Reproof to the Doubters.
The Richmond correspondent of the London Times refers to the undoubting faith of the North that the Stars and Stripes will ultimately assert their ascendancy over the acceded States, and contrasts this firm assurance with the absurd and irrational despondency and doubt which all our marvelous military successes have not been able to dispel from some minds in the South.The Times's correspondent will do us a service if he can shove the croakers and grumblers into a more hopeful and manly attitude; but we submit that they are not the true exponents of the spirit and sentiment of the country. Coming in contact chiefly with citizens, and not with soldiers, it is natural that a stranger should express the opinions we find in the letters of the Times. But the country is now to be found in the army, not among those who stay at home. The heart, the brains, the bravery, the patriotism, the chivalry of the Confederate States are to be found in front of the foe, and not in the pursuits of civil life. We must look to the army if we want to know whether the faith and hope of the South are equal to the hope and faith of the North in the issue of this contest. And never did hope and faith burn brighter in human hearts than in those which are ready to shed their last drop of blood in the cause. It is stated by those who have recently visited the army that it is really a relief to get away from the gloomy atmosphere of trade and speculation and mingle with the fighting men; it raises the spirits, strengthens the faith, and animates the hope to come in contact with the veterans who, for three years, have fought triumphantly against the greatest odds the North could bring, and who feel as sure that they can whip her again as that they have whipped her a hundred times before.
We do not consider that all the non-combatants of the country are faithless and despondent. But many of them are old men and unmanned by the infirmities of age; and, many more so immersed in the pursuits of money-getting, that the sentiment of patriotism has nearly died out. Others are naturally timid, and have the instinct of self-preservation, which has kept them out of the army, unduly developed. Others are fault-finders and factiousness, who are more intent upon gratifying their personal prejudices than solicitous for the success of the cause. Then there are the constitutional croakers, the frogs and bats and owls, who delight in darkness, and who are never so happy as when they are miserable. The smallest cloud in the sky is magnified into a coming thunder storm, and a regular thunder storm into the end of the world. Even when we are victorious, their utterances of exultation are as lugubrious as the crowing of a Shanghai cock, and intimate in every tone a doubt of the permanency of good fortune. If they were good for anything, if they were even fit to be eaten, their necks ought to be wrung, and their carcasses, carefully packed in salt and ice, sent on to the army.
Without hope and faith neither man nor nation was ever successful. If that minority of our home people which is vexing the ears of the world with their disconsolate hootings were a fair representation of the Confederate people, we might well despair of the future. But the army is the people, and the army never doubts, and has as little respect for the croakers in its rear as the open enemies in its front. And the large majority even of those who remain at home never permit themselves to question the ultimate result of the contest. In view of the gigantic efforts of the foe, and the resources in men and means which the whole world has placed at their disposal, our people may well feel profound solicitude, a sentiment which is deepened by the singular incompetency of their Congress to solve the difficulties of our financial affairs, and their morbid deficiency of coolness and promptness in meeting the military exigencies of the occasion. But were they to doubt for a moment the ultimate success of the South, there would be preparations for such an exodus from the South as has not been witnessed since the children of Israel left Egypt. If we have not hope in the final triumph of our cause, what earthly thing have we to hope in? No hope of country, no hope of home, no hope of human happiness in any form is permitted us, no resting place for the dove's weary feet, except the Ararat of Southern Independence.
