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68 Some of them had children with them, and the youngsters cried bitterly because of the rain and other hardships.

"Major McKinley was with us,—he was only a lieutenant then,—and he had to take his dose of the disagreeable the same as all of us. Everybody in the ranks was covered with mud, and the officers weren't any better off, although the major always was a sticker to keep his uniform bright. He helped around the supply wagons,—he was used to that kind of work, having been a commissary sergeant himself,—and once I saw him help a poor contraband who had his wife and three children with him, and several heavy bundles of household goods, probably everything the poor fellow had in the world. McKinley helped carry one of the children along the road for at least a mile, and he helped the woman over more than one ditch. And he did those things just as if he thought it was no more than his duty to do them. I don't wonder his old mother said, 'William was always a good boy.' Guess he was thinking of her when he helped the contraband and his family."


text: American Boys' Life of William McKinley/Chapter 7

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Rh

in June, the regiment to which Lieutenant McKinley was attached joined General Hunter's command at Staunton. The majority of the soldiers had now served their full three years of enlistment, and it became a question with these whether they should retire or reënlist as veterans.

"I've seen enough of this war," said one soldier. "I've been in a dozen skirmishes and battles, been shot once, and been sick half a dozen times. I'm going home and give somebody else a chance to bring the rebs to terms."

This sentiment was expressed by a number of others, and those uttering it could not be blamed; for, as they said, they had seen many hardships, and some had not been home since they had enlisted.


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70 himself had been on furlough but once, in December, 1862.

"What will you do, lieutenant?" asked one of the captains when the matter was being discussed.

"I have thought it over, and I am going to stick until the war is ended," was the quiet answer. "I've been lucky not to be shot, and equally lucky not to be sick, and I don't think it would be right for me to leave, when Uncle Sam needs every man he can get." And so he remained, and a number of his war comrades remained with him.

It was a sad day when those who had been mustered out started for home. They carried the old colors with them, for the flag was so riddled by shot and shell that it could no longer be used on the battlefield. There was the parting with tent-mates, with those who had stood shoulder to shoulder when death was close at hand. Many a hand-shaking took place in silence, for those who looked into each other's moist eyes were afraid to speak for fear of breaking down.

Leaving Staunton, after having destroyed


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Rh a large quantity of army stores, and also some railroad bridges and factories, Hunter's command pushed on to Liberty. The force consisted of the brigades Hunter had originally had with him and also the commands under General Crook and General Averil. The determination was to give the enemy no time to safeguard the railroads. Averil's cavalry had already destroyed large portions of the Lynchburg and Charlottesville railroad, and now the united forces moved in the direction of Lynchburg.

But for once the Union commanders had not calculated truly about the force of the enemy to be overcome. From Richmond Lee had sent reënforcements to Lynchburg. These came up on the 17th of June, and a skirmish took place, which was renewed on the day following. Hunter was short of ammunition, and fearing the enemy was now too strong for him, started to withdraw. The Confederates followed to Salem, captured a number of guns, and then Hunter fell back to a position in the mountains. By the South this was claimed as a victory.

It was at Salem that the Twenty-third Ohio had a severe brush with the enemy.


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72 Hunter had passed on ahead with the balance of his command, and when Crook came up, the Confederates fell upon the baggage train and artillery. The shooting lasted nearly half an hour, but strange to say, but few were killed or wounded. The soldiers had marched all day with scarcely anything to eat, and after the skirmish marched to the foot of North Mountain, where they went into camp at ten o'clock that night.

The rumor that a large body of the enemy was close on their heels caused the march to be resumed at four o'clock in the morning. Everybody was tired out and intensely hungry, but no one cared to risk the chance of capture and a term in Libby Prison.

"I'd rather die than go to a Southern prison," declared one old veteran, and his feeling was the feeling of all. On they tramped without a mouthful to eat. Once a wrong road was taken, and the Twentythird Ohio had a march of eight miles that was useless. The men were ready to drop in their tracks, and all sorts of equipments were cast aside as being too heavy to carry.


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Rh The next day was equally disheartening, and so was the next and the next. Even the officers began to wonder when the suffering was to end.

"Hurrah! There's a supply wagon!" This shout went up when the command reached Big Sewell Mountain. The report was correct, and soon a wagon train came into view, loaded with provisions. What a cheer went up! Breaking ranks, the soldiers rushed for the wagons, and soon everybody was feasting to his heart's content. To be sure the provisions were only army rations, but never had anything tasted sweeter, and sitting in convenient spots the men ate and ate, as if they would never be satisfied. In nine days they had marched a hundred and eighty miles without a single square meal.

The first week in July was spent by the regiment at Charleston, refitting the worn-out soldiers with necessary equipments. The privations of the past two weeks had caused many men to fall sick, and some of these had to be sent to the hospital or invalided home. Among the number were several friends of Lieutenant McKinley, and


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74 he found parting with them very hard. But a soldier must do his duty, and soon he was on the way with his regiment to join in an attack on the Confederate General Early, who had pushed his way northward through Maryland to Pennsylvania.

The route lay through Martinsburg to Cabletown, where the enemy first appeared and the Confederate pickets were driven in. Then a brigade under General Hayes was sent out to attack Early's entire army of twenty thousand soldiers. Hayes had with him no cavalry and only two sections of an old howitzer battery which was of little or no use, and it was not long before he found himself completely surrounded by General Early's cavalry.

It was truly a trying moment, and for several minutes it looked as if the brigade must either surrender or suffer a tremendous loss, if not complete annihilation. But the courage of the Unionists was equal to the occasion, and guided by their gallant officers, they made a bold rush, and literally cut their way through the cavalry, not, however, without leaving many dead and wounded on the field.


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Rh Lieutenant McKinley was now on Colonel, or rather Acting General, Hayes's staff, and after this battle had a great deal of work to do in getting the different companies and regiments together again. A warm friendship had sprung up between the two future Presidents of the United States, a friendship which was to endure until death separated them.

"I could not help but like the boy," was what General Hayes said afterward. "He was such a clean-cut, bright fellow, honest to the core, and always willing to do anything asked of him. Sometimes he fairly seemed to anticipate my wishes, and he always carried them out, no matter what the cost." And on another occasion he added: "The night was never too dark, the weather never too cold, there was no sleet, or storm, or snow, or rain that stood in the way of his prompt and efficient performance of every duty." What a tribute to the character of any soldier boy!

On the 24th of July a battle was fought near Winchester, in which the Unionists were defeated after a contest lasting from nine in the morning until nine at night.


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76 In this engagement the Twenty-third Ohio lost one hundred and fifty-three men killed and wounded, including ten commissioned officers.

Immediately after the military movement narrated above came the battle of Kernstown, near Winchester, and here it was that McKinley gained his highest reputation for courage, performing an act which for daring is not outmatched by any performed during our Civil War.

The Union forces were falling back, when they were attacked by a portion of Early's army. Thinking he could hold the enemy in check, General Crook went to the front with his brigades, which included that under General Hayes. For a while the contest waged furiously, but at last Crook saw that the plan was futile, and the soldiers were called upon to retreat. As the different regiments were retiring, General Hayes saw that one body of soldiery—the Thirteenth West Virginia regiment—had not received any orders and was in immediate danger of being surrounded and captured.

"They must be informed that the retreat


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Rh has sounded," said General Hayes, and turned to see who could be sent upon that dangerous mission. McKinley was passing, and he halted the young man.

"Lieutenant, do you see yonder regiment?" he asked.

The young officer saluted. "I do, general," he answered.

"Evidently the colonel has not heard the retreat,—does not know that he is alone fighting a force ten times superior to his own. He must be given an order to withdraw. Will you carry that order to him?"

"I will, general."

"It is a dangerous mission."

"I know it, but I will go."

No more was said, and almost as soon as he had spoken McKinley had wheeled around on his bobtailed horse and was dashing down a slight hill and across an open field in the direction of the imperilled regiment, that was fighting desperately, in utter ignorance of its helplessness.

As some of the men saw the young staff officer depart, they gave a faint cheer, but this was hushed when they beheld the grave


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78 look upon General Hayes's face and realized what was passing in their commander's mind.

"He can't get through; some rebel sharpshooter will fetch him," said more than one old veteran. "He's sure to be shot down before he's gone half the distance."

One or two called to McKinley to come back,—in utter defiance of the fact that he carried an order from the general,—for they loved him deeply. But he merely shook his head, and soon he was out of hearing.

"He'll never come back alive," came from one of the captains.

"It's facing certain death," added another.

On and on and still on rode Lieutenant McKinley, over the fields, leaping fences and ditches, rough rocks, and low brushwood. Bullets flew in front and behind him, but he appeared to bear a charmed life. His course lay obliquely toward the enemy, and thousands of Unionists and Confederates saw him make the mad dash. Then a battery was turned in that direction, and the whining shriek of a shell was


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Rh heard as it whizzed through the air, to explode in his rear. The shell was followed quickly by another, and then a third, and in a chaos of smoke, flame, and dirt, McKinley was seen to go down, and his horse with him.


text: American Boys' Life of William McKinley/Chapter 8


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80

" is lost!"

Such was the cry from a score of throats as the young staff officer was hidden for a moment from view, amid the smoke of the exploded shell. Even General Hayes turned away his head and muttered faintly, "I knew he would never go through it."

