The Daily Dispatch: November 27, 1861., [Electronic resource]

Great Public Trouble has the effect of developing in their most gigantic force and activity, the noblest instinets and the most evil passions of the human heart. It is well known that in seasons of plagues and pestilence, when there seems less than a plank between every man and the great ocean of eternity, whilst humanity, generosity, heroism, and piety are stimulated to new energy in the good, selfishness, avarice, cowardice, crime, and infidelity also display themselves in their most frightful and audacious forms.--Whilst the good Samaritans are seeking to relieve the sick or assuage the agonies of the dying in one house, the thief and robber are ransacking the deserted tenement next door; whilst the voice of profound penitence and prayer arises from one hearthstone, curses so fierce arise from another that the might think that the impatient fiends had come from hell to claim their prey; whilst the funeral procession is going along the street, it passes by dwellings where revelry is roaring out its wildest strains, or debauchery holding its foulest orgies. ‘"The same eat which hardens the clay, softens the wax; the same light which gladdens a sound eye torments a diseased; the same pillar of a cloud which was a cloud and darkness to the Egyptains, gave light to the Israelites."’ The different qualities of men, whether good or evil, when called into action by the alilicting dispensations of the Almighty's hand, prove that the Scriptures declare the same thing when they say that ‘"God is love,"’ and that ‘"God is a consuming fire."’

It is with war as with pestilence and other great calamities. All that is great and good in human nature has been developed in the hearts of the Southern people by the murderous assault of the despotism at Washington upon their hearths and homes. Their very enemies had conceded to them the qualities of generosity, hospitality, and courage, but their best friends never knew before the boundlessness of their devotion to principle, the immeasurable and inexhaustible depths of their spirit of self-sacrifice. We need not speak of the splendid heroism exhibited on every battle field. Nobler, purer, and even more heroic is the patriotism of the Southern women who have given to their country the idols of their hearts, offering them up with the deep devotion and unquestioning trust of the patriarch when, at the command of Heaven, he surrendered his son to the sacrifice. In every Southern home there has been the faith of Abraham, and not content with this, they have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and ministered to the sick, binding around the sacrifice of patriarchal faith the garlands of the brightest Christian virtues. Did ever the world see such nobility of nature as the Southern people have manifested in this war, and do not such a people deserve to be free?

But, amidst this vast and wonderful exhibition of abnegation, unselfishness, and heroism, there have been developments, in exceptional cases, of some of the meanest, most self-seeking, most sordid and callous features of the human heart. Amidst the storm which has roused the faithful mariner to mount the shrouds and expose his life for the safety of the laboring vessel, greedy vermin have been scampering undisturbed between decks, and availing themselves of the general confusion to satiate their hungry naws without interruption. The lust of office and of gain has run not amid the agitation of the political elements. The very soldiers of the army who, without hope of pay or of official distinction, have fought the battles of the country and endured the most terrible privations and hardships, have been victimized by heartless speculators, who pursue them with extortions to their very graves, and, but for the laws of the land, would unearth them rom their last resting place and manufacture their bones into articles of merchandize. But these vulgar and ferocious beasts of prey are in no degree more inhuman and ravenous than the more polished and hypocritical aspirants for posts of distinction and emolument who think only, amid the general distress how they may best advance their individual fortunes and fame. The man who, at such a time as this, thinks of himself beyond what absolute duty to himself and those dependent upon him requires, is not fit to be trusted, and, instead of being gratified in his aspirations for leadership, ought to bring up the rear in the great army of freedom. The proper place for such men is among the camp-followers, and, even in that position, they ought to be closely watched. In the piping times of peace self-seeking politicians may be tolerated, but when the ship is on the breakers, to find them still incapable amid the general peril of any thought but of their own aggrandizement, is a display of selfishness so revolting, that every honest hand must instinctively grasp for a lash to scourge through the world the sordid crew who would convert this last temple of freedom into a den of thieves.