Heartlessness of the enemy.
We have lately published some signal illustrations of the heartlessness of the enemy to their own men, the brutal treatment by officers of those under them, and the unparalleled want of feeling manifested towards their own wounded, whom they suffered to lie in agony on the battle field of
Manassas rather than obtain access to them by those formal proceedings which would recognize the
South as a ‘"belligerent nation."’ The late astounding disclosures which
Gov. Pickens has given to the world in respect to the evacuation of
Fort Sumter, demonstrate not only an utter want of all humanity among the men at the head of the
United States Administration, but a deliberate attempt to commit murder upon its own friends and champions in that fort, designing thereby to produce a civil war, which should drench the whole land with blood and tears.
We defy any man to read those disclosures and deny that
Abraham Lincoln,
Wm. H. Seward, and the other members of the
Lincoln Government, are as guilty before God of intent to commit the foulest kind of murder as any felon who ever swung from a tree.
We do not involve the whole
North in the same charge of heartlessness and malicious murder which have been clearly proved upon their leaders.
There are men there who have never yet bowed the knee to Baal.
There are journals like those of
Concord, New Hampshire,
Bangor, Maine, like the
News and
Day Book of New York, and statesmen, like
Pierce and
Vallandigham, who form bright and noble exceptions to the general delinquency.
There are some warm and generous hearts there, tropic flowers growing among the icebergs; but they are few and far between.
Perhaps we may account for the general heartlessness manifested in the
North by the competitions which are caused by a large population crowding closely on the means of subsistence; by the burdening influence of wealth, when it is not relieved by the influences of education and refinement, upon the heart; but chiefly by the
Puritan element, which can be traced as distinctly in Northern society by its gloomy, inhuman, and demoralizing influences as the
Gulf Stream in the
Atlantic.
Every one familiar with the history of Puritanism knows how intolerant, bloody and remorseless it has been from the very first and how it has always composed its conscience and sanctified its crimes, by acting upon the maxim that ‘"the end justifies the means. "’ There is no extent of cruelty and wickedness to which a people will not go who adopt such a rule of action, and who, moreover, act upon the practical conviction that they are the chosen ones of God. When the
Divine Founder of Christianity told the Pharisees, the Puritans of that day, that the publicans and harlots would enter the kingdom of Heaven before them, it was because there is more hope of reformation among men who can overcome their wickedness, than among the self-righteous, who think they need no repentance, and are, after all, whited sepulchres, full of corruption and death.
What can the
South expect from an Administration which is the very embodiment of the worst characteristics of Northern society, but just that heartless and inhuman treatment she has received?
What can she look for but arson, rape, pillage, handcuffs and halters?
If
Lincoln and his Cabinet leave their own wounded to perish unaided on the battle-field, and deliberately plot the murder of their own friends, what are their enemies to expect?