NEWS OF 150 YEARS AGO
September 1862
From The Missouri Democrat, Wednesday, September 24, 1862.
EUREKA! VICTORY!—WE NOW HAVE A POLICY.
As the great mathematician, after passing days and nights for weeks and years in the wasting toil of the brain, in his great endeavor to solve the problem of a life’s study, makes the discovery, and shouts “Eureka” in the gladness of his heart; as the brave De Soto, after struggling for weary league on league through dark forest and treacherous morass of an unwholesome clime in quest of that beautiful stream which rolled, in his imagination, like the river of life through the far-off gardens of the West, rested upon its bank to gaze in rapture upon its surpassing grandeur, and listen to the music of its waves; as the great Wellington, after having “from early morn to dewy eve” stood upon the blood-drenched field of Waterloo, amid the wreck, and shout, and carnage of dreadful battle, watching the progress of the fight as the sun wheeled his slow course above that field of death at last, as the shades of night begin to fall, beholds the enemy waver, break and fly, and feels that the dreaded and almost invincible Napoleon is overcome; so do we in this, the hour of our triumph, after long years of struggle, bitter denunciation, cruel disappointment, and most wasting labor, in battle with a giant wrong, feel, as the shout of victory ascends for the principle of our adoption and our love, that we have not struggled, and toiled, and fought in vain. We can now realize in their fullest meaning the words of the poet:
“Truth crashed to earth will rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers,
While Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies amid her worshipers.”
We feel that we have a right to congratulate ourselves that we have been faithful, while so many about us have prove faithless. While co-workers upon the right and co-workers upon the left have faltered and fallen, we have kept on unremittingly in the work. Adopting a principle for our guiding star, we have followed it undeviatingly through every phase of varying fortune, until it has led to victory. Solitary and alone in this community, we took the position upon which the President has finally planted himself for weal or woe, and maintained it amid the jeers and gibes and bitter denunciations of men, some of whom are now ingloriously seeking to occupy it, when it bids fair to become the position of power.
All true men may now rejoice with great joy. At last our Government has adopted a policy—a policy of vigor and of right. True, the mere words of a proclamation do not enforce it. It requires men and action. But such words as the President has uttered, will command the men and inspire the action. We may look for the war for the Union now to be prosecuted with tenfold vigor. The nation knows now exactly what we are fighting for. Our countrymen can no longer feel that they are pouring out their blood, and the blood of brothers and sons, for naught. When peace is conquered now, it will be a permanent peace. When the Union is again restored, it will be a Union to last forever. Our President has covered himself with glory. He has done the bravest thing of the age. Fear not that the loyal hearts of America will fail to rally around him, and by their deeds make good his words.