strangers among us--those who had left
their homes beyond the Potomac and the Tennessee. The good housewife
stripped her household to send blankets and bedding to the needy
soldiers. The wheel and loom could be heard in almost every household
from the early morn until late at night going to give not comforts,
but necessities of life, to the boys in the