We regret to learn that
John M. Daniel,
Esq., the widely-renowned editor of the Richmond
Examiner, expired at his residence, in this city, at ten o'clock yesterday morning.
His illness has been long and tedious, the complaint being typhoid pneumonia.
His loss, at this particular time especially, may be regarded as a public calamity.
Mr. Daniel was a man of uncommonly fine genius, which appeared in everything he ever wrote from the first day he appeared before the public in print.
He was a member of the old and well-known
Virginia family of
Daniel who have been residents of
Stafford county for probably the last hundred and fifty years, and who have been noted for talent for several generations past.
He came to this city from
Stafford when very young, probably not more than eighteen years of age. He first became known as a contributor to the
Southern Planter, an agricultural paper, owned by
Mr. Peter D. Bernard.--His articles, though upon subjects upon which, it was to be presumed, he had spent very little thought, were written with so much vigor and purity of style that they attracted instant attention, and a general call was made for the name of the author.
He was at the time, and for several years, Librarian of the Richmond Library, where he devoted his time to severe study, became a good classical scholar, and laid the foundation of that general and extensive knowledge which is one of the characteristics of his writings.
When scarcely of age, about the year 1847, he became joint editor with the late
Bennett M. DeWitt, of the
Examiner, which was established by the latter about that time.
That paper immediately became conspicuous by the extraordinary ability with which it was edited, not less than by the boldness of its views and the freedom which it exercised in criticising the opinions of all classes of politicians.
It was not long before
Mr. Daniel's name was known not only to the whole
State of Virginia, but to the entire press of the country, as one of the ablest among the writers of the day. At what time he became sole proprietor of the
Examiner we do not recollect.
In 1853, being then in the zenith of his reputation, although not yet thirty years old,
Mr. Daniel was appointed Charge to the
Court of Sardinia, through the influence, it was thought, of the late
Governor Floyd, between whom and
Mr. Daniel a warm attachment, personal and political, continued to exist until the death of the former.
He continued to reside at the Court of Turin for eight years, when he was recalled by the growing troubles of the country.--Upon his return, in 1861, he regained command of the
Examiner, and continued to conduct it with consummate ability until the day of his death.
The style of
Mr. Daniel is so well known to the public that it hardly needs comment.
It was full, flowing full, of fire and eloquence, often highly rhetorical, always vigorous and well sustained.
No man ever possessed, in a superior degree, the faculty of fierce and overwhelming denunciation, or the power of turning into ridicule such persons or things as it suited his pleasure to treat in that manner.
At the same time, it possessed one quality which is always the mark of genius, and which mere talent can never attain.
He made everything interesting that he wrote about, a faculty which
Johnson attributes to
Goldsmith in those famous words, "
nihil tetigit quod non ornavit."
Mr. Daniel, we should have mentioned, served on the staff of
Governor Floyd in his Western campaign, and afterwards as volunteer aid to
General A. P. Hill at the
battle of Gaines's mill, on which last occasion he was wounded.
The object of the
Yankees in waging the kind of war they are now engaged in carrying on against us, could not be mistaken, even though the New York
Herald had not taken pains to reveal it in the extract republished by us yesterday morning.
It is no longer a restoration of the
Union that they seek.
That was from the first a mere pretence, used to cover designs which, at one time, it might not have been quite so prudent to expose as they believe it to be now.--The universal belief among them is, that they are on the point of completing our subjugation, and that it is, therefore, no longer required by prudence to make a mystery of the fate they design for us. That fate is simply the utmost degree of degradation to which their ingenuity, prompted by their malice, can devise.--They will not be content with merely beating us into a surrender.
We must suffer all the horrors of conquest ever heretofore put in practice against a defeated foe, with the addition of new ones, devised for the especial gratification of their hatred.
That hatred is a passion universal among the whole Yankee nation.
There are so few bosoms not agitated by it that they scarcely serve for an exception to the general rule.
It began long before this war, and any one who attributes the unheard-of enormities which have marked its progress to the disposition on the part of all armies to commit excesses will be very much mistaken.
It arises from the long, deep rooted hatred to which we have alluded, and which is now presented with an opportunity of gratifying itself.
Our cities are wantonly burnt, and our population insulted and murdered, upon
principle. It is the result of cold-blooded calculation, not of military passions, stimulated by resistance.
These soldiers are turned loose upon a population whom they hate, and they are told to do their worst, for they will rather be applauded than punished for any crime they may perpetrate.
Such being the treatment our people receive while we have large armies still in the field, what are we to expect when resistance shall have ceased altogether?
The
Yankees themselves tell us a part of what we are to look for, but they do not tell us all. We must look for it in their acts.
In
Charleston, they have not only set the negroes free, but, as far as they have been able, have compelled the whites to associate with them.
They do this because they know that the whites consider such association as degrading to them; and they are determined to make them drink the cup to the dregs.
There are probably among us Southern people who are tired of the war, and who hope that, by submission, they may obtain a little mercy at the hands of their masters.
Never were people more woefully deceived.
The Yankee will have no mercy upon them.
He is only for bearing when he finds his proposed victim in a condition and disposition to resist.
Let him but once be at his mercy — completely in his power — incapable of farther resistance — and he might as well hope for mercy from a tiger, or compassion from a wolf, or forbearance from any other cruel and cowardly wild beast of the forest.
The Yankee will not only strip his victim of everything he has in the world, down to the very clothes upon his back, but he will take every other means to make him feel his situation.
Is it not better to continue to resist even unto death than to accept such a peace as this?