But McKinley was not dead, or even seriously harmed, and while yet the smoke lay thick around him he was seen to stagger to his feet. Up came the bobtailed horse with him, limping slightly from a wound in the shoulder, and into the saddle once again leaped the daring rider. On and on, with more bullets whistling about them and another shell exploding high over their heads. There was still a ditch to cross, a rail fence, and a small open field, before he


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Rh could gain the shelter of an orchard where the West Virginia regiment continued to blaze away desperately.

It was a ride as wonderful as it was daring. With all those shots aimed at him he was not even touched, outside of a scratch on the hand, received from a rail splinter when a shell struck the fence his steed was leaping. Straight into the orchard dashed horse and rider, and panting for breath McKinley halted before the colonel and saluted.

"Colonel, you are ordered to retreat," he said.

"Retreat?" repeated the higher officer.

"Yes, sir. General Hayes just sent me over. You should have had the word before. You are fighting without support."

There was no time to say more. The Confederates were hemming in the stricken regiment on all sides, and the bullets were flying thickly everywhere. Without delay the retreat was sounded. Many of the under-officers and the men were completely bewildered and knew not what to do.

"This way!" shouted McKinley to a body who were fleeing directly toward the


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82 enemy, and he faced them about and then started the retreat in the proper direction. The Unionists skirted the orchard, followed by the Confederates, and led by the young lieutenant and several of their officers, ran pell-mell to join the brigade from which they had become separated.

As the young lieutenant appeared at the front of that disorganized body of soldiery, a storm of applause went up, and General Hayes was deeply affected. As McKinley rode up to him, he caught the young soldier by the hand.

"McKinley, I never expected to see you in life again," he said. "You did your duty well."

And then came a shout from the men of the lieutenant's old company:—

"Hurrah for Lieutenant McKinley and his bob tailed horse! Hurrah!" And the cheer was taken up on all sides until, blushing painfully, the young staff officer retired from view.

The losses to the Twenty-third Ohio had been great, and there was a vacancy among the captains. But it was filled inside of twenty-four hours by the appointment of


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Rh "William McKinley, to be captain of Company G, for gallantry at the battle of Kernstown."

The soldier boys greeted their new captain warmly. They thought he fully deserved the promotion, and did not hesitate to say so. In fact, in the whole regiment there was no more popular young man than William McKinley. Said one of the veterans:—

"Nobody begrudged him his promotion, and plenty of us thought he ought to be a major or a colonel. Perhaps he was looking for something higher, but if he was, he never said so. But as soon as he took hold of the company, I can tell you there was a sprucing-up all round, for he believed in toeing the mark, and making everybody do likewise."

After the battle of Kernstown followed a series of marches and countermarches up and down the Shenandoah Valley, near Winchester and beyond. The regiment was engaged at Halltown, and captured a number of prisoners who had been "lying low," and who were very much surprised when taken into custody. In September


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84 Berryville was reached, and here the Twenty-third was placed on picket duty. Toward dark the Confederates came up and opened a scattering fire, which gradually developed into a regular battle, lasting until after ten o'clock that night. This is one of the few contests fought after dark, and it is said that the flashes of gun and cannon fire, and the bursting of shells, made a more picturesque than deadly display. Few soldiers were hurt, and in the end the Confederates withdrew to the camp they had previously occupied.

As night closed in on the armies. Captain McKinley was directed to go out and take orders to the colonel of a regiment that had missed its proper station. The way was dark and uncertain, and presently the young staff officer found himself off the road and in the midst of a dense growth of underbrush.

"I scarcely knew what to do," he said, in speaking of this afterward. "I walked on a short distance, when a voice out of the darkness called, 'Who goes dar?' That was a Southern voice, and without reply I stepped back and took another


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Rh course. Then came another voice, 'Who comes there? ' and I knew I was once more on the right side. I soon reached the regiment I was seeking, and then there was no more trouble." Thus he disposed of an incident which was both exciting and full of peril, for had the Confederate sentinel known he was a Yankee, he would have been shot on the spot.

Following the contest in the dark came two more weeks of marching in the valley, leading up to the battle of Opequan, where McKinley again distinguished himself, although in a manner almost as unique as when he furnished the men on the firing line with hot coffee and meat.

The battle of Opequan was fought under the direct generalship of dashing Phil Sheridan and was one which added greatly to the laurels of that already famous officer. He had followed General Early up and down the Shenandoah Valley until he was at last satisfied that he had the Confederate just where he wanted him. The battle lasted till evening, and the enemy was driven from Opequan creek to Winchester with the loss of hundreds killed and


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86 wounded and several thousands taken prisoners.

At this battle General Crook's command was in reserve, with Hayes's brigade at the extreme right of the infantry. In order to reach the position assigned to them, the Twenty-third Ohio had to cross a swampy cedar brake where some of the soldier boys sank into mud up to their ankles.

Soon began the distant roar of cannon and the rattle of musketry, and in less than an hour the battle waxed hot and furious on all sides.

"Forward!" came the cry, and forward went the Ohio boys, through the cedar brake and across several open fields, where they received a scattering fire from some of the enemy hidden in a distant wood. But they pushed on bravely, and at last reached the brow of a slight hill, from which the Confederate infantry could be seen off on the left.

No sooner did the Twenty-third Ohio come into view than the Confederate light artillery opened upon them, making sad gaps in the ranks of all the leading companies. But undaunted by this, the


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Rh pressed on until they gained a patch of undergrowth, where a slight halt was made.

Beyond the undergrowth was another stretch of swamp land, and here several of the soldiers got so stuck that their companions had to come to their assistance and haul them out. The swamp was worse on its further side, and the whole regiment stopped in the middle, not knowing if it would be safe to go on.

"Forward, men, and you'll soon be over!" shouted General Hayes, and led the way, his horse scattering the mud in all directions, and the Confederates sending a shower of bullets around him. He kept on and was the first soldier across, and soon the line followed him, cheering and yelling madly.

While these movements were going on. Captain McKinley, who was still acting on the staff, was ordered by General Crook to go to Colonel Duval with an order to move his command quickly to the right of the Sixth Corps.

Riding with all possible speed, the young captain reached the hillside which Colonel Duval occupied, and presently found the


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88 commander, sitting somewhat in perplexity, on horseback.

"Colonel Duval, General Crook orders that you move your command to the right of the Sixth Corps as soon as possible," said the young staff officer, after saluting.

Colonel Duval nodded, to show that he understood what was said.

"By what route?" he asked, after a pause.

"He did not say exactly, but I heard him speak of moving up the ravine," answered McKinley.

At this Colonel Duval shook his head decidedly. Going up the ravine might prove a dangerous move, and might cause the loss of many men.

"I shall not move until I receive more definite orders," he said.

At this Captain McKinley's face fell, for he was an earnest soldier, and he knew that General Crook wanted the movement made without further question. He cast his eyes down into the ravine and across to the fields and woods which the enemy occupied. Then he braced up and saluted again.


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Rh "Colonel Duval, I order you, by command of General Crook, to move your command to the right of the Sixth Corps at once, and take a route along the ravine," he said boldly.

"The command shall be obeyed," replied Duval, and something like a smile crossed his face. In a minute more the soldiers were on the way.

As Captain McKinley rode back to General Crook's side, he was no doubt much worried over the result of his order. He had taken a grave responsibility on his shoulders; for if the movement resulted disastrously, he would surely be brought to account. What the result was we shall soon see.


text: American Boys' Life of William McKinley/Chapter 9


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90

had the Ohio soldiers floundered out of the morass when orders came for them to move by the right flank. This meant going into part of the mud again, and some demurred.

"Come, boys, no time to hang back!" cried one of the officers. "Duty is duty. Forward!" And forward they went again. Soon they were close to the enemy, who were driven from the cover of a short patch of timber. As the Confederates came out, the Union cavalry charged on and surrounded them, taking hundreds of prisoners.

So the fighting went on, until the regiment, with marching and countermarching, shooting and charging, were all but exhausted. At the head of the line


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Rh Hayes continued to ride, waving his sword and urging the men to renewed courage. The soldiers dropped to his right and his left, but he remained untouched, and so did William McKinley, who was likewise doing his best to bring victory out of what looked at times like defeat.

Presently the Twenty-third found itself in a more exposed position than usual. The Confederates were bringing up their artillery, and it looked as if the regiment might be cut down to a man. Something must be done, but what?"

Lieutenant McBride, you will move forward with the men carrying Saxony rifles," ordered Hayes. "Cut down the artillery horses—never mind the riders."

The Saxony rifles were trusty pieces of seventy-one calibre, that could carry twelve hundred yards. On dashed the riflemen, led by the lieutenant mentioned. The fire was concentrated on the horses attached to the first battery, which was rushing along the ridge of the hill. Crack! crack! went the rifles, and down went one horse, followed by another and then another. Instantly there was confusion and


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92 a general mix-up. Then the fire was concentrated on another set of horses, dragging a second piece, and these, too, went down. The confusion increased, and the entire battery was thrown into disorder. The infantry, in the rear, felt the panic and stood in alarm.

"Now is our time! Forward!" shouted General Hayes, and once again the boys in blue went forward on the double-quick, yelling like demons. The Confederates formed to receive them and gave them a most deadly fire, for they, too, could fight as gamely as the best. And why not, since they, too, were Americans, of the same bone and blood as their Northern brothers?

