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North do not war on the
South, but they defend their country's flag to the man and to the death.
There is no disunion here; together we stand in the name of our country and of our God.”
The
Christian Chronicle, of
Philadelphia, publishes a letter from a Massachusetts correspondent, containing the following statement:
The peace men have all been transformed into men of war. Even the ministers of the Gospel deem it proper on the Sabbath to stimulate the patriotism of their people and even bid them to imitate their own examples in volunteering to take the sword; and the consciousness of the righteousness of their cause and the undoubted favor of the God of Battles makes all hearts strong and even joyful.
There is one prayer often to be heard on the lips of Christian men--“ Pray God it may be a death-blow to slavery!”
I doubt not that in those who have never felt any thing of the kind before, there will be generated an hostility to slavery of the most uncompromising nature.
Nothing is more common than to hear the determination expressed — to oppose the recognition of slavery on the part of the General Government in future — to follow the counsel of our English friends, and “ pluck from the flag those blood-rotted strands,” and to make “freedom national,” and “ slavery sectional,” to the fullest extent.
The
Watchman and Reflector has an article on “The doom of slavery,” in which it predicts that “if the conflict is protracted a single year,
Virginia will be lost to slavery.”
“
Virginia too must become the seat of war, and with fifty or a hundred thousand free-men encamped on her soil, and every part of the
State convulsed with agitation and turmoil, slavery cannot maintain its existence.”
It alludes to the collision between the mob and the soldiers in
Baltimore, and adds: “But the mobocracy may as well be quiet.
Baltimore is now at the mercy of our guns, and
Maryland is one of the most vulnerable States in the
Union.”
The
Mississippi Baptist, after describing the war policy of
President Lincoln with reference to the
Confederate States, adds:
If he carries out this policy fully, we see no alternative but a general war, a war both by sea and land; a war which will carry desolation, carnage, and blooodshed wherever the contending forces meet in battle array.--President Davis has a policy as well as President Lincoln, a policy which he will as assuredly carry out,--a policy which he indicated in his speeches before his inauguration, and in his inaugural address; a policy, in which he will be supported by the Congress of the Confederate States, and by thousands of the brave hearts and stout hands of the people of those States.
And not only the Confederate States will sustain him, but thousands of the citizen soldiery of the border slave States will rush to his aid. And what will be the alternate result of the deadly conflict that must ensue no mortal can conjecture.
One thing is certain, revolutions never move backwards.
Once the tide begins to move it will rush on with increased impetuosity, breaking over every barrier in the way of its onward progress.
Once relieve passion from the restraints of reason and conscience, and arouse the feelings of bitter resentment which a long series of oppression has excited, and there will be no bounds to the excesses that will be the unavoidable result.
But, it may be asked, may not all this be avoided
Which question is answered as follows:
Now, we say, let the Congress and the Executive of the United States cease offensive operations against the Confederate States, and evacuate the forts within their borders, and then enter into a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Government, and the dreadful alternative of a sanguinary, desolating conflict will be avoided, otherwise, we fear the war has but just begun.
The
Biblical Recorder, of
North Carolina, shows the unanimity of purpose existing on both sides, and says:
What then?
Will Mr. Lincoln and his cabinet pursue to the bitter, bloody end their fiendish purpose?
Can the madness of fanaticism go so far?
We hope not. Surely reason will return in time to avert so direful a catastrophe.
But if war must come, and we can have a united South, we entertain no fears as to the result.
The conflict may be long and bloody; many evils and much suffering may be inflicted; commerce may be crippled, and many brave men lie down in death on the battle-field, but victory and peace will at last be ours.
Men conscious of right, and fighting for their liberties, their honor, their homes, and all that they hold dear, cannot be subdued.
When the North shall have learned this by sad experience, we shall have peace, and, freed from the shackles which have hitherto held us, we shall enter upon a career as glorious as can be found in the annals of the world.
The South has been slow to assume her present position.
It was only after she had patiently submitted for long years to aggression and insult, repeated and aggravated, that she consented to break up the old nationality.
Now confiding in the justice of her cause, and looking to the Ruler of the Universe, she can calmly and hopefully await the result.
The
Tennessee Baptist is strongly in favor of “secession.”
Rev. J. R. Graves, its principal editor, just returned from a journey through the
South, says:--I learned something more about the politics of the masses of
Mississippi and
Louisiana.
I had read in certain newspapers that the people in
Louisiana are sound Union men at heart, and that secession is the work of politicians.
So far as I travelled in
Mississippi and
Louisiana I found the people thoroughly secessionists — those who voted the “cooperative ticket” are now firmly fixed in sentiment.
