150 years ago this week a Richmond paper reprinted that part of a piece by the New York Herald that wondered what would happen if Lieutenant General Grant actually failed in the upcoming Virginia campaign. Factionalism might possibly keep the United States from its rightful place as a world power for another hundred years. Despotism around the world would be strengthened, and “the great republic of modern times” would not be able to fulfill its destiny of influencing the progress of the humanity. Sam Grant had the weight of the world on his shoulders?
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch May 4, 1864:
The effect of Grant’s failure in the coming campaign.
The New York Herald hasn’t yet mustered the courage to say that Grant’s failure in Virginia will end the war, but it is very clear that [ that ] opinion prevails in Yankeedom. It draws a pleasing picture of where the “United States” would be placed in the eyes of foreign nations if it should win the fight, and with it the war, but says:
But if Grant should fall it is hardly possible to say what results may not follow. We would be loth to recognize even such a defeat as the death blow of our cause. It is certain that the staunch qualities of our people, taken as a whole, would lead them to rally for even a greater struggle still. But it is also certain that such a defeat would strengthen immensely the factions that exist in our midst, and political anarchy would blunt the edge of all our future attempts. And thus it is at least probable that this defeat might lead to events that would count us out, for a hundred years, from the number of great nations. One great disruption would lead to lesser ones; we would be broken up into a community of petty and quarrelsome States, and the great experiment of free government that we have so magnificently tried for eighty years would be settled against the people. We would die the youngest of great republics, and our fall would strengthen the hands of despotic power everywhere.
It thus appears that the struggle upon which we are now about to enter is a momentous one, not only to ourselves but to the world at large. Its result either way will affect for good or evil the future history of the human race. It is as distinct a turning point in human history as were the battles of Marathon, of Tours, of Pultowa, or Waterloo. At Marathon the possession of Europe was decided against the despot who grasped all Asia. At Tours it was determined whether Mohammedanism or Christianity should prevail in Europe. Pultowa brought Russia into the council of European nations, and necessitated a new balance of power; and Water[loo] decided the possession of Europe against the people and in favor of the little coterie of kings that constituted the Holy Alliance. Our coming battle is to decide issues as great as any of these, since it is to determine whether the great republic of modern times shall stand or fall — determine the existence of a Government destined to exert a greater influence on the progress of the human race than any other known to history. The responsibilities of the man who commands our armies in this great crisis are tremendous, and the reward of his success will be the greatest within the gift of the people.
