The Daily Dispatch: January 21, 1861., [Electronic resource]

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The New York World.

‘ This insidious Republican sheet — really a more dangerous enemy than the garrulous and blatant Tribune--is showing the cloven foot of late, with a degree of indiscretion that it will hereafter repent of more than a sin. It calls lustily upon the Government to "chastise those insolent traitors of Charleston;" says it is no use to mince matters, that a little bloodshed now will save more hereafter, and fairly raves over the arrest of Merriman, the South Carolina Collector who has been arrested for treason, exclaiming: "Let not the madmen go too far. For every hair of his head an account must be rendered. Some have spoken of retaliation, by seizing the persons of South Carolina gentlemen. This is beneath the dignity of the Executive. But an immediate demand should be made by the Government for his safe return and the demand enforced." The vile suggestion in the lines we have italicised will strike the reader. Merriman is a citizen of South Carolina--to whom his allegiance is due — and who, by due legal process, has been arrested for treason.-- The World covertly recommends (though it hypothetically pretends to disclaim it,) that the Executive of the United States should make reprisals by seizing innocent Carolina gentlemen and holding them as hostages for Merriman's safety. It is scarcely necessary to say that if he should do it, the "old Public Functionary" would himself be seized, and, in all probability, be a "Public Defunct" in half an hour after he undertakes that enterprise. ’