Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-04-17
Opinions of the Press on the Civil War
The Rlnna Plnred WHARF IL RnInnn.

RODERICK RANDOM.
| Opinions of the Press on the Civil War
The Blame Placed Where II Belongs.
Saturdays New York Eeening Post re-
marks: rs...r..
The Confederate traitors have chosen war
| After four months Of elaborate preparation
they have at last made haste to attack Major
Anderson and his small force, before his
succor could arrive.
The long siege and the hasty attack are
alike exemplars Of Southern chivalry. For
| four months the rebels have brought their
! best means and skill to the one object of
dislogding eighty pale, patient, loyal soldiers
from a Federal fortress. They have sur
rounded Sumter with almost as many batter.
les as Major Anderson has men. They have
spent thousands the construction of bomb
| proof contrivances, providing safety for
themselves while spiling the blood of loyal
I men: They have arranged with minute
| precision every mortar, columbiad and great
gun. They have gathered an army of 5000
traitors to give battle TO less than hundred
faithful soldiers. They have boasted and
bullied as only the Southern chivalry can
boast and bully.
They have done their best to gain their
prize without risking their lives; and when,
at last, it was evident even to them that the
Government was no longer to be bullied,
they have hRstened to open their batteries
upon, the starving handful in Sumner, in
the hope to weary them out before help
could reach them.
The Motley of the next century will dwell
with generous ardor upon the picture of the
long vigil in Sumter. He will describe the
midnight transfer from Fort Moultrie He
will gibbet in one scornful sentence the
traitor Floyd, who could give the last mo.
ments of his official life to penning studied
insult to the brave Anderson. he will re-
count the weary watch of the little garrison
for endorsements which an imbecile and
vacillating President ordered to-day and re-
called to morrow. He will admire the manly
silence with which brave soldier bore t6e
calumnies of enemies. He will picture the
eighty men, looking out daily upon the vast
preparations made for their destruction;
obedient to their orders to act only ION the
defensive; daily giving of their failing
strength to add what little they might to the
defensesof their post; watching with anxious
eyes the decreasing store of provisions;
their faces paling with the long confinement,
their brave hearts never faltering from their
duty. ------
He will picture the calm Sabbath morning
on which the women and children took their
sad farewell from the garrison. He will re.
cite the impudent demands of traitors upon
a loyal Government He will relate, with
6SOAuY bldb oN6u III Luis great
crisis of the nations history there was not
wanting handful of pitiful traitors at the
North to glory in the progress of treason.
Lastly, he will describe the attack-made
hastily, in fear of the arrival of re enforce
ments. The first guns at early day from
Fort Moultrie; the reply from Sumter; the
growing circle of fire around the devoted
garrison; the crowds gathered in the city's
front to witness the unequal strife, and glory
in tho MT of b. al -
their countrymen. He will relate that in
this solemn moment a late United States
Senator fired a gun by way of amusement"
and that 5000 South Oarolinian women, de-
nying the gentle instincts of womanhood,
gathered TO view the bloody spectacle, and
''staId ready to-day to respond to any sacri-'
fee that may be required of them"
= He will speak Of the prayers arising to
God from the throbbing hearts of millions
OF loyal men and wonderland it will be his
to describe how those prayers were an
swered. '.'a. -i. f'' 80 ~ ~ ~.
This is a day which will be ever memora.
bic in our annals. To-day treason has risen
from clustering words to cowardly deeds. \
Men made reckless by a long life of political
gsmbling--for years cherishing treason next
their hearts while swearing fealty to the
Goyernment-haye at last goaded them
selves on to murder a small band of faithful
issue of battle. To-day, who hesitates in his
allegiance is traitor with them. i
But there is no hesitation. The country
responds as one man to the call upon its re-
sources. We have been patient till patience
was almost vice. The Administration has
done all, and more than all, that the most
scrupulons regard for life demanded Of it.
Even the last words Of the brave Anderson
were calm and temperate, and in accordance
with his strictest duty. If there was an atom
left Of that chivalry Of which South Carolina
boasts so loudly, even, traitors would have
respected the bravery Of Sumter's garrison,
and turned the battle, if battle they must
have, to another point But they glory in
cowaTdly glee, in their thousands huntingto
death the loyal eighty. They have we'll
learned the ignohle lesson in their blood
hound hunts of defenceless slaves. ft
To day the nation looks TO the Govern
ment to put down treason for ever. 1t will
not grudge the men or the money which are
needed. We have enjoyed for eighty years
the blessings of liberty and constitutional
government. It'll small sacrifice we are
now to lay upon the altar. In the name of
constitutional liberty, in the name Of law and
order, in the name of all that is dear to free |
men, we shall put down treason and restore
the supremacy of the Constitution. Let but
the Government prove itself equal to the
great occasion, and the people will not fail it.
J The Chicago EVsaing Journal states: ..,
War has actually commenced. The rebels
at Charleston opened hre upon Fort Sumter
yesterday. They fred the first gun, dsclar-
ing war against the Government of the
United States, in the insane hope Of coercing |
the Government into recognizing their in.
dependence.
They who Stake up the sword shall perish !
by the sword and the, SeeessiOnists have |
neither the superiority of means, nor that
potent CONSEQUENCES of)being engaged in a
just and righteous cause which Inspires con-
fdence, to rely upon for a successful issue in
their favor of the conflict they have forced !
upon the Government, The, folly Of their
hopes is only equRled by the rLshness of |
their conduct They have every thing to
lose, and nothing to gain by waging a war
such as they haye now undertaken. tliila |
The Administration is but doing its duty |
in what it has done or proposes to do, in re- |
gard 10 holding and strengthening the forts |
now in its possession. This it hoped to do |
peaceably, but is determined 10 do IL at all 4