Then and Now | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 11, 1865

Then and Now.

PERHAPS there is nothing which will afford a clearer illustration of the condition in which the rebels now find themselves, than a comparison of the early messages of President Davis with his recent ones—especially his last appeal to the rebel Congress for assistance at their hands, which we have recently laid before our readers. Here is what he said in 1861:

"Your border States will gladly come into the Southern Confederacy within sixty days, as we will be your only friends. England will recognize us, and a glorious future is before us. The grass will grow in the Northern cities, where the pavements have been worn by the tread of commerce. We will carry the war where it is easy to advance, where food for the sword and torch await the armies in the densely populated cities."

How have these boastful predictions been realized? Four years have passed, and the border States are every one of them more loyal to the Union than they were before the rebellion, though it has totally destroyed slavery in Missouri, West Virginia and Maryland, and has nearly destroyed it in Kentucky. England has not recognized the Confederacy, and she will not, and the people and her Government are far more friendly to the Union, and less friendly to those who have been seeking to destroy it, than they were at the commencement of the rebellion. The venal British journals which for years persisted in representing the effort of the North to restore the Union as in vain, are now admitting that the South can prolong the struggle but a little longer, and are discussing the question, whether the victorious North will call England to account for the depredations which English vessels, sailing under the rebel flag, have committed on our commerce. "The grass will grow in the Northern cities!" Never has the population of many of the Northern cities—perhaps of nearly all the commercial centers of the North—increased more rapidly than during the four years of this rebellion. Has the grass grown in the streets of New York?—of Boston?—of Philadelphia?—of Chicago? Has it grown even in the streets of Cincinnati—of Baltimore—of St. Louis—cities whose prosperity has been supposed to be yet more largely dependent upon the south? Where is the Northern city whose pavements are not still worn by the tread of commerce?" The last boast, about carrying "the war where it is easy to advance," &c., is the most ridiculous and unfortunate of all. The rebels have not succeeded in carrying the war across Mason & Dixon's line more than three or four times, except in insignificant guerrilla raids like those of Morgan; and they were driven toward Richmond, after heavy loss, whenever they attempted it. They have never threatened a "densely populated" Northern city with the sword, and never with any torch save those of the cowardly incendiaries whom they hired to set fire to a few hotels.

All of these productions of the rebel President have been turned against the rebels. The border States are now looking to the States, free before the rebellion as their natural allies. England "recognizes" the North, and she will do it yet more clearly hereafter. The grass has grown in the streets of nearly every Southern city. We have carried the war where it was "easy to advance," and where it was difficult to advance, through the richest portions of the South; but seldom have we executed upon the cities of the South the threat of "sword and torch," made by the rebel President against those of the North.—Detroit Tribune.