The United States has always some terrible rod in reserve for perseverance in Confederate contumacy. If it will throw itself unconditionally upon the mercy of Abraham Lincoln, it may be let off with a moderate amount of hanging and confiscation; but if not, there are mysterious horrors in abeyance which the United States will but loose with a remorseless vengeance that will tear man, woman and child, limb from limb.
When the escaped convict in "Great Expectations" had nearly shaken little Pip's breath out of his body, he dismissed him with this parting admonition:"You bring me, to- morrow morning early, that file and them wattles. You do this, and you never dare to say a word, or dare to make a sign concerning, your haven't seen such a person as me, or any person, and you shall be let to live. You fail, or you go from my words in any particles, no matter how small the particles, and your heart and your liver shall be tore out, roasted and ate. Now I ain't alone, as you may think I am. There's a young man hid with me, in comparison with which young man I am a angel of light. That young man hears the words I speak. That young man has a secret way, peculiar to himself, of getting at a boy, and at his heart, and at his liver. It is in wain for a boy to attempt to hide himself from that young man. A boy may lock his door, may be warm in bed, may tuck himself up, may draw the clothes over his head, may think himself comfortable and safe; but that young man will softly creep and creep his way to him, and tear him open. I am a keeping' that young man from harmin' of you at the present moment with great difficulty. I find it very hard to hold that young man off of your inside. Now, what do you says?"
What little Pip said, matters not. The Southern Confederacy is not little Pip. If "that young man" has a more real existence in one case than the other, it may turn out that we, too, have our "young man," who has a particular fancy for "hearts" and "livers." We are certainly not going on to the end of the chapter in encouraging our enemies to the most inhuman deeds by permitting them to trample us, like reptiles, under their feet. Even the trodden worm will turn, and the day is coming when the public sentiment of the Confederate people will not permit humanity to be outraged with impunity.
