Taking a fresh held.
Simultaneously with the return of
Lincoln from his late visit to
McClellan's camp, appears an order making
Gen. Halleck Chief in Command of the Armies of the
United States.
This is the third change which the
Yankees have made in their
Commander in Chief since the beginning of the war. First, it was Old Scott, ‘"the first
Captain of the age;"’ then came
George R. McClellan, the ‘"Young
Napoleon;"’ and now it is
Halleck, who has hitherto received no special designation, except that conferred upon him by a New York correspondent of the London
Times, ‘"
Major General of the Liars,"’ and which he soon after illustrated by asserting that
Beauregard, who outgeneraled him in such an astonishing way at
Corinth, had lost fifteen thousand stand of arms and twenty thousand in killed, wounded, and prisoners !
Coincident with the appointment of a new
General-in-Chief is the inauguration of a reign of crucify and barbarism, compared with which all that is gone is mere child's play.
Gen. Pope's orders for the arrest of unoffending citizens at
Fredericksburg; the merciless and unheard of decree for the banishment of all families who will not take the oath of allegiance; the sweeping laws of confiscation, and the determination to arm the contrabands, and the determination to arm the contrabands, are substantially the hoisting of the black flag by the
Federal Government, and as such they should be treated.
The time has gone by when the safety and temper of the
Southern people will permit such measures as these, and such acts as the execution of
Mumford, to pass without reprisal.--We have still in our hands thousands of the
Federal prisoners, and our Government should select from them a sufficient number to ensure the future good conduct of the enemy.
If such acts as the hanging of
Mumford go without retaliation; if such a policy as that which
Lincoln and his
Generals are permitting to be inaugurated in
Virginia does not provoke on the part of our Government the most summary retribution, then are the people of the
South left more helpless and hopeless than any other race of men, to the tender mercies of the most cruel of mankind.
