We had promised, then, that we would say something against those who attribute the calamities of the Roman republic to our religion, and that we would recount the evils, as many and great as we could remember or might deem sufficient, which that city, or the provinces belonging to its empire, had suffered before their sacrifices were prohibited, all of which would beyond doubt have been attributed to us, if our religion had either already shone on them, or had thus prohibited their sacrilegious rites. These things we have, as we think, fully disposed of in the second and third books, treating in the second of evils in morals, which alone or chiefly are to be accounted evils; and in the third, of those which only fools dread to undergo--namely, those of the body or of outward things--which for the most part the good also suffer. But those evils by which they themselves become evil, they take, I do not say patiently, but with pleasure. And how few evils have I related concerning that one city and its empire! Not even all down to the time of Caesar Augustus. What if I had chosen to recount and enlarge on those evils, not which men have inflicted on each other; such as the devastations and destructions of war, but which happen in earthly things, from the elements of the world itself. Of such evils Apuleius speaks briefly in one passage of that book which he wrote, De Mundo, saying that all earthly things are subject to change, overthrow, and destruction.(1) For, to use his own words, by excessive earthquakes the ground has burst asunder, and cities with their inhabitants have been clean destroyed: by sudden rains whole regions have been washed away; those also which formerly had been continents, have been insulated by strange and new-come waves, and others, by the subsiding of the sea, have been made passable by the foot of man: by winds and storms cities have been overthrown; fires have flashed forth from the clouds, by which regions in the East being burnt up have perished; and on the western coasts the like destructions have been caused by the bursting forth of waters and floods. So, formerly, from the lofty craters of Etna, rivers of fire kindled by God have flowed like a torrent down the steeps. If I had wished to collect from history wherever I could, these and similar instances, where should I have finished what happened even in those times before the name of Christ had put down those of their idols, so vain and hurtful to true salvation? I promised that I should also point out which of their customs, and for what cause, the true God, in whose power all kingdoms are, had deigned to favor to the enlargement of their empire; and how those whom they think gods can have profited them nothing, but much rather hurt them by deceiving and beguiling them; so that it seems to me I must now speak of these things, and chiefly of the increase of the Roman empire. For I have already said not a little, especially in the second book, about the many evils introduced into their manners by the hurtful deceits of the demons whom they worshipped as gods. But throughout all the three books already completed, where it appeared suitable, we have set forth how much succor God, through the name of Christ, to whom the barbarians beyond the custom of war paid so much honor, has bestowed on the good and bad, according as it is written, "Who maketh His sun to rise on the good and the evil, and giveth rain to the just and the unjust."(2)
God and the Best Western of Horse Heaven
Well may you rejoice in that; and yet I am very much embarrassed Christian friends, in appearing here in these haunts, yes, these intensest haunts of civilization, for this is the temple of the arts; for civilization to a half-wild man like me [laughter], though I never could define it, and I know is a very dangerous thing in some of its elements; and as a poor Irishman out in Dakota once said to me, "Indade, Bishop, it quite takes a man off his fate." [Laughter.] Civilization! Men think it will do all things for men. Men ask the question, Why has not civilization done more for the Indian, why is the Indian never lifted up by it? Friends, have you ever stood in a narrow gap through which a railroad passed, and stood there as the train whizzed by, your hat held on with the force of your hand, trembling, and, seeing the train move out of sight in an instant, felt your own utter nothingness, and if a weary traveller, felt that the presence of that gigantic power only made your way harder and longer? That is civilization to the Indian. Civilization to the Indian is the most discouraging thing under heaven by itself. Civilization is utterly pitiless. It never stops its onward, furious march to pick up the laggard or attend the sick and needy. Civilization as we see it out near the Indian country is that always. The vanguard of civilization is the very worst creatures whom civilization, unable to bear, seems to have thrown off to itself on to the most distant frontier. I never shall forget, without utter horror, my first visitation up the Missouri river. As I came with my travelling companion, the Rev. Mr. Hinman, to ranche after ranche, I found that every man almost who kept the ranche was a cut-throat and murderer, his fingers red with his brother's blood. I shall never forget seeing a little grave back of a ranche, and hearing the story of its origin. I heard the story and it did me good. The man who then kept the ranche was there. A quiet man, as I heard of him, was found to be rather disagreeable to his neighbors, and so for that, or some other reason, they shut up his wife in one of the rooms, tied his hands behind his back, placed his body on a horse, led the horse underneath a telegraph-pole about a hundred yards distant from the house, tied a lariat around his neck, threw the other end over the telegraph-pole, then gave the horse a stroke with the whip, and left him dangling there. A hundred yards further on the road was the grave of a soldier who had come down the river, his pockets full of hard-earned wages. With the same sort of men he had gambled, and then finding he would not give up his money to their wishes they brutally murdered him. These are the men whom the Indian first meets with.
