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and brutally put to death, without judge or jury, upon the mere order of certain military officers convoked for that purpose.
It was, take it all in all, as foul a murder as ever blackened the face of God's sky. But it was done in strict accordance with Higher Law, and the Law Department of the United States approved it.
Now this is what a
Northern man, living in
Washington at the time, a profound lawyer and statesman, has to say of these things.
As a matter of course, the
North will attempt to reply (about the only reply they can offer with any apparent justification):
Well, they will ask, was not Chambersburg burnt by General Early's order? Yes, it was; but under circumstances which show that that act was no justification whatever for the outrages we have set forth in this paper, and was only resorted to by
General Early by way of retaliation,
and to try if possible, to stop the outrages then being committed. It was only resorted to, too, after full warning and an offer to the municipal authorities of
Chambersburg to prevent the conflagration by paying for certain private property just previously destroyed by
General Hunter.
But this offer these authorities refused to accede to, saying ‘they were not afraid of having their town burned, and that a Federal force was approaching.’
General Early says in his report:
I desired to give the people of Chambersburg an opportunity of saving their town by making compensation for part of the injury done, and hoped that the payment of such a sum (one hundred thousand dollars in gold, or five hundred thousand in greenbacks), would have the desired effect, and open the eyes of the people of other towns at the North to the necessity of urging upon their government the adoption of a different policy.
(See
Early's Memoirs, where the full report of this occurrence is given.)
Among the private property destroyed by
Hunter, for which this sum was demanded by
General Early, were the private residences of
Andrew Hunter,
Esq. (then a member of the Senate of
Virginia, who had prosecuted
John Brown, as Commonwealth's Attorney of
Jefferson county, Va.); of
Alexander R. Boteler,
Esq. (an ex-member of the
Confederate and
United States Congresses), and of
Edmund J. Lee,
Esq. (a relative of
General Lee), with their contents, only time enough having been given the ladies to get out of these houses.
General Hunter had also just caused the Virginia Military Institute,