For a few minutes the result of the onslaught remained in doubt. Shot and shell roared and shrieked on all sides, mingled with the constant rattle of musketry, extending in some places for miles. The ground was torn up in some places to a depth of two or three feet, and the moss of the morass flung in all directions, mingled with the lifeblood of those who had fallen, wearing either the blue or the gray. Surely, surely, war is a horrible thing!


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Rh But look! what is this? Horsemen are coming, dozens, hundreds of them, riding from beyond the distant smoke-clad hills. It is the Union cavalry! How they dash across the fields and up the hillsides! The crack of the carbines is heard, the spatting of pistols, and then the click-clacking of swords and bayonets. A cheer goes up, which swells to a mighty roar. The day is won! Won! Some cannot believe it, but as they see the Confederate line crumbling, their hearts give a bound of mad delight, and on they move with increased courage, driving the enemy from cover to cover and surrounding company after company, until, utterly routed, the Confederates withdraw in the direction of North Mountain.

In this battle the soldiers sent forward under Lieutenant McBride brought in one hundred and two prisoners. The balance of the regiment secured two hundred prisoners. The Confederate battery was captured by the regiment as a whole.

When it was all over, it was found that among the wounded was Colonel Duval, who had been shot shortly after bringing


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94 up his command. But the movement along the ravine had been successful and the command had done brilliant work throughout the contest. It was not until afterward that it leaked out what a responsibility Captain McKinley had taken. At that time neither General Crook nor General Sheridan said anything, for they saw that the young staff officer had tried to do his best, and just then was no time to "stand on ceremony," so to speak. But long afterward Sheridan took McKinley aside and said to him:—

"That order of yours was all right because it turned out all right. But if it had turned out wrong, why then it would have been very wrong." Deep in his heart he admired the young soldier for his quick decision and daring, for he was quick to decide and quick to do himself.

On the day following occurred the battle of North Mountain. Having reached the crest of a rocky hill, the Confederates threw up some hasty intrenchments and planted their batteries with care during the night. But the Unionists were close on their heels, and flushed with victory, charged madly up


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Rh the hillside, the whole brigade under Crook acting like one man. The enemy made a short stand, but soon became panic-stricken, thinking the dreaded cavalry was riding to their rear, and fled over the mountain and into the forests beyond. Many dropped their guns and haversacks, and these were afterward picked up by the hundreds.

Following the battle of North Mountain came a much-needed rest, lasting about a month. Occasionally the Twenty-third marched to meet the distant enemy, but only a few small skirmishes resulted. But the beautiful valley of the Shenandoah was almost devastated, so that the Confederates could find little there upon which to support their ragged and half-famished army. They had fought desperately, with all the hot courage for which the South is famous; but the North, with its larger force and its superior resources, was slowly but surely bringing them to a point where they must either give up the struggle or suffer total annihilation.

The mellow days of October were now at hand, and the middle of the month found Sheridan's army located on the north side


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96 of Cedar Creek. The commander himself had been to Washington on business and had not yet returned, although he was on the way.

An attack by Early was hardly expected, and many of the soldiers were out cutting forage when the alarm was sounded. On the previous night, in a dense fog, General Early's command had crossed the mountain and forded one of the forks of the creek. Still under cover of darkness, the main body of his army crept upon the left flank of the Unionists and bore down upon them with the stirring yell for which they were famous. Taken completely by surprise, the boys in blue opened fire, but before they could take a firm stand, the left flank was turned and the batteries captured.

It was not yet five o'clock in the morning when this occurred, and as it grew lighter, it was seen that the Confederates now had the best of the situation, for from their point of vantage they could enfilade nearly our entire army—that is, could send shot and shell through the ranks from the side, instead of from the front. It was a crucial moment, and it looked as if the day


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Rh must be lost. Soon musketry rattled and cannon boomed loudly, and in the midst of this some of the Union forces began to retreat.

It was at this time that General Sheridan made his wonderful ride—that ride which has been so beautifully idealized by T. Buchanan Read in his poem, "Sheridan's Ride," known to schoolboys and schoolgirls all over our broad land.

Sheridan was at Winchester, about fourteen miles from the battle-ground. He had arrived there the night before, tired out with riding, and had been met by a staff officer with tidings that all was well at Cedar Creek. Thinking it would not be necessary to move on to the camp at such an hour, he retired in Winchester and was soon fast asleep.

The booming of a warning gun early in the morning made him leap up as if electrified. What could that mean? He listened and heard more guns—a regular cannonading. "The battle must be on!" he muttered to himself, and in quick haste donned his clothes, pulled on his spurred cavalry boots, and hurried into the open.


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98 "My horse!" he cried, and as his charger was brought out, he gave a leap into the saddle, and was off like a whirlwind, down the road past houses and farms, and then over hedges, ditches, and fields, straight for Cedar Creek. Those who saw him pass gave him a cheer, but he never paid attention and probably did not hear them. On and on, and still on, he swept, until his noble horse was covered with foam and breathing clouds of steam. The steed seemed to know what was wanted of him, for he was a war charger, and his eyes glared wildly, as if in defiance of anything which might rise to bar his progress. The cannonading continued, and now he could hear the rattle of musketry and see the distant soldiers, some moving in one direction and some in another. Then he came out into a road and found himself face to face with a handful of the men who had fought under him so often.

"It's Sheridan!" cried some, and then one added: "General, the day is lost. The rebels surprised us before daylight and are down on us fifty thousand strong."

"The day isn't lost yet," was the answer.


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Rh "Face about and follow me!" And on he swept, quickly out of their sight around another bend. He was now so close he could make out the soldiers distinctly. Alas! the blue was slowly retreating and the gray was pushing forward with renewed vigor. He paused for a moment, trying to devise some line of action, and as he did so, he saw a mass of Union soldiers rushing pell-mell toward him, and in front a young officer on horseback trying vainly to stop them and form them in military order. The young officer was Captain McKinley.

"What does this mean, McKinley?" he demanded.

"We have been surprised, general. Early crossed the north fork of the creek some time last night, and has captured our batteries over there. The boys are panic-stricken."

"Where is General Crook?"

"I left him on yonder rise," and the young captain pointed in the direction.

"Come with me, boys!" shouted Sheridan, and threw his overcoat to McKinley. "We are going to have a good thing on them now!" And on he went again. For


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100 a moment the soldiers were dazed, then as McKinley spoke to them, they turned and followed back to the scene of battle, inspired by the words Sheridan had uttered.

On the great battlefield all was confusion. Staff officers and aides were rushing in all directions. The Confederates were pouring in their hottest fire, and it looked as if nothing could withstand that terrible discharge of iron hail. General Hayes lay on the ground in a retired nook, suffering from a bad tumble from his horse. Crook was not far away, doing his best to make the panic-stricken soldiers hold their own.

And then from out of a whirl of dust on the Winchester Turnpike came Sheridan, his steed trembling in every limb as if ready to drop from exhaustion. A roar went up and down the long line. "Sheridan has come! Sheridan has come! He'll tell us what to do!"

In a second more Sheridan was at Crook's side, and a few words were spoken in an undertone. Staff officers came dashing up and were sent off with important messages. Then of a sudden Sheridan leaped into the


text:
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Rh saddle again, and rode along the halting and wondering line.

"We are going to have a good thing on them now, boys!" he shouted. "Come, follow me! Turn around! We are going back! We are going to sleep in our quarters to-night! Come on!"

The magic of that voice and that dashing, daring figure was wonderful. Old veterans threw up their caps and yelled themselves hoarse. Those in retreat turned and were the first to press upon the gallant leader's heels. The lines were re-formed, and when the Confederates made their next charge, company after company met it bravely, standing like rocks. Then other troops came up from the left and the right, and the cavalry burst from the woods. "The Yankees have been reënforced—Sheridan had brought on more regiments!" was the false news circulated on the other side, and then the Confederates began to halt in dismay.

This great change on the battlefield occurred about one o'clock, after almost eight hours of continual fighting. Driven back, the Confederates took another stand, but at


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102 three o'clock Sheridan attacked with greater vigor than ever, and soon the enemy was flying in several directions, leaving cannon and small arms behind.

During the next two days the Confederates were pursued for fourteen miles in the direction of Mount Jackson and then through various mountain roads. Only a portion of the flying soldiers escaped, the others being either shot down or taken prisoners. About fifty pieces of artillery were taken, and also three hundred supply wagons and ambulances. Early was much chagrined over the outcome of this contest, and did not hesitate to tell his troops so, accusing some of his officers of neglecting their duty in order to obtain plunder when first the Union troops were surprised at daybreak.


text: American Boys' Life of William McKinley/Chapter 10


text:
Cato's Letters/Letter 52

SIR, I have in a former letter to you, not long since, shewn the rashness of men in applying to one another the judgments of God. I shall in this consider that subject farther, and endeavour to cure that prevailing and uncharitable spirit.

