The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1859-12-12

@ @Hno was earliest or whs, hns l,ssss ,s,<ss ~ =
there q no .nsfass nrfss, IN ecnisovsrsy q which
no solution. But without rsv.vinr ste ~ can @ g
or sorrowfnf memories Of the r.sst Sss 81 e!
sishar h.enonness .. ask the nes,fon-.Whst 1ns 4.
Union. WIN Win = ealn e dissoiutioa ot the
msn VI =, rnseasens 70 destroy III Iask octriofic
sns snsn an both actions to run over Is ahsir
have or T shnp ,s.y q {, complaint which they
o,, ana then ask themselves iisnss sscrs
,nsny Wnetner anything IL TO be rained. nnv.
sIenation % e e nopsd mop y pushing The present
rom death, there is no retnrn1 4 VIII ;;hs ns
Sousn gam any greater stability for her social
system, any larger entrance into the xac.ns
R~nalc sc,ed e rrrsories viii the North have e.
,so.su %s any one object, which by men Of ANY
shade OF opinion, extreme or moderate =
oeemed desirable; on the contrary. viii not
every evil she desires 70 remedy be confirmed ned
nnc IN rggravaseda II this view Of the subject
ue correct Wnat can be more unwise-vhat
more suicidal than to allow these denlorahie
oissensions to result in q revolution. which
VIII leave two great sections of the country
In q worse condition than IL finds them
with reference to the very objects for which
they allow themselves to be imneiled
To the dreadful consummation. fApplause y
But l shall be told perhaps that ali this is
imaginary-that the alarm at the South is fac
titious, or rather a groundless panic, for
which there is no substantial cause-fir suh-
ject for ridlicule rather than serious anxiety.-
But see no signs oil panic IN Virginia. except
for few hours at Harper's Ferry, when in the
confusion of the first surprise, and in profoud
ignorance of the extent of the danger, the COM
munity was for short time paralyZed am not
sure that town of four or five hundred fam
lilies in this region, invaded at midnight by n
resolute band of twenty men, entering the
houses Of influential citizens, and hurrying
them from their beds to stronghold previous
| ly occupied, and there holding them as host
| ages-I am not sure. sir, that an equal panic
would not be created till the extent Of the
| danger was measured Besides, sir, if the panic
| had been much more extensive than it was,
| the panics of great and brave communities are
no trifies. Burke said he could not frame an
| indie tment against whole peohle; it seems to
me equally in bad taste at least TO try to point
a sneer at a State like Virginia. The French
| are reputed gallant and warlike people; but
the letters from the late seat of war tell us,
that even after the great victory Of Solferino,
handful of Austrians, struggling into q viii
| lage, put corps of the French army-thous-
ands strong-to flight. A hundred and fifty
| men overturned the French monarchy, ON the
| occasion to which have already alluded, in
1919. When the circumstances of the case
are taken into consideration / suspect it
| will be agreed that any other community in
the country similarly situated would have
been affected in the same way. [Applause ]
| A conflict of such an unprecedented char
| acter in which twelve or fourteen persons on
the two sides are thot down in the course of
| a few hours, appears to me an event at which
! levity ought to stand re buked, and q solemn
chill TO fall upon every right thinking man.
