The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-08-01
The Slaughter in Syria.

The massacre of the Christians by the Dru-
ses and their allies on and around Mount
Lebanon exceed in barbarity all other cruel
ties of modern days. A letter dated Bey-
rout, June 21st, TO the London Times says:
Their coadjutors. are Meslems, Bedouins,
Metwales and fugitive Africans. The current
opinion is that the Druses will soon march
against Beyrout. The wealthy province of
Metten has been plundered and burnt and the
women violated; Zahlah and its ~enYirors has
shared a like fate, only about 200 lives out of
every 900 being spared. The whole district
of Yezzin has been destroyed, priests murder
ed, nuns violated and killed. The Christians
of Damascus, Aleppo and Jerusalem and all
other places in Syria are in iminent danger
of losing their women, children and property.
About $4,000 families are houseless and many
will die of hunger. All this is the work of
the Government, through the sect called Dru-
ses, they lending them provisions and even
soldiers and cannon. s5sbls5 re- 3 -bJ-51
lr2aAnotherle letter, dated June 10th, says: $50
The immediate cause of this outbreak we
do not know. Tt has probably been, a long
time in preparation. The Haiti Humayoun!
has not been e~noughzto giyesssecurity ytothe
Kayaks in any part of the empire, much less
to endow them with anynew rights, but it has
suficed to arouse all the bigotry of their enc
mics, whosare impelled, not only by religious
hatred, but by a belief that the christians wish
TO bring in Franklin rulers, who will destroy
every creed and usage but heir own. In, fact,
from one end of the non-christian world to, the
other, there is a belief that the religion of the
gospel is to be imposed by the superior
strength of the christian nations. Hindoos
and Mohammedans rose against US in India,
united for a mon-ent by a common terror; Dru-
ses and Mahommedans are Joined together in
Syria, and by this time the blood of our con-
suls and our merchants may have been poured
out in a massacre as relentless as that of
Cawnpore. ~
The extent of the region through which
these disturbances are taking place, the large
masses engaged in them, and the boldnesso
the leaders, show that this is no common out
break. Druses, Arabs, Kurds, and even Tur
kish soldiers to the number of 10000 attacked
the town of Zahleh. This army was expect
ed to increase in a short time to such an ex-
tent as to have the whole country in its power.
In Damascus people expect, to. be attacked
daily, In Beirut, security is only guaranteed
by the presence of European ships of war,
and we learn that it has been thought neces-
sary both by the English and French govern
ments to despatch powerful reinforcements to
the coast. But it is not only the region about
Lebanon that is disturbed. The behavior of
the Mussulmans is SO threatening that from
one end of Syria to the other the christians
are expecting some great calamity. In Alep-
DO ,Ethe seat of a .frst-elass. Pssha, and a place
of business, an outbreak is looked for. Much
more, i'm southen Syria, in Nablous, and Je-
rusalem, does there reign a feeling that some
thing dangerous is meditated, IF Damascus
be attacked and taken, we firmly believe that
the'egent will be the signal for a general ex-
termination of the christians in Syria, and
who can say that the example will not be fol-
Iop,aI u-aSfrord ovid aocfrar1 To tho cb0rourofi
the Archipelago and the banks of the Eu-
pirates? cess l5a
But now comes the worst part of his histo-
~. It seems impossible to doubt that the
Turkish military authorities, to whose guardi-
anship the keeping of the peace in these re-
eions is intrusted, have permitted, and per
haps encouraged, the slaughter of the chris
tians.sqza - Igu{@ .-a ea .si, .ia- 'n
oes~And this an .Englishman' will exclaim,
dis the government we have saved; this is the
empire the integrity of which we are bound
to %supportl It is indeed so. The sultan rules
in the north through our jealousy of France.
Had we abandoned him in 1910 both Druses
and Maronites might now be kept in order by
an Egyptian ruler who would be really a vice
gerent of France. Had we accepted the offers
of the Gear Nicholas to SirH. Seymour, they |
might be kept in order by ourselves IF the
Porte cannot repress these outrages, the chris
tan powers must do so. When the Sultan
called uponsus to guarantee his authority, he
gave us the right to see that it did not become
a curse to his people, and particularly to those |
of our own faith. An,intervention there must
be, and we trust hat England and France will
measures for saving the christians of
Syria from destruction, &c " sH
MORE CERTAIN THAN Now.-Four years
this time, the Republicans were much more
certain of the selection of Fremont thanethey
to-day of the election of Abraham Lincoln.
they boosted more; loudly, claimed more votes,
and bet heavier, than any of them do now, ard
yet when the ballots were counted, it wasfound
that the conservative people of the Union, by
i majority of one million four hundred and
thousand three hundred and siety-seven,
had decided against them. The result will be
much the same this fall, only the majority
TilIIp much greater. 81 + .es5 .5rss1 Z