"The best Government the World ever Saw."
A Yankee scribe, writing to a Northern Journal from Burnside's barbarian army, over the distress to which the female population of Fredericksburg have been subjected, declaring that it serves them right for rebelling against ‘"the best Government the world ever saw."’We have no comments to make upon the spirit which rejoices in turning helpless woman out of doors in winter, and compelling them to seek refuge in miserable buts in the woods and by the roadside. Such a spirit is inseparable from craven and brutal natures, and very likely the creatures can't help it. We might as well expect a polecat to be cleanly, or a snake to be a respecter of persons, as the people we are dealing with to be chivalric, humane, and generous. But the conceit of rebelling against the ‘"best Government the world ever saw,"’ in view of the manner in which it is conducting an invasion unparalleled in its cruelty and brutality, is one which could only have emanated from the most self-complacent and impudent race the sun ever shone upon. Even in the peaceful days which preceded the despotism of Lincoln it was ‘"the best Government the world ever saw"’ only to those who are now carrying fire and sword into our burdbra.
That the people of the late United States enjoyed an extraordinary degree of peace and prosperity was due to circumstances over which its Government at Washington, if Government it could be called, had no control of any kind. It was due to the natural fertility of the soil, the comparative aparzeness of population, and the many fields of enterprise opened on a new continent, and their remoteness from the disturbing interests and passions of the Old World. Under almost any form of Government, a country blessed with such wonderful physical advantages would have grown great and wealthy. If its people have been exempted heretofore from civil convulsions, it is simply be cause its Government has never enforced the laws against those who violated them in the North, and because the South has submitted uncomplainingly to the partial and unjust legislation which made her a commercial tributary of the Northern States.--No wonder that the Yankees should consider that ‘"the best Government the world ever saw. "’ which allowed them to nullify the Constitution whenever it came in conflict with their besotted fanaticism but which commanded the South to refrain from resistance though its declare at rights and interests were menaced. No wonder they should be delighted with a Government whose whole legislation was devoted to putting money in their pockets by tariffed, fishing bounties, monopolies of the coasting trade, and every device that human ingenuity could suggest to enrich the North at the expense of the South. A heavenly Government, no doubt, which was carried on by Southern revenues, and built up commerce, cities, and gigantic wealth in the North, at the expense of Southern products and Southern industry. We wonder what kind of a Government they would have considered it if the case had been reversed? if the legislation of Congress had been so shaped as to build up commerce, cities, and wealth in the South, and leave the North the bare means of subsistence? and, if, in addition, the South had been permitted to unify the laws at its pleasure with impunity, as the North did the Fugitive Slave law, whilst the North, on the other hand, if she ever attempted nullification, would be crushed to the earth by vast armies? Would that have been ‘"the best Government the world ever saw? "’
That under such an unequal and unjust administration of the Federal Government the country enjoyed peace and quietness, is due not to the ‘"Government,"’ but to the patient and long suffering South, which, rather than violate the national compact and disturb the common concord, permitted herself to be made a commercial vassal of the North, and only asked to be permitted to enjoy in peace her property and labor. It was not till it became evident that even this poor boon was to be denied her, and till the uplifted sword was upheld over her head to coerce her into submission, that she ‘"rebelled"’ against ‘"the best Government the world ever saw."’ What monstrous ingratitude! --
The war has shown what the goodness of that ‘"best Government"’ is — a Government which was soft and quiet as the folds of a serpent as long as its victim would lie still and make no attempt to escape from the suffocating coils; but which, at the first motion of dissatisfaction, reared its horrid crest and showed itself the most merciless, as it had always been the most crafty, of created things. And this Government, which has Lincoln at head and Butler at its tail, is ‘"the best Government the world ever saw!"’