Almost all sorts of men pretend, in some instances, to be in the secrets of the Almighty, and will be finding out the unsearchable purposes of his providence; they will be prying into the hidden things of God, and assigning such ends and motives for his all-wise dispensations, as are only suitable to their own weakness, or prejudices, or malice: They give him the same passions that they themselves possess, and then make him love and hate what and whom they themselves love and hate: They are pleased with flattery and sounds, and provoked by trifles and names; and so they think is he. And as they thus sanctify all their own doings, affections, and fancies, with a fiat and approbation from heaven, and belie and provoke God, to make him their friend; so they take it for granted that he is an enemy to all their enemies; and that therefore every evil, or seeming evil, that befalls their enemies, or those whom they dislike, is a manifest judgment from God, and a justification of whatever they can do against them: So that God is often made the author of every mischief which they themselves commit; but they that feel it, think more rationally that they are animated by a contrary spirit.

God made man after his own likeness, perfect, amiable, merciful, and upright; and men are bold and foolish enough to make God after theirs; and almost every one has his own God, one fashioned according to his own temper, imaginations, and prejudices. In this sense they worship as many false gods, as they have wrong notions of the true one; and so in some sort polytheism does yet remain even in the Christian world. They only agree in calling what they worship by the same name; but they conceive him in such a different manner, they differ so widely about his nature and will, and either give him such contradictory attributes, or so contradict one another in explaining these attributes, that it is plain they do not mean one and the same being. Some make God hate what he certainly loves, others make him love what he certainly hates; and all take it amiss if you think that they own and adore any God but the true God. But let them think what they will, many of them still worship the old gods of the heathens, gods that were delighted with baubles, shew, and grimace, and with cruelty, revenge, and human sacrifices.

From this mistaken and impious spirit it proceeds, that when calamities and disasters befall others, especially those that differ from us, we call them judgments, and say that the hand of God is against them: But when the same evils or worse befall ourselves, the style is changed, and then whom God loveth he chasteneth; or if we own them to be judgments, yet still they are judgments upon us for other people's sins.

Thus all the misfortunes that happened to Spain for many hundred years, whether they came from the enemy, or the elements, were divine judgments upon them for suffering the idolatrous Moors to inhabit that good Catholick country; and therefore, like true Catholicks, they brought the greatest judgment of all upon it, by destroying and banishing that numerous and industrious people. Thus the bigotted pagans, when Alarick, king of the Huns, sacked Rome, charged the Christians with being the cause of that and of every other calamity that befell the empire: The Christians despised their gods, and therefore their gods, out of a particular spite to the Christians, afflicted the whole world with miseries; and so plagues, wars, hurricanes, and earthquakes, which were evils that had been in the world from the beginning of it, and will be to the end, were, notwithstanding, all so many judgments, occasioned by the poor Christians! Hence the beginning of penalties, severities, and persecutions against them; and thus the Christians came in time to return the charge upon the heathens, to use the same way of reasoning, and to make the like reprisals, and with as little equity, truth, or clemency: And thus, lastly, all parties in religion have ever dealt with one another.

We are commanded not to judge, lest we be judged; and we are told that vengeance is the Lord's, and that judgments are in his hand: All which are to convince us, that we have no certain or probable rule to apply God's judgments by; and that the surest rule is the rule of charity, which wisheth all things, hopeth all things. The good and evil that happen to man in this world, are no sure marks of the approbation and displeasure of Almighty God, who makes his sun to shine and his rain to fall upon the just and the unjust: Good-fortune and calamities are the portion of the good and of the bad; and if there be any inequality, the wicked seem to have the advantage. The world had more people and temporal prosperity in the times of heathenism, than since its abolishment; Mahometanism possesses much more of the globe than Christianity possesses; the papists are more numerous than the Protestants are, and have greater and better countries. The apostles and saints were the poorest men in the world, and debauched men are often uppermost, and thrive best; and as the righteous are at least as subject to distempers and affliction while they live, as the wicked are, so the wicked die with as little pain and as few pangs as the righteous die.

That there is a providence, and a gracious providence presiding over the world, is manifest and undeniable; but how it works, and from what particular motives, in a thousand instances, none but the author of it can tell; though almost all pretend to tell, and are for ever diving into the secret counsels of the most high, with as much temerity as ill success.

To the discredit of this practice, it is observable, that none but the fierce and uncharitable, none but ignorant and narrow- spirited bigots and barbarians come into it or encourage it. Men of charitable and benevolent minds, enlarged by reason and observation, condemn it as irreligious; they know that it is often malicious and dishonest, always ridiculous and dangerous; they know the ways of God to be past finding out; they see human affairs so perplexed and unaccountable; men sometimes rising and sometimes falling, both by virtue and vice; such vicissitudes and revolutions in the fortunes of men and of nations, often without any change in these men and nations from virtue to vice, or from vice to virtue; people growing greater without becoming better, and poorer without growing worse: They behold good and evil so promiscuously dispensed; sometimes thousands of men, women, and children, of different spirits, merit, and morals, suffering equally under the same publick calamity, and deriving equally the like advantages from publick prosperity; they behold the adversity of some to be the visible cause of the prosperity of others, who are no better than them; and the prosperity of some the visible cause of the adversity of others, who are no worse than the former; and one and the same thing producing good and evil to those who alike deserve or do not deserve good and evil: They see so little equity or consistency in the proceedings of men; sometimes good men exalted, without any regard had to their virtue; sometimes wicked men cast down, without any resentment of their crimes; sometimes good men punished for being good, and wicked men raised and rewarded for being wicked; sometimes both good and bad suffering or prospering alike, sometimes good-fortunes following the good, and ill-fortune the bad, often taking a contrary freak. I say, wise and honest men, seeing all these things in this great confusion and uncertainty, find sufficient reason to be afraid of making bold with heaven, and of christening by the name of its judgments any of these events and evils that afflict any part of mankind.

But bigots, and they, who, to serve ill ends, interest heaven in all that they do, deal more freely and profanely with their great maker and judge, whose counsels and judgments being incomprehensible, it is impiety and a contradiction to go about to explain and apply them. The Turks make God the author of every thing that they do, and of every evil that others suffer from them. They measure his will by the event; and, with them, whatever is successful, is lawful and just: The murder of a prince, or his murdering of others, is never sinful if it succeed: God, they say, blesses and approves the event, else he would prevent it. So that, upon this principle, there can be no such thing as wickedness and villainy amongst them; for who knows but it may succeed, and then it is good? or if it does not succeed, who could foresee but it would? This impious tenet of that brutish people arms them with fierceness and outrage against one another, and all the world; it animates them to commit rapine and butcheries, and then sears their consciences, and prevents all remorse. Nay, they glory in executing cruelty, because it is the judgment of God, and they are his agents.

I wish I could keep this dreadful principle out of Christendom; but I am sorry to say, that it is common amongst us. Whoever applies the judgment of God to others, has this Turkish spirit in him: And all men that make such applications, reason so foolishly, so falsely, and often so maliciously in their defence, that every instance which I have ever yet met with in all my reading and observation (except the declared instances in sacred writ) exposes them.

Upon the murder of Henry III of France, by Jacques Clément, a Dominican friar, the deputy of the famous French League, then at Rome, tells the Pope, in an audience given upon that occasion, that the assassin was chosen by God, and divinely inspired to murder his prince, and calls it a glorious exploit: And though that execrable and bloody monk used all the methods of falsehood, lies, and forgeries, to get access to the King, in order to destroy him; yet the deputy solemnly tells his Holiness, that it was notorious that the thing came not from men. The League distressed, resisted, and at last murdered their prince: And all these their own wicked doings were, forsooth, the judgments of God upon him, for suffering heresy in the land.

The Huguenots, on the other hand, made a judgment of that murder too; but a judgment on their side, for his frequent breach of faith and edicts with them, and for his barbarities towards them. They said, it was a remarkable providence of God, that he was assassinated in the same chamber where he had concerted the furious massacre of St. Bartholomew —in the very chamber, nay, on the same day, the same hour, and on the same spot! Here are judgments encountering judgments! let who will reconcile them. I think both sides sufficiently rash and ridiculous in making them, as are all those that do, whatever side they are of.

The conquest of the Greeks by Mahomet II and their slavish subjection to the Turks, is ascribed by the Jesuit Maimbourg to the Schism, which he says they were guilty of in withdrawing their obedience from the See of Rome. Here, according to him, was the judgment and the cause of the judgment. Bayle observes upon this occasion, that Rome being taken by Charles V in 1527, was as barbarously pillaged by his troops, as was Constantinople by the Turks, when they took it: And he asks, whether Maimbourg would take it well to be told by the Greeks that that desolation of Rome was a judgment upon her for her pride and ambition, in demanding, imperiously, of the Greek Church an absolute uniformity and obedience to her discipline and dictates? He says, that Maimbourg, since he was dealing in judgments, might as well have given this another turn, with which Chalcondylis would have furnished him. That historian relates, that when Mahomet invaded and subdued Greece, the then inhabitants of Rome, who thought themselves the descendants of the old Romans, who came from Aeneas, who came from Troy, asserted positively, that all the destruction brought upon the Greeks by the barbarians, was but a judgment upon them for all the ravages which their Greek ancestors had committed against the subjects of Priamus, and in the destruction of Troy some thousand years before.

The death of Oliver Cromwell was, it seems, attended or followed by a very high wind; which was nothing strange: But as Oliver had been a usurper, and a great deceiver, and was greatly hated; most of the vulgar, and many that would be thought much wiser took it into their heads, that that same storm was a loud judgment and declaration of the wrath of heaven against him, and that Satan was fetching away his soul in a whirlwind. But his friends turned it quite another way; particularly Mr. Waller, who made all that tumult and bellowing in the elements, to be partly the call of heaven, summoning away so great a man; partly the sighs and sympathy of nature for his last agonies and departure. The copy of verses that Waller made on that occasion is one of the noblest in our language; I shall conclude with a few lines out of it.