had rendered travelling by land not only difficult but almost impracticable. But to disobey the order of the commander in chief would not only be unmilitary but actually perilous in the extreme. In this dilemma, Gen. Carroll applied to the governor and represented the difficulty of his situation and the manifest advantages held out by transportation down the river. He then requested the governor to issue an order, directing him to transport his troops down the river, hoping thereby to avoid the dangerous responsibility of disobeying the order of his commander but the governor refused to comply with his request, whereupon gen. Carroll informed him, that he would disobey the order. The governor demanded of him if he was prepared for arrest; he replied, that he was, but that no man should arrest him until the troops under his command had reached their destination. Under ordinary circumstances, the course pursued by Gen. Carroll would be highly censurable and deserving the severest rigors of the law; yet there are occasions when a subordinate officer may, with the highest commendation, disobey the orders of his superior in command. But when a subordinate ventures to assume this perilous responsibility he ought to be well satisfied that his disobedience will result in the advancement of his country's honor and interest. Had Gen. Carroll adheared [sic] literally to the orders of Gen. Jackson, and attempted to pass by land to Natchez, from the extraordinary rains and the consequent high condition of the numerous streams intersecting his rout [route], it would have been utterly impossible for him, within any reasonable period to have reached New Orleans. The city must have been taken by the British and Gen. Carroll would have arrived in good time and good condition to surrender his grave but exhausted soldiers, as victims to a proud enemy, already elated and flushed with victory. By pursuing the river rout [route], however, he arrived in time to rescue the city of New Orleans from the danger which threatened it and to insure to the American army a most signal victory. No blame was imputable to the commander in chief for giving the order for moving to the low country by land because a tide in the western waters at that season of the year is very uncommon and therefore, ought not to have been calculated upon and Gen. Carroll from his knowledge of Gen. Jackson felt perfectly satisfied, that if he had been present under the circumstances, the order would have been changed to the rout [route] to be pursued. On the 24th of November Gen. Carroll left Nashville with the west Tennessee [at that time, actually middle Tennessee] troops on board of forty-seven flat bottom boats. That his troops might be well prepared for the expected engagement with the veterans of Britain, he issued an order from which the following is an extract, "in a short time, fellow soldiers, we shall meet and be associated with our brothers in arms, from other sections of the union. The reputation of our state in a military point of view will cause the eyes of every corps to be turned upon you. The Kentuckians will be ambitious of the first honors and the highest distinctions. Your general hopes that the good name you have acquired will be maintained at every hazard." In the same order, he directed that the companies should be drilled in squads on the boats and awarded a premium to be given to the best trained company on their arrival at New Orleans; the artificers were required to keep constantly employed in repairing the arms of the detachment until there was not a musket or rifle which was unfit for use; he also caused fifty thousand cartridges to be made, each containing a musket ball and three buckshot; these were the cartridges which were fired by Gen. Carroll's men with such fatal aim on the morning of the glorious 8th of January. Upon his arrival at Natchez, he received no intelligence of gen. Jackson, but despatched a letter from that place, informing him that he would be able to join him at New Orleans in a few days. This letter reached Gen. Jackson in good season; it was the first news he had received from him and the hope of being reinforced by three thousand Tennesseans inspired his army and the whole city with fresh confidence. After remaining at Natchez one day he again proceeded upon his rout [route] and as he was passing by St. Francisville, information was received that the enemy had possession of the lakes. He immediately communicated the intelligence to his troops in an order in which he directed that the transports should be accelerated in their progress as much as possible and that during the night vigilant steersmen and active rowers should be appointed by the officers commanding the boats. His progress was greatly impeded by a storm which continued to blow with much fury for several days but on the 20th he effected a landing four miles above the city. He was there met by gen. Jackson who expressed himself highly gratified at his timely arrival. 2ff7e9595c
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