Spirit Of Old West Point 1858 1862 PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... THE PEACEMAKERS The week during which so many of the Southern men left was full of intense interest. Perhaps in all of West Point's life there has never been its equal, or one even like it. For the hearts of the people from one end of the country to the other were heaving from their depths, depths of feeling which are reached only when mankind is on the verge of some great trial and about to fight its way to some azure crest in the range of ideals; one of those times when the shrines of our better natures are all flashing, and mysterious hands are sweeping those harps which are hung in the sky of our being; oh, yes, when Poetry and Art, and their heavenly sister, Religion, are all active in behalf of our sentiment and imagination, that their great creative instincts may make new advances toward the light of God. I wish I could translate that week's record of our country's deep feeling into terms that would satisfy the ultimate sources of reason, history, and divine interpretation; for I have a consciousness that in it lie those movements which at last are transmuted into epics and lyrics, and those exalted terms which we find on the lips of the great seers and prophets. Whatever the week's record may embrace of the inspiration I have intimated, it marked the display of what is known as West Point friendship. And in due time for that friendship I shall claim our present peace and national welfare and, what is more, the salvation of our land from horrible pages of history; but for the present let the following letter, written by my classmate McCrea on Saturday, the 27th of April, 1861, throw its light on what had happened at West Point in the week then closing: -- "On Sunday night, or rather Monday morning, for it was after 12 o'clock, some...