The
Montreal Commercial Advertiser contain the following edithrial upon the infamous order of
Butler relative to the ladies of New Orleans:
‘
We published the infamous order of
Gen. Butler a few days ago and repeat it now, because it is proved to be authentic.
When it first appeared it was denounced by the
Federal press as an invention of
Beauregard's to ‘"fire the
Southern heart,"’ and long columns of abuse were vented on the
Confederate General for the wickedness of attributing such an atrocious document to a Union commander.
It was truly said that such an order would virtually give official sanetion and instigation to the violation of the women of New Orleans, for no other interpretation could be placed on the command to treat them as ‘"women of the town plying their avocation."’
We never had any doubt of the authenticity of the order; it was characteristicelly Northern in the vileness of its cowardice, its licentiousness, brutallty, and utter infamy.
We have seen in
Washington ladies committed to the common jail for the crime of lifting a handkerchief to their lips; in
St. Louis a whole family was imprisoned because a young lady being in the same house waved her handkerchief to a passing prisoner; we have seen Northern journals boasting that a Federal General threatened with an oath to quarter a soldier covered with the small pox upon a lady at
Nashville who sheered at his troops; we know that the of
Banks's army up the
Shenandoah, of
McClellan's up the
Peninsula, and of
McDowell's to
Fredericksburg, were accompanied by all the horrors of war in the middle ages, plunder, universal destruction of property, the violation of women and the murder of their husbands, brothers, and fathers, who sought to protect them from a fate worse than death.
Gen. Butler has only publicly vowed his intention to encourage that which other Northern
Generals have allowed.
The Federal commanders have improved on
Russian and
Austrian tyranny and brutality; they wielded only the knous and the stick, scoring the backs of women.
Butler is greater in his way than Halnault; he has found a deeper degradation to which woman can be subjected than blows; henceforth among their other boasts the
Federals can claim that they have committed the most infamous outrage of modern times, and can point to the commander of the
Union troops at New Orleans as the most cowardly, licentious, and despicable villain that the world has ever seen.
Can any one wonder that the
Southern troops fight with desperation, and are betrayed into arts of vindictive retaliation?
and that the whole population rises upon them when defeated, and alays them as they would a pack of wolves.
Northern Virginia had felt the tender mercies of the
Union Generals and troops, as
Spain felt those of its French invaders, and its revenge was the same.
New Orleans will yet take a frightful vengeance for its wrongs; and the
North will have bitter cause to repent the liceritioushess of its hireling soldiers, and the pusilanimous wickedness of its leaders?
There was no Union sentiment in the
Creseent City before its occupation; is it likely there is any now?
Will the people love the
Federal Government better, or hate its troops less because then women are threatened to be given up to the licentiousness of the soum of Northern cities?
Is it by such means that the Union and Constitution are to be restored; peace is to give place to war. love to hatred, respect to contempt.
Gemeral Butler's order will unite the whols Southern people still more closely in their determination to resist their invaders to the bitter end; it will confirm the doubting, strengthen the determined, fill the ranks of the Confederate armies with new soldiers, and arm them with a double strength.
It has destroyed at one blow the whole Federal successes of the campaign, by teaching the people of the
Southern States the true character of their invaders, and what they have to expect from their domination.
If in the coming battles the
Confederate troops do not treat their opponents as noisome reptiles, which are conquered only when destroyed, they must be something more or less than men. In the armies at
Richmond and
Corinth there are thousands of soldiers who have daughters, wives, sisters, and lovers in New Orlease, liable at any moment to be treated as women of the town plying their avocation.
This knowledge will nerve their arms, and double edge their steel, and should make them invincible against the
Northern hordes, however much they may outnumber them in men and surpass them in material.
’
