THE 
THCHNOLOGIST. 
—o-——_ 
FUEN,< 1367. 
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er PALE OF THE CONFEDERACY: 
A POLIMICAL POST MORTEM, 
BY JOHN BAKER HOPKINS. 
(Concluded from page 481.) 
CHAPTER IV. THE CONFEDERATE POLICY. 
UCCESS, whether an enterprise be good or bad, is the 
fruit of merit, and failure is the fruit of demerit. 
Whatever we reap, that we have sown. It is therefore a 
righteous instinct that prompts us to pay homage to the 
victor, and to disparage the genius, or the judgment, or the 
conduct of the defeated. Not to believe that the reward 
is according to the work is worse than political atheism, 
for it implies the belief that there is a supreme but capri- 
cious or unjust Government. But even as men know by 
instinct that there is a God, so they are persuaded, not by 
argument, but by an inner consciousness, that there is no 
partiality in the decrees of Providence, and that in every 
instance the recompense is according to the desert; and 
for the vindication and support of this faith in the unerring 
wisdom and justice of the Deity, as well as for the sake of 
instruction, it behoves us, without fear or hesitation, to 
consider the causes of failure as well as the causes of 
SUCCESS. 
It is exceptionally important to do so with respect to the 
Confederacy. To shirk the inquiry on the false plea of 
generosity to the unsuccessful is to cast a slur upon the 
people of the South, or else to vindicate the judgment of 
the Confederate administration at the expense of their 
moral character. 
It is possible that the Confederate administration might 
NEW SERIES.—VOL. I. 3 & 
