Marching though Georgia

“The problem of this war consists in the awful fact that the present class of men who rule the South must be killed outright rather than in the conquest of territory.”

You people of the South don’t know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization!

You people speak so lightly of war, you don’t know what you’re talking about. War is a terrible thing!

You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it … Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth — right at your doors.

You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail.

Short on cash, scared of coronavirus, Georgia businesses grapple with reopening
By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Haisten Willis, Washington Post
April 24, 2020

Only a handful of the 18 hairdressers who work at Salon Cheveux came in on Friday. They donned masks, spaced their workstations apart and screened inbound customers by phone with the dedication of hospital admission nurses: Any fever recently? Or contact with someone sick? Can you wear a mask?

It was the first day businesses reopened in Georgia, which is moving faster than any other state to ease restrictions amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. As a result, Georgia has become a flash point in the battle over whether it is time to remove the shutdown orders that have kept much of the country indoors.

Jamie McQuaig glanced at the two cosmetologists, clad in masks, coloring customers’ hair and wondered whether coming back to work was the right decision for her family, her salon or her state.

“I do feel like it’s too soon, but it will probably always feel like it’s too soon because we’re all scared of the virus,” she said. The nation’s response to the pandemic has left many in her shop with difficult choices. “The ones that are going back to work right now are the ones that have got to. They’ve got to feed their children. They’ve got to pay their mortgage.”

Gov. Brian Kemp (R) was one of the last governors to issue a statewide stay-at-home order to help stem the spread of the coronavirus; it went into effect April 3. Now, Kemp is opening more businesses more quickly than anywhere else, bucking experts who warn that doing so could lead to an increase in the number of coronavirus deaths.

Friday was the first day bowling alleys, tattoo parlors, gyms and salons were allowed to reopen, provided they follow social distancing guidelines, take employees’ temperatures and screen them for signs of illness. Movie theaters and dine-in restaurants will follow suit on Monday, three days before the state’s shelter-in-place order expires.

Georgians tiptoeing back to work in those industries acknowledge they are essentially guinea pigs as governments experiment with how to return the nation to normal. After weeks of unemployment, often with uneven government help, some said they are happy to be earning paychecks but worry about the ultimate costs of abandoning isolation too soon.

They will not be worrying alone for long. Tennessee’s governor has said he will allow many businesses to reopen once his shelter-in-place order expires next week. The governor of South Carolina allowed some retail stores to reopen this week. People have been walking on the beaches near Jacksonville, Fla., for a week.

Darwin.

If they want eternal war, well and good; we accept the issue, and will dispossess them and put our friends in their place. I know thousands and millions of good people who at simple notice would come to North Alabama and accept the elegant houses and plantations there. If the people of Huntsville think different, let them persist in war three years longer, and then they will not be consulted. Three years ago by a little reflection and patience they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well. Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late.

All the powers of earth cannot restore to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their lands will be taken, for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too, and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives. A people who will persevere in war beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. Many, many peoples with less pertinacity have been wiped out of national existence.