We must resign; Heav'n his great soul does claim, In storms as loud as his immortal fame. His dying groans, his last breath shakes our isle; And trees, uncut, fall for his fun'ral pile. New Rome in such a tempest lost her king, And, from obeying, fell to worshipping. Nature herself took notice of his death, And, sighing, swell'd the sea with such a breath, That, to remotest shores, her billows roll'd, Th' approaching fate of their great ruler told.

G I am, &c.

title: Cato's Letters/Letter 52


text:
Cato's Letters/Letter 53

SIR, The talent of writing history is so rare on this side the Alps, and more on this side the Channel, that I think most of our southern neighbours have far exceeded us in it; as much, perhaps, as some of the ancients have exceeded them. By far the most part of our English histories are pitiful performances, unworthy of a free, polite, and learned nation. But though many of our neighbours excel us in the histories of their own countries, we can boast of two universal histories, which do honour to the authors, and their country. The first is Sir Walter Raleigh; one of the worthiest and ablest men that this or any other country ever produced. He had a soul as vast as the work which he undertook, and his work resembles him; for though it has much in it that is foreign to history, it is noble, nervous, and instructive; its spirit, clearness, and style, are admirable; and for narration, penetration, knowledge, sentences, and observation, he has few competitors in antiquity.

The other is the very reverend, learned, and aged Dr. Prideaux, Dean of Norwich; who has given us a body of universal history, written with such capacity, accuracy, industry, and honesty, as make it one of the best books that ever came into the world, and shew him to be one of the greatest men in it. No book was ever more universally read and approved. It is indeed a great publick service done to mankind, and entitles the author to the highest publick gratitude and honour.

But though I never saw any great work to which I found fewer objections; yet, as a memorable proof how inseparably mistakes and prejudices cleave to the mind of man, the great and candid Dr. Prideaux is not without them; I therefore do not upbraid him with them, but rather admire him for having so few. There are however some of his theological observations, which seem to me not only ill-grounded, but to have a tendency to create in his readers wrong notions of the Deity, and to encourage them to mistake the common accidents of life, and the common events of nature, for the judgments of God, and to apply them superstitiously as such.

Of this kind is the observation which he makes upon the death of Cambyses, the Persian emperor, who had slain the Egyptian Apis. For the better understanding of this, we must know, that the chief god of the Egyptians was Osiris; him they worshipped in the shape of a bull, and that not only in imagery, but also in reality; for they kept a bull in the temple of Osiris, which they worshipped in his stead. The Doctor adds, that in imitation of this idolatry was it that Aaron made the golden calf in the wilderness, and Jeroboam those in Dan and Bethel, and did set them up there to be worshipped by the children of Israel, as the gods that had brought them out of the land of Egypt.

When this the god and bull of the Egyptians died, they looked out for another, with such proper marks and spots as were certain indications of his divinity; and when they found one, they expressed their joy in great and publick festivity. In such a fit of rejoicing Cambyses found the city of Memphis, when he returned to it from his unprosperous expedition into Aethiopia. The Egyptians had just then found a new god amongst the cattle, and had lodged him at his crib in his temple with great solemnity. Cambyses had a mind to see this deity of theirs: And, says Dr. Prideaux,

"this Apis being brought to him, he fell into a rage, as well he might, at the sight of such a god; and, drawing out his dagger, run it into the thigh of the beast; and then reproaching the priests for their stupidity and wretchedness in worshipping a brute for a God, ordered them to be severely whipped, and all the Egyptians in Memphis to be slain, who should be found any more rejoicing there on this occasion. The Apis being carried back to the temple, languished of his wounds, and died."

As to the death of Cambyses, and the manner of it, take it also in the Doctor's words.

"As he mounted his horse, his sword falling out of the scabbard, gave him a wound in the thigh, of which he died: The Egyptians remarking, that it was in the same part of the body where he had afore wounded the Apis, reckoned it as an especial judgment from heaven upon him for that fact; and perchance they were not much out in it: For it seldom happening in an affront given to any particular mode of worship, how erroneous soever it may be, but that religion in general is wounded thereby; there are many instances in history, wherein God had very signally punished the profanations of religion in the worst of times, and under the worst modes of heathen idolatry."

Without inquiring whether this be any compliment to truth and religion, I freely own, that the distressing or disturbing of any sort of people in any sort of worship, however false and ridiculous, where the same does not violate property or human society, is an invasion of the rights of nature and conscience, and no man can do it with a wise and honest design: And what men do of this kind, out of bitterness of spirit or self-ends, no one will justify. If people will play the fool in their devotion, they only expose themselves, but hurt not others; and whoever does hurt to them, does but warrant them to return it: And hence is the sure beginning of tyranny, and of eternal civil and religious war. Every man reckons every religion false or foolish, which he does not embrace; and his own the best, though it be the worst. And if in this universal obstinacy of every man in every religious opinion which he has imbibed, a dispute by the sword, and arguments of authority and force, were encouraged, or but permitted, confusion and slaughter would be their chief employment. Or if one man's will were to be a law to other men's thoughts, the effects would be every where alike; that is, the stupidity and slavery of Turks would be the portion and character of Englishmen.

But I cannot think that the wounding of a bull, even of a consecrated bull, and the whipping of his priests, were such crimes as, beyond all the other crimes of Cambyses, called for the avengingjudgments of God upon him. He had others to answer for of a far more black, malignant, and detestable nature: He put his brother to death for his merit, and for a dream that he had concerning him. He killed, by a kick in the belly, his beloved wife Meroe, who was also his sister, and then with child by him, for lamenting the death of her murdered brother.

"He caused several of his principal followers to be buried alive, without any cause deserving of it, and daily sacrificed some or other of them to his wild fury. And when Croesus (formerly King of Lydia, the old and faithful friend and counsellor of his father Cyrus) advised him against those proceedings, and laid before him the ill consequences which they would lead to, he ordered him to be put to death; and when those who received his orders, knowing he would repent of it next day, did therefore defer the execution, he caused them all to be executed for it, though at the same time he expressed great joy that Croesus was alive: And out of a mere humour, only to shew his skill in archery, he shot to death the son of Prexaspes, who was the chief of his favourites."

He caused the magistrates of Memphis to be put to death, for answering truly to a question which he asked them. In his mad march over the Lybian sands, to invade a people that had done him no harm, he destroyed most of his vast army, fifty thousand in one place: The rest were reduced by famine to feed on each other.

Which now is most likely, and most becoming the divine wisdom and goodness, that the great God of heaven and earth should be more offended with this black catalogue of cruelties and crimes, than with a hasty blow given to a brute worshipped as God; which the doctor owns had justly provoked the rage of Cambyses? And is the Almighty more provoked at an affront put upon an idol, and upon the attendants of an idol, which falsely and impudently is made to represent him, than at a terrible and raging tyranny, that spreads blood and desolation over the face of the earth?

Cambyses, upon his invading Egypt, did another thing as bad as the wounding of Apis; I shall relate it in the Doctor's own words:

"Finding that the garrison of Pelusium, a strong frontier town, were all Egyptians, in an assault which he made upon the city, he placed a great number of cats, dogs, sheep, and others of those animals which the Egyptians reckoned sacred, in the front of the army; and therefore the soldiers not daring to throw a dart, or shoot an arrow, that way, for fear of killing some of those animals, Cambyses, made himself master of the place without any opposition. For these being the gods which the Egyptians then adored, it was reckoned the highest impiety to kill any of them; and when they died of themselves, they buried them with great solemnity."

The Doctor makes no reflection upon this; though, upon the same principle, it must have been an affront to religion; and if none of these sacred creatures were killed, it was owing to no tenderness in Cambyses, who exposed them to so much danger. But if true religion be hurt by putting an affront upon a false one, how came it to be a merit in the primitive Christians to pull down the heathen temples, and to destroy the idols of the heathen, as they almost every where did where they had power, often in opposition to power? And upon what foot and motive is it that penalties and incapacities are put upon any sect of religion in any country? And how came the Jews to exercise such fury upon the Gods and worship of the Gentiles, as many of the Jewish leaders, especially the Maccabees, did, often out of their own country, often without provocation?

The primitive Fathers are every where full of sarcasms against the heathenish worship, which they treat constantly with ridicule and reproach, with contempt and bitterness: Did Christianity suffer by this behaviour of theirs; or did not Christianity rather gain advantage and new beauties, by comparing it with the absurdities, the fopperies, nonsense, corruptions, and vanities of the pagans? Truth cannot suffer by exposing falsehoods, which can no more bear the face of truth, than darkness can the face of the sun. No two things are more unlike than true and false religion; and the same treatment can never affect both in any respect, as the same arguments cannot defend truth and error. Indeed, true religion is defended and recommended by the very means that expose and destroy a false one. I have therefore often wondered at a saying of Mr. Collier's, though not that it was said by him; namely, that the transition is easy from ridiculing a false religion to the ridiculing a true one; or words to that effect. Than which nothing could be more unjustly said: They are as opposite as law and the violation of law; as unlike as justice and oppression, and as different as Christ and Belial. How should the worship of daemons resemble the worship of the true God? And if they cannot be mistaken for each other, how can they be annoyed by the same weapons? The Fathers were so far from such an imagination, that in their railleries and reasonings upon the devout fooleries of the Gentiles, they did not treat them with a bit the more reverence or regard for their being established by a law.

