r superintendents took into
account the family of an officer before asking that he be ordered.

An element in our social environment which should not be omitted was
the prevalence of a Southern flavor. In our microcosm, this reflected
the general sentiment of the world outside, then slowly freeing itself
from the spirit of compromise which had dominated the statesmanship of
two generations in their efforts to reconcile the incompatible. There
were certainly strong Northern men in plenty, as well as strong
Southerners; but every Southerner was convinced that the justice was
all on their side, that their rights as well as interests were being
attacked, whereas the Northerners were divided in feeling. There were
some pronounced abolitionists, here and there, prepared to go all
party lengths; but in the majority from the North, the devotion to the
Union, which rose so instantaneously to the warlike pitch when fairly
challenged, for the present counselled concession to the utmost limit,
if only thereby the Union might endure. In this the membership of the
school reproduced the political character of the House of
Representatives, with whom appointment rested; and at our age, of
course, we simply re-echoed the tones of our homes. Never in my now
long life have I seen so evident the power of conviction as in the
Southern men I then knew. They simply had no hesitations; whereas we
others were perplexed. Yet I now doubt whether the Southern conviction
was not really, if unconsciously, the resolution of despair; of doom
felt, though unacknowledged; not before the attacks of the North, but
before the resistless progress of the world, of which the North was to
be the instrument. So also the patience of the North, if so noble a
word can be conceded to our long temporizing, was an unconscious
manifestation of latent power. To those who knew what the Union meant
to those who exalted it--should I not rather say her?--in passionate
adoration, need never have doubted what the response would be, if
threat passed into act and hands were lifted against her. Conviction
was absolute and deep-rooted on that side as on the other; but it was
less on the surface, and sought ever a solution of peace.

The Muse of History of late years has become so analytic, and withal
so embarrassed with the accumulations of new material, revealing still
more the complication of causes which undoubtedly concur to any
general result, that she is prone to overlook