Blasphemy and Hypocrisy
The short speech of Secretary Seward at the Yankee jollification in Washington, over the fall of Vicksburg, is the most shockingly hypocritical and blasphemous utterance that ever fell from the lips of man. He said he had "prayed that the cup of this war might pass from him, " but that his "Southern brethren" had forced it upon him. With a perfect recollection of the strenuous efforts Virginia made for peace; of the Commissioners sent by the Confederate Government to urge a peaceful separation, and of his own promise not to reinforce Fort Sumter, broken as soon as it was made, he has the horribly profane audacity to represent himself as a persecuted Saviour, praying that the bitter cup, forced upon him by his enemies, might pass from his lips! Can any cause prosper which thus outrages truth and insults God?