| / fear, sir. from the tone OF some of the public
journals, that we have not made this case our
own. Suppose party Of desperate, misguid-
ed men, under resolva I'd and fearless leader,
had been organized in Virginia to come
| and establish themselves by stealth in
Springfield, in this State, intending there, af-
| ter possessing themselves, at the upguarded
| hour of midnight, Of the National Armory, to
| take advantage OF some local cause of disaf-
| fection-say the feud between Protes tants and
Catholics (Which led to very deplorable oc-
| currence in this vicinity few years ago) to
| stir up social revolutions; that pixies and ri
hes to arm twenty-five hundred men had
| been procured by funds raised by extensive
| subscriptions throughout the South-that III
| the dead of a Sunday night the work of de-
| struction had begun by shooting down an un-
! armed man, who had refused to Join the in
vading force; that citizens of the first standing
| were seized and imprisoned, three or four 9TH
ers killed, and when, on the entire failure of
| the conspiracy, its leader had been tried, ably
] defended by counsel from his own part of the
| country, convic ted and executed, that through
! out Virginia, which sent him forth on his
fatal errand, and the South generally, funeral
| bells should be tolled, meetings of sympathy
| held, rs at the death of some great ben
| efactcr, and the person who had plot
| ted to put pike or rifle in the hands of
| twenty five hundred men, to be used against
| their fellows inhabitants of the same town,
| inmates in the same houses; with an Interior
| intention and purpose of wrapping the whole
| community in civil war of the deadliest
| and bloodiest type, in which mans foes
should be those of his own household; sup
pose, say, the person who planned and plot
| ted this. and with his own hand, or that of his
| associates acting by his command, had taken
| the lives of several fellow beings, should be
extolled, canonized, placed on level with the
| great heroes of humanity-nay, assimlated to
! the Saviour of mankind-and all this not the
effect of solitary individual impulse, but the
ripe fruit of a systematic agitation pursued in
| the South, unrebuked for years! What, sir,
should we feel think, say under such q s'ate
| of things! Should we weigh every phrase OF
| indignant remons trance with critical accuracy,
| and divide our murmurs with nice discrimi-
nation among those whom we might believe,
| however unjustly, to be directly or indirectly
concerned in the murderous aggression Mr..
Chairman, those who look upon the existing
| excitement at the SOut as Fictitious or eX-
| travagant, have fear, formed a very made
quate idea of the nature OF such an attempt
| as that which was made at Harper's Ferry
| was intended to be, and would have been, had
| it proved successful. 1t is to want of refec-
| tion on this point that we must ascribe the
| fact that any civilized man in his right mind
| and still more any man OF intelligence and
| moral dscerRment, in other respects, can be
| found to approve and sympathize with it,
| (Applause.) am sure if such persons will
| bring home to their minds, in any distinc,
| conception, the real nature Of the under.
| taking, they would be themselves ana zed
/ that they had ever given 1t their sympathy
| 1t appears from his own statements and those
of his deluded associates, OF his biographer, oi
his wre.ched wife, that the unhappy man who
has Just paid the forfeit OF his life had for years
meGitated q general insurrection in the South.
ern States; that he thought the time had now
come TO effect it; that the slaves were ready tC
| rise, and the non-s -siayeholding whites to ioi
| them; and both united Were ready to form q
| new common wealt tn, of which the cons titutioH
was organized and the officers chosen. With
this wild, but thoroughly matured plan, hs
provides weapons for those on whose rising hi
| calculated at Harpers Ferry; he siezes the ma
tional arsenal, where there was a supply o.
| arms for hundred thousand men, and ne in.
| tended, ii unable to maintain himself at onct
| in the open country, to retreat to the noun
tains, and from their fastnesses harrass, para
lyze, and at length revolutionize the South
To talk Of the pixies and rifles not being intend
ed for offensive purposes, is simply absurd
fApplause.l The first act almost of the party
| was TO shoot down free colored man, whom
they were attempting to impress, and who fec
from them. One might as well say that thu
rfied ordnance of Louis Napoleon was in
tended only for self-defence, to be used only in
case the Austrians should undertake To arres
his march. loud applause.] No, sir, it was
an attempt to do on q vast scale what was dont
in ST. Domingo in 1871, where the colored pop
| ulation was about equal to that OF Virginia
| and il any one would form distinct idea
| what such an operation is, let him see it-no'
as matter of vague conception crude pro
iect--in the mind of heated fanatic, but as il
L should in the sober pages of history, that ra
! cord the revolt in that island; the midnigh'
burnings the wholesale massacres. the merci
l less tOTtufe8, t0e e0DOOtu6Iloue uOt W Dc u6iueC
by Christian lips in the hearing Of Christian
| ears-some Of which, too ounutterably atrocioui
for the English language, are of necessity veiled
i In the obscurity Of the Latin tongue. Allow
i me to read you few sentences from the His.
| torian of these events:
In the tewn itself, the general belief fol
some time was that the revolt was by nc
means an extensive one, but q sudden and par
tial insurrection only. The largest sugar
plantation on the plain was that of Mons. Gal
iifet situated about eight miles from the town,