It is a death struggle between two
antagonist civilizations; if indeed one of them can be called a
civilization, and not rather a conspiracy against the very idea of
civilization. Again, the men involved in that conspiracy are not
_hidalgos_, _ancien regime_, nor any of the proud aristocracies of the
old world, who, when beaten, retire upon their dignity and hide their
time. They are, on the contrary, an enterprising gang of desperadoes,
who for the nonce may find it convenient to play the _role_ of high life
and dignified pretension, but who, on the slightest change of
circumstances, are ready for any shift, any seeming degradation or
humiliation, any temporary lowering of their claims, in order to rise
higher on the next wave. There is also enough of the savage and
barbarous element of character remaining in the Southern bogus chivalry
to make them, like the Chinaman or the Japanese, incapable of
appreciating magnanimity. All conciliation or clemency will be construed
into weakness; generosity and forbearance into poltroonery. These are
sad truths; but being truths, the failure to know them in season may
cost us another and a more desperate war, with more doubtful and
dangerous results.
Let us once surrender, through national verdancy, sentimental
commiseration, misunderstanding of the nature and purposes of our enemy,
or any or all of these causes combined with others, the dear-bought
advantages we have won, and disasters untold involve the future of the
land.
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