nacs, between the Huguenots and the Catholic League, between the Royalists and Republicans at the time of the Revolution, even between the party of Order and the Reds in 1848—those of the civil wars between Guelfs and Ghibelins, in the Italian cities—those of the Thirty Years’ War in Germany—even those, though far less dreadful, of our own civil war in the time of Charles I., or of our colonial war at the time of the American Revolution. If we would be just—if we would avoid the deserved imputation of hypocrisy and Pharisaism—we mast also recall to mind the severities with which we have thought it lawful to put down rebellion in Ireland and India. Tried by the historical standard, I am convinced that the Federals will be found, on the whole, to have shown, both in the war and after it, a humanity which may be almost said to form an epoch in the moral history of our race. Acts of ferocity and devastation were no doubt committed by armies in the enemy’s country; and evil be to him who, whether from want of feeling or from partisanship, speaks lightly of such things. The houses of Confederates were ruthlessly burnt by Federals on land, while the ships of Federals, even those engaged in the most peaceful commerce, even the barks of harmless fishermen, were being destroyed as ruthlessly by the Confederates at sea. But I feel confident that when the truth shall have been sifted from the falsehoods purveyed by the worthy agents of an unprincipled press for the gratification of malignity here, it will be found that rarely if ever was blood shed except on the field of battle; and that the stories of women given up to the lust of the soldiery at New Orleans and elsewhere, were unadulterated lies. The proclamation of General Butler, in particular, which filled
Page:The Civil War in America - an address read at the last meeting of the Manchester Union and Emancipation Society.djvu/66
60
THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
