with the idea that the Northern “Democracy” would rally to the support of their “Southern brethren.”  The result proved that the South was, in the words of Mr. Davis’s last and most melancholy Message, the victim of “misplaced confidence” in its Northern “associates.”  The moment a gun was fired, the honest Democratic voters of the North were even more furious than the Republican voters; the leaders, including those who had been the obedient servants of Slavery, were ravenous for commands in the great army which was to “coerce” and “subjugate” the South; and the whole organization of the “Democratic party” of the North melted away at once in the fierce fires of a reawakened patriotism.  The slaveholders ventured everything on their last stake, and lost.  A North, for the first time, sprang into being; and it issued, like Minerva from the brain of Jove, full-armed.  The much-vaunted engineer, Beauregard, was “hoist with his own petard.”

Now that the slaveholders have been so foolish as to appeal to physical force, abandoning their vantage-ground of political influence, they must be not only politically overthrown, but physically humiliated.  Their arrogant sense of superiority must be beaten out of them by main force.  The feeling with which every Texan and Arkansas bully and assassin regarded a Northern mechanic—­a feeling akin to that with which the old Norman robber looked on the sturdy Saxon laborer—­must be changed, by showing the bully that his bowie-knife is dangerous only to peaceful, and is imbecile before armed citizens.  The Southerner has appealed to force, and force he should have, until, by the laws of force, he is not only beaten, but compelled to admit the humiliating fact.  That he is not disposed “to die in the last ditch,” that he has none of the practical heroism of desperation, is proved by the actual results of battles.  When defeated, and his means of escape are such as only desperation can surmount, he quickly surrenders, and is even disposed to take the oath of allegiance.  The martial virtues of the common European soldier he has displayed in exceedingly scanty measure in the present conflict.  He has relied on engineers; and the moment his fortresses are turned or stormed, he retreats or becomes a prisoner of war.  Let Mr. Davis’s Message to the Confederate Congress, and his order suspending Pillow and Floyd, testify to this unquestionable statement.  Even if we grant martial intrepidity to the members of the Slavocracy, the present war proves that the system of Slavery is not one which develops martial virtues among the “free whites” it has cajoled or forced into its hateful service.  Indeed, the armies of Jefferson Davis are weak on the same principle on which the slave-system is weak.  Everything depends on the intelligence and courage of the commanders, and the moment these fail the soldiers become a mere mob.