Echoes of the Week
The Illustrated London News, vol. 46, no. 1312, p. 406.April 29, 1865
...And so, in spite of Mosby and his mosstroopers, in spite of guerrillas and bushwhackers, all New York cries, Consummatum est! "It is finished." Panting and bleeding lies the South, victorious and exultant is the North, and, let us say it with all respect, not without some grim generosity in her triumph. Slavery will remain as it is, stabbed to the heart by an Act of Congress, and to die out slowly; a general amnesty, not even excluding Jefferson Davis and Mr. Benjamin, will pardon all. Southern officers will return to their homes with their side-arms, and bound by their parole; trade will be reassumed, and the energy of the South turned from making gunpowder and cannon to growing cotton and tobacco; but, nevertheless, does not everyone feel that the spirit of the South will be broken for ever? Alas! cry they, might is stronger than right! Louis Quatorze was right when he said that the God of Battles was always on the side of him who had the most louis d'ors; and as a conquered dependency surely that vast Confederation will never thrive. But America, too, will have her Poland, or, if she like it better, her Ireland; and it is to be hoped, having that sore in her side, will talk less about the cruelty of her "stupid old grandmother." Poor Robert E. Lee! Many a braveheart sides with the conquered rather than with the conqueror, and is of Cato's opinion regarding victory. And in Canada we must look out. Americans tell us that in New York the invasion of the British provinces is looked to as being as certain as the Presidential election, or the return of the 4th of July. By-the-way, will not Longfellow put in his claims for being a prophet? It is now two years since he wrote of those who went down with the Cumberland--
Thy flag, that is rent in twain,
Shall be one again,
And without a seam!
Dark days gloomed for the Republic then; but what he said now bids fair to come true....
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