Duty of the Government.
No one can read the accounts of the atrocities perpetrated by the Federal troops in various parts of the country without being thoroughly satisfied that there is no length of crime to which that infernal despotism is not prepared to go. We may look in the future for such scenes as the French Revolution and St. Domingo combined, unless we prepare to prevent them by the most prompt and vigorous measures of public defence, and to realists, life for life, for every act of cruelty and bloodshed perpetrated upon our people.We need not give a catalogue of the atrocities already perpetrated. They are too fresh, too sickening, to hear recital. The last is the Missouri massacre, published in this paper lately, and called by the murderers a ‘"military execution."’ From the slaughter of women and children in St. Louis in the beginning of the war, down to this last butchery, there has been a volume of horrors, especially in the West, such as the annals of civilized conflicts have rarely displayed. But this war has not been like any ordinary war. It commenced with an openly avowed programme in the streets of New York, of murder, arson, and rape, and it has reached its climax of malice and evil intent, in the wholesale confiscation acts of Congress and the abolition proclamation of Lincoln. The man who cries ‘"Peace peace," ’ now, would be able to see hope and consolation amid the fires of the infernal pit. The scenes through which we have passed are but the first mutterings of the storm; the tempest in its concentrated wrath, has yet to come.--The mariner who would save his ship must summon all its resources to the rescue, and call all hands on deck, or the impending ruin, if it does not altogether engulf him, will leave his vessel a crippled wreck upon the waters. He must be a blind man who has not recognized the frequent interpositions of Providence in our behalf; but he is a fool who expects the gods to help those who do not help themselves. Providence gives us opportunities of preparation and resistance, but if we do not and make the best of them the consequences rest upon our own hands. Even the Divine founder of our religion refused to incur danger unnecessarily, and thereby taught us a lesson of wisdom which we would do well not to despise. We have been on the eve of losing our capital over and over again, from sheer negligence and procrastination.--Shall we go on tempting destiny in this mad way? Where are the new levies authorized by the late Congress? Why are they not at least being organized and drilled, so as to be ready for service?
We know that the Government has its hands full of great and momentous matters; we believe that it is often condemned unjustly; we have no right to expect infallibility of it. But we sometimes fear that it is disposed to underrate the necessity of prompt and thorough preparation. For our own part, we can see no signs of clearing away, either in the North or the Northwest, where mariners generally look for signs of promise. The Republicans and Democrats differ as to the mode of butchering and subjugating us, but it is only a difference of form. We have no dependence except in Heaven and our own strong arms.
