Who is to blame?
--The enemy has obtained a foot hold on
Morris's Island, and the city of
Charleston is greatly endangered.
As usual, the people find fault with the
commanding General and officers in charge.
Why was not this guarded against?
Why was not the lower end of
Morris's Island so fortified as to be able to frustrate all attempts of the enemy to land there?
The Wilmington
Journal pertinently answers these questions as follows:
‘
As frequently happens, however, the fault was not with the
commanding General and officers in charge, but with the people themselves.
Gen. Beauregard wanted to level the bills on
Morris's Island, behind which the
Yankees sheltered themselves on landing.
He wanted to erect more batteries, and otherwise fortify the
Island more strongly, but the planers would not furnish their hands, and there fore the work could not be done.
To the call of the
Governor and General no adequate response was made.
Their hands were making crops which would be needed as much as these works.
But if Charleston falls those who sowed may not reap — those who planted may not gather.
The
Yankees may be more benefited by those crops than either our soldiers or people.
We don't believe in that short sighted selfishness that tries to conceal itself under a patriotic excuse.
’
The same difficulty of getting labor is experienced here.
Out of the whole slave population an outcry is raised if six hundred hands are asked for to help completes works that may protect half the
State from ruin.
If, when the tide of invasion comes, some point is found weak and unguarded, the blame will no doubt be thrown upon
Gen. Whiting, when, in fact, it will justly attach to those whose nearsighted selfishness refused the necessary labor, as well as to those whose contemptible and traitorous demagogues has urged them to such a course.
It is not too late to take warning, although it may soon be. We urge upon the owners of hands to come forward and respond promptly to the calls of the
commanding General.
Remember, it is not that little spot of ground called
Wilmington that is to be defended or to be lost.
That is the smallest matter.
It is our great lines of communication, our railroads, our rivers, our last avenue to the ocean, the enemy's base to the interior.
