The Shasta courier., 1861-02-16
SHASTA COURIER.
SATURDAY MORNING, FEB. l6, 1861.
CALIFORNIA; Sons of Thunder.

We have an idea that the man who really ad-
yocates vigorous exercise of the powers of the
Government to suppress secession by yJoree-as
did one Mr.. Williams in the New York Legisla-
ture, in what the telegraph calls great"
speech-comes being a fool as the man
who says in his heart there is no God. And
Williams is not without his imitators in our own
Legislature-small, self-important, clustering
men, who can talk as bravey as Julius Caesar
about war. when they are two or three thousand
miies removed from all danger. Where has the
warrior Burbank buried the dead whom he hath
I" in battle slain?' And the other men of
valor of the two Houses, " whose voice is still
for war,"-who seem happy only when causing
the chambers of legislation to resound with the
imaginary roaring of Northern canon beching
forth upon the heads of Southrons devastation
and death, and who exhibit the bravery ofseve-
ralJacksons boiled down into one when flourish
ing their imaginary swords in the face of foe
thousands of miles away,-where, we ask, have
they buried their dead !? Wonderful " braves"
are .ney !, they can Win their oEn xssisst in
elephant meat, no doubt. They are hell-roaring
fellowsl They men of war, E" fearfully and
wonderfully made"-sons of Mars by daughters
of Bacchus, and by their vaunting wildly bring
TO mind the language of Bobby Burns,
q Inspiring bold John Barley-corn,
What dangers thou dost make us scorn."
Great Heaven, what calamity that the peo-
pie of the seeding States had not heard about
these California sons of thunder" before they
seeded Surely, if they had, they had never
dared take the step they did. Had they but seen
the picture of one of the latter day Boanerges-
of the fiery Burbanks in armor clad, vizor on,
helmet down and lance at res, had they but
seen him, thus armed and equipped, coming
down upon them in anger, seated on the back
of a " fiery and untamed' cavorting and snort
ing jackass, with pair of the largest sized Mex
lean spurs jinglng fercely at his heels, breath
ing out the smoke of battle from his nostrils
and threatenings and slaughter from his mouth,
uttering (he and his I" fiery untamed steed," for
be it known a jackass can get off thunder of the
most damnable and frightful character,) below
ing thunder of the most fearful kind, the while
Brandishing and flourishing in the most fend-
ish manner one of those muskets which he as
member of the San Francisco Vigilance Com
mttee, helped to steal from the U. S. Govern
ment in order to wage war upon the State of
California,-we repeat again, had the people of
South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama
Louisiana and Mississippi but seen this fearful
and appalling picture, they would have stopped
in what we really deem their mad, unwise, un-
justifable, if not wicked career, if for other
purpose than to behold how sublimely ridicu-
lous two jackasses, one seated upon the back of
the other, can be made to appear in the eyes of
men.
The idea of preserving the American Union
by force, could never enter other than fanat-
les head. Even such Republicans as Greely,
and Seward, and Beecher, md Bellows, and
Chaplin, and Hale, and Thurlow Weed scout the
idea as preposterous. They say if the Southern
States hate the Union with the Northern States,
it would be madness to attempt to hold them by
force.
Such a connection would not be Union"
in the sense in which our fathers used that term,
but simply that relation which exists between
the conqueror and the conquered.
In conclusion, word to those whose cry is
for war, as to the probable cost of the war for
which they call so Justify and so valiantly, SEN
ator Watson in his speech of the sth, says:
" 1t took the U. S. Government twenty years,
and it cost the Government forty millions to
conquer Florida. was there, and never saw
more than three hundred Indians at a time
Gen. Scott commanded there-Gen. Taylor COM
manded there both good Generals yet it took
that length Of time and that amount Of money
to conquer not many more than five hundred
Indians. What could il cost to conquer country
contaiiing ten nations Of Psople2"
The mere enunciation of the question which
we have italic'sed, is sufficient for reasonable
men, without further argument