So much may serve to shew, that the true religion can have no sympathy with the false, nor suffer in its sufferings. As to the death of Cambyses, I do not see any sign of ajudgment in it, unless every death occasioned by an accident, or an instrument, is ajudgment. Indeed every disaster, before it can be called a judgment in this sense of the word, must be proved a miracle; and common effects from visible and common causes, as they are no miracles, so neither can they be called judgments, unless God, the author of judgments, declares them so, as he did not in the case before us. Many a good man has been killed in a more terrible manner, as were all the saints and martyrs.

Now where is the miracle of a sword falling out of the sheath, when a man is mounting his horse? And where was it more likely to fall than on his leg or his thigh? If indeed it had got out of the scabbard of its own accord, and mounted up to his head and cut it off, it might have looked like a judgment; but yet I should have looked out rather for any cause of it, than the killing of a deified bull.

G I am, &c.

title: Cato's Letters/Letter 53


text:
Cato's Letters/Letter 54

SIR, I shall bestow this paper in considering what Dr. Prideaux says of Brennus the Gaul, his expedition, death, and crime. This man, at the head of a great number of his countrymen, sent abroad to seek new habitations, passing through Hungary, Illyriam, and Macedonia, plundering, pillaging, and destroying as they went, at last invaded Greece, and "marched on towards Delphos, to plunder the temple in that city of the vast riches which were there laid up. But he there met a wonderful defeat: For on his approaching the place, there happened a terrible storm of thunder, lightning, and hail, which destroyed great numbers of his men; and at the same time there was as terrible an earthquake, which rending the mountains in pieces, threw down whole rocks upon them, which overwhelmed them by hundreds at a time; by which the whole army being much dismayed, they were the following night seized with such a panick fear, that every man supposing him that was next to him to be a Grecian enemy, they fell upon each other; so that before there was day-light enough to make them see the mistake, one half of the army had destroyed the other. By all this the Greeks, who were now come together from all parts to defend their temple, being much animated, fell furiously on them; and although now Acichorus was come up with Brennus, yet both their forces together could not stand the assault; but great numbers of them were slain, and great numbers were wounded; and amongst these last was Brennus himself, who had received several wounds; and although none of them were mortal, yet seeing all now lost, and the whole expedition, which he had been the author of, thus ended in a dismal ruin, he was so confounded at the miscarriage, that he resolved not to outlive it: And therefore calling to him as many of the chief leaders as he could get together amidst calamitous hurry, he advised them to slay all the wounded, and with the remainder make as good a retreat backward as they could; and then having guzzled down as much wine as he could drink, he ran himself through and died. The rest being to march through enemies' countries, they were, as they passed, so distressed for want of provisions, which they were every where to fight for, so incommoded at night by lodging mostly upon the ground in a winter season, and in such a manner harrassed and fallen upon where-ever they came by the people of those countries through which they passed, that what with famine, cold, and sickness, and what with the sword of their enemies, they were all cut off and destroyed: So that of the numerous company which did first set out on this expedition, not so much as one man escaped the calamitous fate of miserably perishing in it."

This is the story of Brennus, which I have told in the Doctor’s own words: Now follows his reflection upon it:

"Thus God was pleased in a very extraordinary manner to execute his vengeance upon those sacrilegious wretches, for the sake of religion in general, how false and idolatrous soever that particular religion was, for which that temple at Delphos was erected. For, to believe a religion true, and offer sacrilegious violences to the places consecrated to the devotions of that religion, is absolute impiety, and a sin against all religion; and there are many instances of very signal judgments with which God hath punished it even amongst the worst of heathens and infidels; and much more may they expect it, who, having the truth of God established among them, shall become guilty hereof."

If this unhappy end of Brennus and his followers was a judgment, as doubtless this reverend and worthy author thinks, I cannot see why an intention to pillage a stupid idol of his useless wealth and devout baubles, given and used for the ends of idolatry and delusion, should be reckoned the cause of it. I would be glad to know how any part of mankind would have suffered in their religion and fortune, though the shrine and temple of Apollo had been stripped of their superstitious and ill-got finery; or how God Almighty came to shew himself thus miraculously the guardian of an idol, set up to rival him, and to deceive the world by uttering oraculous lies; or, how the taking away those riches that were acquired by belying God and deceiving man, and employed for the ornament and support of a blasphemous imposture, could be called sacrilege or robbing of God, who was really robbed by an idol of that only which he can be robbed of, divine worship and homage.

But because people are apt to be misguided and terrified by words, especially by such as are applied to devotion and holy things, I shall here bestow some reflections upon the awful word sacrilege, and shew that it is ill understood.

Sacrilege, we are told by some, signifies the robbing or stealing from God any thing which is peculiarly his. Now nothing can be stolen from God, nor can any thing be concealed from him. Every thing being his, it is as much his in the hands of one man as in the hands of another; for, let who will have the use of it, the property cannot be altered: God, who has all things, can never be put out of possession of any thing; and as nothing can be taken from him, so neither can any thing be given to him, because all the world and every thing in it is already his; and it is absurd to imagine that any form of words, or change of place or position, can enlarge or lessen his property in any thing. All that we have, we have from him; and to return him his own gifts back again, which we want, and he does not, is no compliment nor any part of religion or of reason: It is shewing ourselves wiser than him, in setting apart for his use those things which he has graciously created and set apart for ours. Can we feed him? Or can we clothe, adorn, or enrich him? Can we build him a city to dwell in, or furnish him with guards for the security of his person?

Sacrilege therefore is either the robbing of men, or no robbery at all. And this crime is greater or less, according to the measure or mischief done. To rob a poor man of his loaf, is a greater crime, in foro conscientiae, than to rob a rich man of an ox: To rob a man of a small part of a thing that is necessary to him, is a greater crime, than the robbing him of a great superfluity; and if I rob a man of a thing that will do him hurt, I hope I do him less an injury, than if I robbed him of a thing which does him good. But if I take a thing which no man has a right to, I myself have a right to it, by possessing it.

To apply all this to the business of sacrilege; if a man take away any of the books, vestments, or utensils, made use of in devotion, he only robs the congregation, who must buy more; and many being more able than one to bear this loss, the offence, as to its effects, is less than if he robbed but one man. But if he take away from a heathen temple, plate, or hidden treasure, laid up there, but not used, he indeed does an action that he has no right to do, but an action that however does good to the world, by turning into use that which was of none, or of bad use.

Dead treasure, first drawn from the people in superstitious offerings, and then laid up in a heathen temple, and kept and used for impious and idolatrous ends, but never to return again into the world, for the necessary purposes of life and commerce, is the plunder of mankind; and the worst of all plunders, because it never circulates; and people are greatly the worse for it, in respect both of soul and body, but never can be the better. It is first taking from them, and afterwards denying them, the great and chief means of life and convenience. He therefore, whoever he be, that takes it from thence, let him take it in what manner he will, does a better and more publick thing than he who keeps it there.

No man can be robbed of a thing in which he has no property. Of this sort was Apollo's wealth; and no body was robbed in taking it away. So that whoever takes away golden images, or other dead wealth, the means and objects of false adoration, is guilty of no other crime, than that of disturbing erroneous consciences: Nor need such consciences be much disturbed, since the crime being committed without their consent, they have no share in it. And therefore if such idolatrous images, and such superstitious, useless, and pernicious riches, be taken away by a lawful authority, or in a lawful war, it is no crime at all. So that in every sense Brennus committed a greater crime in plundering one village, than he could have committed, had he plundered, as he intended, the temple of Delphos.

If Brennus had believed in Apollo, he sinned against his conscience, in designing to rob him. But we do not know that Brennus, or those that followed him, believed thus. I do not remember that Apollo was the god of the Gauls, or that the druids owned him: All nations agreed not in worshipping the same gods, but often disputed about the quality, birth, and precedence of their gods. And if Brennus despised or disregarded Apollo, he committed no sacrilege; at least with respect to himself, it was no sacrilege, but only rapine; but if, believing in him, though an idol, he would have sinned in pillaging him, as doubtless he would, here is an argument, that a good conscience may be an erroneous conscience; and that if no man must act against his own conscience, though it be erroneous, as doubtless he must not, then much less has any other man whatsoever a right to punish or distress him for it. If God approve, who is it that condemns? And none but God knows the heart of another.

If Brennus had worshipped Apollo, he was guilty of idolatry, in the opinion of all Christians: And if he had robbed him, he was guilty of sacrilege in the opinion of most. Now we hear of no judgment falling upon those that worshipped Apollo, and supported that idol with superstitious donations; all which was idolatry. And is idolatry, which God has declared abominable in his eyes, a less sin than robbing an idolatrous temple, which action God has no where declared a sin? The good kings of the Jews destroyed all idols and idolatrous temples, where-ever they had power; and the wrath of God was kindled against all that did not. If it was therefore a sin against the true God, not to destroy them; how came it to be sin only to rob them?

