March 18, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
The presses of the United States still rely upon the superior physical power of the North to subject the Southern States. In their view, our conquest is a simple affair of arithmetic. As eighteen is greater than eight, therefore eighteen millions of people must subdue eight. They ignore all moral influences. They ignore God. Material and sensual, they regard a struggle for liberty and independence as an affair of mechanics, in which a longer lever or a stronger pulley will lift the load. So corrupted are they by the prosperity which they wrung from the South, that they seem to have forgotten history – their own history, and the history of the people that are striving to subdue. FREDERICK the Great, with but five millions of inhabitants in Prussia, in a seven years’ war, beat back Austria, Russia and France combined – each of them being five times as great numerically as Prussia. In the Revolution of 1776 we were but two millions and a half of people, against the most powerful nation, by land and sea, at that time in Europe. Since this war began we have repulsed the Northern armies in every pitched battle, although they have had their own time for their preparations and superior numbers. Yet they still argue that, because they are numerically greater than we are, they must subdue us.
BONAPARTE very truly observed that the morale of an army is three-fourths of its strength. An army is not the mere bones, flesh and blood which compose it. It consists of men – with all the passions, feelings, and motives which actuate men. Men may enter an army simply to obtain bread, which is the case with one-half of the present army of the United States; and when brought into battle they will fight, perhaps, under circumstances, very bravely. Men may enter an army on a speculation of robbery. They want the country they invade either as a source of future gain or of present occupancy. A large portion of the United States army really believed, when they invaded the South, that they were only going down to select fat farms; another portion came to coerce us as their future tributaries. But there is one thing all robbers prefer to robbery – and that is life. In the game of robbery, there is a reasonable limit to all adventures. But what are these motives for conquering us, compared with those which must actuate the people of the Confederate States in defending themselves? The land invaded is their land. The property to be appropriated is their property. The homes [continue reading…]