The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Greetings ta ever one in western Illinois and all readers of "The Quill."
I was read'n the presentation given by Wilfred M. McClay a noted Historian who wrote the book "Rediscovering the Wisdom in American History". I'm share'n some of his presentation which includes recollections of General Joshua L. Chamberlin a veteran of Gettysburg who came from Maine.
If'n ya have read any history of the Civil War ya will have seen Chamberlin's name many times. Below is part of what he personally recalled durin' the days prior ta and then the day of Lee's surrender at the Appomattox Court House.
If'n ya get just one thing from readin' this, it should be the honor both sides accorded one another at the highest level. It was not a day of celebration, but a day of relief for both. It also puts in perspective how Lincoln was thought of and treated dur'in and followin' the Civil War.
LESSONS FROM AMERICAN HISTORY
A related lesson of history is that acts of statesmanship often require courage and imagination, even daring, especially when the outcome seems doubtful. Take the case of Lincoln.
So accustomed are we to thinking of Lincoln in heroic terms that we forget the depth and breadth of his unpopularity during his entire time in office.
Few great leaders have been more comprehensively disdained, loathed, and underestimated.
A low Southern view of him, of course, was to be expected, but it was widely shared in the North as well.
As Lincoln biographer David Donald put it, "Lincoln's own associates thought him "a Simple Susan, a baboon, an aimless punster, a smutty joker.'" Abolitionist Wendell Phillips called him "a huckster in politics, a first-rate, second-rate man." George McClellan, his opponent in the 1864 election, openly disdained him as a "well-meaning baboon."
For much of that election year, Lincoln was convinced, with good reason, that he was doomed to lose the election, with incalculable consequences for the war effort and the future of the nation.
We need to remember that this is generally how history happens. It is not like a Hollywood movie in which the background music swells and the crowd in the room applauds and leaps to its feet as the orator dispenses timeless words, and the camera pans the room full of smiling faces.
In real history, the background music does not swell, the trumpets do not sound, and the carping critics often seem louder than the applause.
The leader or the soldier has to wonder whether he is acting in vain, whether the criticisms of others are in fact true, whether time will judge him harshly, whether his sacrifice will count for anything. Few great leaders have felt this burden more completely than Lincoln.
In conclusion, let me suggest that the story of the ending of the Civil War in April 1865 might hold a lesson for those of our fellow countrymen today who seem to regard America's past with contempt:
On April 9, after a last flurry of futile resistance, Lee faced facts and arranged to meet Grant at a brick home in the village of Appomattox Court House to surrender his army.
He could not formally surrender for the whole Confederacy, but the surrender of his army would trigger the surrender of all others, and so it represented the end of the Confederate cause.
It was a poignant scene, dignified and restrained and sad, as when a terrible storm that has raged and blown has finally exhausted itself, leaving behind a strange and reverent calm, purged of all passion.
The two men had known one another in the Mexican War, and had not seen one another in nearly twenty years.
Lee arrived first, wearing his elegant dress uniform, soon to be joined by Grant clad in a mud-spattered sack coat, his trousers tucked into his muddy boots.
They showed one another a deep and respectful courtesy, and Grant generously allowed Lee's officers to keep their sidearms and the men to keep their horses and take them home for the spring planting.
None would be arrested or charged with treason.
Four days later, when Lee's army of 28,000 men marched in to surrender their arms and colors, General Joshua L. Chamberlain of Maine, a hero of Gettysburg, was present at the ceremony.
He later wrote of his observations that day, reflecting upon his soldierly respect for the men before him, each passing by and stacking his arms, men who only days before had been his mortal foes: "Before us in proud humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood: men whom neither toils and sufferings, nor the fact of death, nor disaster, nor hopelessness could bend from their resolve; standing before us now, thin, worn, and famished, but erect, and with eyes looking level into ours, waking memories that bound us together as no other bond;-was not such manhood to be welcomed back into a Union so tested and assured? . . . On our part not a sound of trumpet more, nor roll of drum; not a cheer, nor word nor whisper of vain-glorying, nor motion of man standing again at the order, but an awed stillness rather, and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the dead!"
Such deep sympathies, in a victory so heavily tinged with sadness and grief and death.
This war was, and remains to this day, America's bloodiest conflict, having generated at least a million and a half casualties on the two sides combined, [including] 620,000 deaths, the equivalent of six million men in today's American population.
One in four soldiers who went to war never returned home.
One in thirteen returned home with one or more missing limbs.
For decades to come, in every village and town in the land, one could see men bearing such scars and mutilations, a lingering reminder of the price they and others had paid.
And yet, Chamberlain's words suggested that there might be room in the days and years ahead for the spirit of conciliation that Lincoln had called for in his Second Inaugural Speech, a spirit of binding up wounds, and of caring for the many afflicted and bereaved, and then moving ahead, together.
It was a slender hope, yet a hope worth holding, worth nurturing, worth pursuing.
We all know that it did not turn out that way, due in part to Lincoln's death at the hands of John Wilkes Booth. But the story is illustrative nonetheless.
If Chamberlain's troops could find it in their hearts to be that forgiving, that generous, that respectful of men who had only days before been their mortal enemies, we certainly ought to be able to extend a similar generosity towards men in what is now, for us, a far more distant past. Lincoln himself said something similar, at a cabinet meeting on April 14, the very day of his assassination:
I hope there will be no persecution, no bloody work after the war is over. . . . Enough lives have been sacrificed.
We must extinguish our resentment if we expect harmony and union.
There has been too much of a desire on the part of some of our very good friends to be masters, to interfere with and dictate to those states, to treat the people not as fellow citizens; there is too little respect for their rights.
I do not sympathize in these feelings.
That was good counsel then and now, and it is an example of the wisdom that the study of history can provide us. May such wisdom be an impetus for us to rediscover such a humane and generous example in our own times.
Saddened by Fire
The boys and I were saddened ta hear of the fire Friday morning that destroyed the Monmouth Airport and 8 airplanes and damaged a 9th. We are thankful no one was hurt and hopin' they can rebuild.
SNOW
Farmers were hustlin' early this week after the weather man predicted the first snow for these parts on Wednesday and Thursday. Really, the boys sez... it seems like the farmers will be take'n another break again if'n the season ain't long enough.
I suppose the trick and treaters may have to bundle up in snowman suits this year or dress up as characters from the Disney movie, "Frozen". Perhaps they will be offered hot chocolate an cookies or donuts this year rather than traditional candy. And perhaps instead of a hay ride, kids will be enjoy'n a sleigh ride. Well anyways we better be getting out the winter boots, coats and gloves.
Well, that's it fer this week. Hope'n ta see ya in church.
Remember, where ever ya is, what ever ya be a do'n,
BE A GOOD ONE!
Keep on smile'n,
Catch ya later,
BARNYARD BRUKE