I think all this is enough to shew, that an intention to plunder Apollo of his idle and unhallowed wealth, was not the probable cause of any judgment upon Brennus and his followers: But if there must be a judgment in the case, there were reasons for it much more powerful, and much more likely to provoke God to send it. He was a wild and barbarous robber, at the head of an army of savages, who cruelly ravaged many nations, made spoil of all men's property, and inhumanly massacred those that defended their own. They were invaders, plunderers, and murderers, who, by numbers, barbarity, rapine, and slaughter, laid waste whole countries, and destroyed, unprovoked, men and property. In this general pillage, they had already passed through and desolated Hungary, Illyrium, Macedonia, and were now got into Greece. Was not here guilt enough to call down a thousand judgments? And after all this bloody and brutish violence done to the world, and to the laws of God and man; can we imagine that these Gauls suffered that terrible doom for barely intending a thing, in which neither God would have been dishonoured, nor man injured? At least in any degree of comparison, with the least of the other great and terrible calamities, which they suffered from these destroying barbarians?

I shall now add something more particularly concerning the wretched end of these Gauls, and enquire how far it can be reckoned a judgment. And here I am of opinion, that either every calamity, publick or private, must be accounted ajudgment; which doctrine, I believe, no man holds; or else we must determine, by what means we can know a judgment from a calamity: Nor do I know of any sufficient marks to direct us in this matter, but an immediate miracle, and declaration from Almighty God, that he means it so: And in such a miraculous declaration, the crime must be expressly specified, for which such judgment is inflicted; because for every crime judgments are not indicted, nor always for the latest crimes; but sometimes overtake the sinner, long after the sin is committed. All this I take to be self-evident. We must remember that men, biassed by passions and prejudices, do often confound good and evil, and mistake the greatest wickedness for the greatest merit, and the highest merit for the highest wickedness: Publick massacres have been applauded, publick incendiaries have been sainted, publick tyrants deified. While on the other side, public virtue has passed for a publick crime, truth for blasphemy, and Christianity has been rewarded with fire and sword. So that men thus blind and perverse do frequently entitle vice to the blessing and favour of God, and virtue and merit to his severest judgments.

Where-ever therefore there is a great complication of crimes, and sometimes of great crimes, how can we distinguish for which of them the judgment is sent, unless he that sends it declare the same? If he send it for more crimes than one, how shall we distinguish where he, who only can, does not? And if the judgment be sent for one sin only, by what certain token can we discover it? If one man hurt or disoblige twenty, in twenty different ways; rob one, steal from another, deceive a third, calumniate a fourth, wound a fifth, bear false witness against a sixth, and so on till he has as many enemies as crimes, and afterwards die by a disaster or the law; every one of the twenty will be apt to call it a judgment, and a particular judgment, for the particular offence done to himself. Now where is the rule, by which certainly to know either that this man's death was a judgment, or to find out the certain crime that brought it upon him? Or is ever such a rule like to be found, as long as all sorts of evils befall all sorts of men?

As to the thunder, lightning, hail, and earthquakes, that destroyed so many of the Gauls, were they not the usual operations and effects of nature? And have they not been from the beginning? Have not whole cities and countries been destroyed by them? And has not their impartial fury been felt by the good and the bad, without distinction? In destroying storms by land and sea, are the wicked only overtaken? And do not the virtuous perish undistinguished with the latter? And are not just men, going upon just expeditions, frequently overwhelmed by them? And do not wicked men, in wicked enterprizes, often escape them? When an impetuous shock of an earthquake overturns a city, or opens a devouring chasm to swallow it up; do the dwellings of the righteous remain unmoved, and their persons unhurt!

Nor is it at all wonderful and uncommon, that this ignorant multitude, dismayed by so many and so alarming misfortunes, thus suddenly checked in their progress, at a great distance from home, beset with enemies in an enemy's country, unskilled in the phaenomena of nature, suffering many calamities, and dreading more, fell into a panick; and, having lost their senses, attacked one another, by a mistake, in the dark. Wicked armies have fallen into the like terror upon the sight of an eclipse: And the same unaccountable fear, but without the same effect, seized the victorious Macedonian army of Alexander the Great, the very night before they fought one of their greatest and most successful battles. And we have still a much later instance at home: At the battle of Naseby, King Charles I who was in it, being pressed by some of his own people that were behind them, bid them keep back; which words being repeated by others to those next them, and by these to others, the word back was catched up, and running from man to man through all the ranks, was understood as a sign to fly; and accordingly the royal army fled, and the field was lost. And thus a chance word threw a whole army into a panick. None of the royal party have yet told us, that this was a judgment upon that king and his cause; nor, I dare say, would they have believed the other party, had the other party alledged that it was.

Considering all these calamities and losses suffered by the Gauls, and the consternation which they were in, I suppose there was no great miracle in their being vanquished by the Greeks, who were now come together from all parts, to fall furiously on a defeated enemy. And as small is the wonder of Brennus's killing himself: He was a resolute man, and took this method to cure himself of that grief and disappointment which he could not bear, and to preserve himself from falling alive into the hands of his enemies, to whom he had given a right of using him very ill.

Neither is it any thing surprizing that the rest, "being to march through enemies' countries, were, as they passed, so distressed for want of provisions, which they were every where to fight for; so incommoded at night by lodging mostly on the ground in a winter season, and in such a manner, harassed and fallen upon where-ever they came by the people of those countries through which they passed, that what with famine, cold, and sickness, and what with the sword of their enemies, they were all cut off and destroyed."

All this misfortune is thus fairly accounted for, and the thing is not uncommon. The whole nation of the Cimbrians were destroyed in much greater numbers, when they left their old habitations in quest of new; though it does not appear that they intended to rob temples. And yet Xerxes destroyed and plunder'd all the idolatrous temples in the East, except that of Diana at Ephesus, without thriving the worse for it.

They were all cut off and destroyed! for which plain, natural, and necessary causes are assigned; and yet it was a judgment! Surely this is strange and unaccountable! Doubtless there were degrees and great differences of guilt and innocence amongst Brennus's followers; and why should they, who were not all equally guilty, all equally suffer? Why should subjects and soldiers be punished for the sins of a prince or a general? Soldiers are often pressed into the service, and rarely or never know the reasons of the commander's orders; and it is mutiny and death to disobey him. And princes often run into wild wars, without the consent of their subjects, and against their interest; and yet if their subjects oppose them in it, they are guilty of resistance, which is reckoned rebellion; a very terrible and crying crime, to which the judgment of God has been pronounced due: And yet the judgments of God, which sometimes fall upon princes for an unjust war, fall also upon their subjects, who were utterly guiltless of it, What strange doctrine is this? that every man in a nation shall suffer for the sins of one man, whom they could not restrain; or that any man shall suffer for the crimes of another? And that the best men in an army or a nation shall bear the calamities inflicted upon them for the sins of the worst; as if it were a crime in a good man to live where his lot has cast him, without his own consent, next door to a wicked man, or within ten miles of him?

This paper, which I could make much longer, grows already too long. I shall conclude with observing, that we either apply God's judgments at random, without his authority, always in opposition to his commands, and, for aught we know, as often contrary to his ends and intention; or we do it out of prejudices to men and opinions: And by this we give advantage to infidels and men of no religion, to reproach us with presumption upon our own principles, in meddling with the secret councils of God, in confounding his mercy and justice, in making him act capriciously, and in confounding one religion with another, the good with the bad, as if we thought them all alike. Let us give no more ground for this reproach; and as a specimen of our candour and equitable judgment, let us own, in the instance before us, that the liberty, prosperity, and peace of the world, and, amongst the rest, the liberty of Greece, were things somewhat more sacred and inviolable than Apollo's consecrated baubles.

I am, &c.

P. S. The story about King Charles I relate upon memory, and may mistake in names or circumstances.

G

title: Cato's Letters/Letter 54


text:
Cato's Letters/Letter 57

SIR, I have more than once complained in these letters, that the best things being most abused are capable of doing the greatest harm: Nor is it a new observation, whatever new occasion there may be, at all times, to repeat it. Men have been ever deceived by good names into an approbation of ill things, sanctified by these names. Imposture and delusion have been called religion, and thought so; oppression and rapine have been called government, and esteemed government. Teachers have degenerated into deceivers, submission into slavery, taxation into plundering, protection into destruction, and magistrates into murderers, without changing their names: Power and right have been ever confounded; and success, or the want of success, has turned villainy into virtue, and virtue into villainy.

Hence it is that little crimes and small criminals have been detested and punished, while great malefactors have been generally reverenced and obeyed: and that little rogues have been called thieves, and hanged; and great thieves have been styled conquerors and princes, and sometimes deified. Your Alexanders and Caesars were only felons above the gallows; and so have been many others of much less figure than they. Great crimes protect themselves, and one another; so that, in effect, crimes are not always punished because they are crimes, but because they are not mighty crimes: Nor, in the inflicting of punishments, has the offence or the offender been considered, but only the figure of the offender; who, if he were poor and necessitous, has been put to death; if great and ambitious, has been protected or preferred. And thus it is, that halters and garters, axes and white staves, palaces and dungeons, have been often miserably confounded and misplaced.

Thus are the boundaries and distinction between good and evil almost lost in the world. To illustrate this in every instance that deserves illustration, would be to write a folio instead of a letter; at present I shall confine myself to the consideration of false honour, which has done much more mischief to mankind than ever real honour did good, as it is more conducing to the little personal gratifications, and the crooked self-ends of particular men.

