just and just-minded
men must support it though a sword pierced their own hearts.

Lincoln when he called on the people of the Northern States to free the
slaves did not exempt those who had friends or kin down South, but he
called on every one who was free to strike a blow for the freedom of
other men, though in so doing they should be cutting off their own
right arms.

In this war we are not only fighting to free millions who are held in a
far worse slavery than ever the negro was in, but we are fighting for
our own liberty and that of our children, which has been directly
attacked. Not all Germans are bestial and cruel, with no regard for
honor, but just how many of them are not remains for the American and
Australian citizens of German descent to prove.

Not all Britishers and Americans and Frenchmen are willing to sacrifice
themselves in our righteous cause--there are traitors even here, and
these I would rather shoot than the enemy in France.

There never was a more damnable doctrine promulgated on the face of the
earth than that of "My country, right or wrong." Free men could never
subscribe to such a doctrine. We have no right to call upon people to
take up arms because the government has declared war, but because the
government was _right_ in declaring war. Those who oppose the
government in this are not traitors to a party or a majority, but
traitors to the country and to right.

The two great camps in which the world is divided to-day will be known
in history as those who loved liberty more than life and those who
loved dominion more than right. Maybe the names of the races will be
forgotten but the memory of the opposing principles will abide.

CHAPTER XXXVII

"KEEPING FAITH WITH THE DEAD"

While here and there politicians grow faint-hearted, the army fights on
with cheerfulness. It would be a cure for pessimism of the deepest
black to go to the trenches for a while. There all is cheery optimism,
no doubt at all about the final outcome, and no talk of peace. I have
never heard one man in the army talk or hint of peace or dream of it,
for they know that it cannot be yet. The only people who shall declare
peace will be the army--no politicians, no parliament, or
government--for the army to-day is a citizen army and large enough to
change any government that is weak-kneed, and they shall allow
parliament to grant peace only when they are ready, and that shall not
be until we have gaine