historians, were not patent to the whole civilized world; if their ludicrous insolence, their portentous vanity, and their unparalleled mendacity, had not made them the laughing stock of the age; if the robberies, the murders, the rapes, the atrocities of every description, by which they have achieved in this war an immortality of infamy, had not already branded them, for the present and for all future time, as a nation of thieves and cut-throats, whom to compare to the plundering hordes of Attila and Genseric would be a gross injustice to those relatively civilized heathens — the cringing abjection, the trembling servility with which they now submit to the despotism of Lincoln and his military satraps would demonstrate to the most incredulous that they are totally incapable of self government, and that there is no stretch of power which their present masters may not venture upon with the most perfect impunity; no invasion of all the rights dear to freemen to which they will not meanl
nother.--Were our troops to burn Harrisburg, the loss to the enemy would not counterbalance the loss we have sustained in the article of negroes alone.
We say, then, make the whole Pennsylvania Valley an astonishment to future generations.
Let the traveller, in times to come, lift up his hands with amazement, as he does in those countries denounced in the Old Testament — once flourishing communities now howling wildernesses.
It was said that "no blade of grass ever grew where the horse of Attila had once set his foot." Let the Confederate army imitate the leader of the Huns in this particular.
The Valley of Pennsylvania ought to become a sea of flame, like the prairies of the Western world.
Nothing should be left that man could eat, or sleep up on, or shelter himself, or procure food with.
All this might be done — the land might be turned into a desert, and yet the balance of destruction would be against us. The whole city of Philadelphia if burnt to the ground would not pay for
en given up in this contest, and our skirts are clear of the blood which has been shed.
We entered it to maintain the rights of self-government.--a right which should have been as dear to our enemies as to us. It is a great American idea — the growth of American soil — and should, in their eyes, be as sacred as it is to us. For four long years we have been engaged in a war, the like of which has not been seen in modern times; the only approximations to which were the wars of Wallenstein and Attila and the Thirty Years War of Germany; and now, after these years of waste and destruction, we have been lately informed by the President of the United States that there can be no peace except upon the conditions of laying down our arms and absolute submission; to come in as rebels, and submit to laws confiscating our property, and awarding the death penalty to our citizens.
Nor is this all. We are required to submit to an amendment, adopted to the United States Constitution, to turn loose th