True honour is an attachment to honest and beneficent principles, and a good reputation; and prompts a man to do good to others, and indeed to all men, at his own cost, pains, or peril. False honour is a pretence to this character, but does things that destroy it: And the abuse of honour is called honour, by those who from that good word borrow credit to act basely, rashly, or foolishly.

A man cannot act honourably in a bad cause. That he thinks it a good cause, is not a good excuse; for folly and mistake is not honour: Nor is it a better excuse, that he is engaged in it, and has pledged his faith to support it, and act for it; for this is to engage his honour against honour, and to list his faith in a war against truth. To say that he is ashamed to desert it, is to say that he is ashamed to do an honest thing; and that he prefers false shame to true honour, which engages the man that possesses it to hate and break all criminal engagements. If a man enter into a party or society, because he thinks it an honest society; is he obliged to continue in it, when he finds it a society of knaves? And does his honour oblige him to be a knave too, or to desert those that are knaves? Or, does a robber, who leaves the gang, violate his honour, which was only an obligation to rob?

A good conscience, an honest heart, and clean hands, are inseparable from true honour; nor does true honour teach any man to act against his judgment. It must be convinced before it acts, and mere authority has no weight with it. In human matters, it does not consider what is commanded, but what ought to be commanded; and before it executes an injunction, enquires whether the same be rational and just. When superior orders are unjust, the honour of obedience is taken away; for honour is not the instrument of evil; it is therefore false and pretended honour, to execute and vindicate a bad action by an unjust command. Indeed, no command of any consequence ought to be obeyed, but what is or ought to be law, and is not forbidden by any law.

But this is only reasoning, which has but little force with men when it combats their interest and worst passions. To them therefore who follow the guides of gain and ambition, what I have here said is not addressed; but to those who, contrary to their interest, follow and approve others whose only principle is interest.

False honour has more power over men than laws have; and those who despise all the ties of laws, and of religion and humanity, are often very exact in observing all the fantastical and wicked rules of false honour. There are no debts so punctually paid as those contracted at play: though there are express laws against play, and against paying of money won at play; nay, ’tis penal to pay such debts. And yet those that are thus exact in paying to their own ruin, and in defiance of law, whatever debts they contract to avowed sharpers, who live by cheating and picking pockets, and are the destruction of families, and a publick nuisance: I say, those men thus exact in unrighteousness and their own wrong, shall run in debt to honest tradesmen, without any purpose of paying them, and, unconcerned, see them broke, imprisoned, and undone, for want of such payment. So lawlessly just are they to rogues that ruin them, and so barbarously unjust to industrious and credulous men, who feed and clothe them!

Is this honour! What dupes are we to words and to our own vice and folly! It is but small comfort to us, that this voluntary madness prevailed of old amongst our barbarous German ancestors; of whose distracted propensity to gaming Tacitus gives us this astonishing account:

''Aleam sobrii inter seria exercent, tanta lucrandi perdendive temeritate, ut cum omnia defecerunt, extremo ac novissimo jactu, de libertate & de corpore contendant. Victus voluntariam servitutem adit, quamvis junior, quamvis robustior, adligari se ac venire patitur. Ea est in re prava pervicacia: ipsi fidem vocant.''

["Gaming is one of their most serious employments, and even sober they are gamesters! To this rash vice they are so violently addicted, that when they have wantonly lost all, they have not done, but desperately stake their liberty and their persons upon the last throw. The loser goes calmly into bondage; and though the younger and the stronger, suffers himself tamely to be bound and sold by him that wins. Such is their vicious perseverance in folly! they themselves call it honour."]

Our modern gamesters do not indeed go quite this length; they only sell themselves, with their families and posterity, to beggary: For as to their bodies, no body will stake any thing against them. But in point of honour, in gaming, we still retain the strictness of these our polite ancestors at play, and generously pay to the last morsel of bread, and venture famine rather than a dun from one that has foiled us at the art of picking pockets. As to other duns, honest and necessitous duns, we matter them not; and debts of real honour and conscience, do not at all touch our honour.

Thus is honour set up against virtue and law. Good laws not executed are worse than none, and only teach men to despise law: whereas reverence and obedience go together. No law will or can ever be executed by inferior magistrates, while the breach of it is openly encouraged by the example of superior. Does any man think that the best laws, even inspired laws, against duelling, would have any effect, if there was at the same time a duelling-office kept open at St. James's? The example of those that should execute laws, or see them executed, is stronger than the authority of those that make them. The example of Vespasian did more towards the restraint of luxury, than all the sumptuary laws of Rome could do till his time.

''Praecipuus adstricti moris auctor Vespasianus fuit. Obsequium inde in principem, & aemulandi amor, validior quam poena ex legibus & metus.''

["Vespasian was himself a special instance and author of temperance and frugality. From hence grew in the people a reverence for the example of the prince, and an emulation to conform their manners to his; a tie much stronger than the dread of laws and all their penalties."]

It is moreover become a mighty piece of honour to repair one crime by another, and a worse; and when one has done you an injury, he must, by the rules of honour, fight to defend it. Having affronted or harmed you, contrary to justice and honour, he makes you satisfaction by taking away your life, according to the impulses of true honour; so here is a war of honour against honour and justice and common sense.

Another piece of honour is an adherence to error, after conviction, and not to change a bad religion for a better. To have been born in a certain faith, is just as good sense as to have been born a lawyer or mathematician; and yet that same is often the best and truest reason against change! And therefore we often adhere against all our reason, to what others said or did for us without our consent, and when we had no reason. Because perhaps some people promised for us when we were a day old, that we should forty years afterwards, and all our life, count beads, worship unsavoury bones, be governed by deceivers and believe contradictions; are we therefore obliged to do all this, though we find it to be against all religion? Must we be hypocrites, because our ancestors were fools? Are old falsehoods and fooleries the standard of our honour? Are we never to mend a wretched condition, and never to make use of our conscience? If so, then here is a war of honour against conscience, a war of faith against belief, and a war of religion against persuasion!

Another piece of false honour has sometimes been that of serving a prince at the expence of one's country, though the serving of that country was the only duty and only business of the prince, and of every man in office under him. But this, though a truth as self-evident as any in the Bible, has been so little understood or practised, that the wicked execution of impious engagements made to a tyrant, against those made to society, has been called honour. And it has frequently been the honour of a courtier, to execute all the ill purposes of a court against his country. And here was the war of honour against duty.

The honour of a party is to adhere to one another, right or wrong; and though their chief be a knave and a traitor, their honour is engaged to be honest to him in all his rogueries and treason. And this is a war of honour against honesty.

The honour and bona fide of some princes have been of that odd and unprincely contexture, that they were never once restrained by the same, from deceiving, plaguing, invading, robbing, and usurping upon their neighbours, and doing things which would have entitled a plain subject to the gibbet. Their honour seems to have been deeply concerned to have no honour: And though their faith was engaged to protect their subjects; yet their honour, on the other side, was engaged to pillage and enslave them. And here grew the royal war of honour against faith and equity!

How many peaceable nations have been robbed, how many millions of innocents butchered, out of mere honour, princely honour? This honour is indeed so wild, mischievous, and extravagant, that words, the most warm and significant words, fail in describing it. I shall therefore subjoin a few instances of its spirit, and conclude.

His Grace, Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham, engaged his country in two mad wars at once with the two greatest powers in Europe, because his honour had suffered a rebuff in his attempts to debauch two great foreign ladies. Europe was to be embroiled; lives, treasure, and the safety of kingdoms to be risked and thrown away, to vindicate, forsooth, his Grace's debauched honour.

Cambyses, to revenge an affront put upon his father many years before by an Egyptian king, in the business of sending him a wife, involved the world in a flame of war; and at the expence of perhaps a million of lives, and the destruction of kingdoms, did at last heroically vindicate his father's honour and his own, upon the bones of a dead king, whom he caused to be dug up, and, after many indignities, cast into the fire.

White elephants are rare in nature, and so greatly valued in the Indies, that the King of Pegu hearing that the King of Siam had got two, sent an embassy in form, to desire one of them of his royal brother, at any price: But being refused, he thought his honour concerned to wage war for so great an affront. So he entered Siam with a vast army, and with the loss of five hundred thousand of his own men, and the destruction of as many of the Siamese, he made himself master of the elephant, and retrieved his honour.

Darius (I think it was Darius the Mede) found his honour concerned to chastise the Scythians for having invaded Asia a hundred and thirty years before; and lost a great army to vindicate his honour, which yet was not vindicated; that is, he missed the white elephant.

In short, honour and victory are generally no more than white elephants; and for white elephants the most destructive wars have been often made. What man free, either by birth or spirit, could, without pity and contempt, behold, as in a late French reign he frequently might behold, a swarm of slavish Frenchmen, in wooden shoes, with hungry bellies, and no clothes, dancing round a maypole, because their Grand Monarque, at the expence of a million of their money, and thirty or forty thousand lives, had acquired a white elephant, or, in other words, gained a town or victory?

Instances are endless, or else I could name other people, who have employed themselves several years in catching white elephants by sea and land; but I am in haste to conclude.

G I am, &c.

title: Cato's Letters/Letter 57