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When lost on the sea, l’og-6nshrouded I lay; *'Twas the voice of a child,As he stood on the shore—It sounded out clear4O’er the dark billow’s roar— “Come this way, my father! Steer straiht for me Ilere safe on the shore I am waiting for thee!”T remember that voice'Midst rocks and through breakersAnd high dashing spray;How sweet to my heart Did it sound from the shore As it echoed out clear O’er th’e dark water’s roar— “Come this way, father!Steer straight for me ;Here safe on the shore I am waiting for thee!”I remember my joyWhen I held to my breastThe form of that dear oneAnd soothed it to rest;Foi the tones of my child“I called you dear father,And knew you would hearThe voice of your darlingFar o’er the dark sea,While safe on the shoreI was waiting for thee 1”*That voice is now hush’d Which then guided my way;The form I then press’dIs now mingling with clay But tho tones of my child Still sound in my oar “I am calling you father !—0, can ^ou not hoar The voice of your darling As you toss on life’s sea,*For on the bright shoreI am waiting for thee!”I remember that voice;In many a lone hour It speaks to ray heart With fresh beauty and power, And echoes far out Over life’s troubled wave And sounds from loved lips That lie in the grave—“Come this way, father;O, steer straight for me !Here safe in Heaven I am waiting for thee !”Tilings our Soldiers do notKnow.They do not know that they are loved and missed while they are away. No matter how wayward a boy has been, the dangers of army life throw about him that same tender halo which makes beautiful our memory of the dead. Every thing perverse and provoking and foolish about him is forgotten in the soldier’s home; while all his better traits are cherished, and every fine look and word and action is treasured up, to be thought over, and talked over until, by the time he comes home, love has transformed him to a noble and spotless hero.Our returning soldiers do not know how glad we all are to see them back safe and sound. The mere announce-ment, “—regiment arrived to-day,” is enough to give one a sense of warmth about the heart. Who can help catching a gleam of the sunshino thfit Hoods so many homes ! You do not imagine, brothers, the warm grateful, respectful, sympathetic heart-greetings that leap over the gay ranks of your escort, to light on your brown faces and dusty, faded uniforms, as you take your weary homeward march. You do know, out of your own delightful experience, the almost bursting heart of joy with which your dearest meet you ; but you cannot know the great burden lifted. A brave boy can hardly conceive of the fear that has been tormenting his mother all the while he has been away; and he does not understand her long sigh of relief, as she holds him off and looks at him, hugs him and holds him again to see if it is really he—flesh and blood— alive and at home.Least of all, can our soldiers have any idea how anxiously we watch them, as they come home, to see whether any evil change has come over them. Underneath the fear they might never come home, has all the while been hidden away down—deep down—stitfled, if it were possible,the sad feeling that they might come back spoiled, and that joy is to be laid to rest after the first rapture of meeting is over. No soldier can imagine the pang piercing through the very life of her who loves him, to hear the first careless oath, or the shuddering chill that seizes her heart when she first catchqs the fatal breath of liquor from those lips whose kisses used to be so pure.— Oh, brothers, did you not love them when you were away,—your mother, sister, wife? Is there anything you would not have done for them and now will you yourself whet the sword that shall pierce through their very souls ? These habits seem very little harmless things to you, but they are worse than death to them ; once, perhaps, they were to you. Young men who went out with stainless characters have been drunk in the street since they came back. Is that patriotism? What is a nation of drunkards good for ? It is not worth saving. But we hone better things of you, and tilings that accompany salvation. Lot us see, soldier-friend that you have come back U us stronger, nobler men than you went out.— Never forget that you are citizen-sol-diers, and it is quite as essential that you should be good citizens as good soldiers. You have a great work to do in kindling tho patriotism of those who have stayed at home. Each one of you is the lion of the day in his own circle, little or large. Be sure that you lead the younger men and boys who cling about you, in the right direction.—away from loafer’s haunts, and drinking saloons, and inthe whirlpool to ruin, to home life, to the council of good and country loving men, to the church, to the Sabbath school, the prayer meeting.Never cease to be, as you have already been, our pride, our strength, our crown of rejoicing.Is the War “Almost Over.”—Every week since the war began every Abolition, office holder and newspaper advocate of the Administration’s negro policy has liberally assured the people that “the war is almost over.”The precise truth of the matter is just this: Restore the Government to honest and patriotic hands, and the war then in fact would bo “almost over.” Continue the Administration in the hands of these men who are fighting for the subjugation of the States and the abrogation of State institutions, and the war is to be ro-lentless and perpetual.A military victory here and there does not end the war. We may take Charleston as we have taken Norfolk ; we may take Mobile as we have taken New Orleans; we may take all the Southern strongholds, and that is but the very beginmgof a war of abolition and subjugation. The man does not live who will ever behold the end of the war, and the construction of a Union upon the principles of the sectional party which now rules over us. Those principles can never command the popular assent of the South, and, until that popular assent is gained, there is and can be no peace and Union.Whathavewe done? Tho war has been fought for nearly three years. We have loaded the nation down with sorrow and debt. Hundreds and thousands of our brave and patriotic men have been slain. And yet it is God’s truth that the Government can command less free-will support in the Southern States to-day than when its armies were first hurled against the enemy. Every month of war, under the proclamation and for sub-jugation, has tended to cement, perpetuate and traditionalizc hatred of* the North in every Southern household ; and as to everything which makos a real Union and a real peace, we are farther off from the goal today than two years ago.The sooner the people get rid of tho shallow and fallacious notion that conquest means Union—that subjugation means peace—the sooner shall we regain tlie lost blessings of a real Union. *We have now some military victories. We have conqured Norfolk, but there is no Union there.—We have subjugated New Orleans, but there is no Union there. We have reduced Vicksburg and Donelson, and subjugated various other cities and towns, but none of them are re-annexed to the Union. We have simply subjugated men who hate us and our policy. Eyen where our arms prevail, war perpetual war,
Newspaper Details
Hillsville Wytheville Dispatch
Hillsville, Virginia, US
Wed, Dec 02, 1863
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USA 21 Jul 2019
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Hillsville Wytheville Dispatch
