Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1861-07-20
For the Memphis Appeal. So

49, -s%rfttaaa an.~fz ADaA IS
The western portion Of the county wsa in a
terrible state Of excitement On Saturday and
Sunday night last. As We gather from The
various rumors in circulation, The facts were
as follows: On Saturday nipht 4 rlmor ont
ahoat in the upper end Of Hamilton county
that a body Of confederate troops had en-
camped &c SwaflOrd's Spring, two miles from
Georgetown. 1he number of the troops were
variously estimated at from one to four bun
dTed men, and The objects of their encampment
were as variously stated, as the fancies of in
dividuals might suggest. The point at which
they were said to have encamped is the center
OF q large Union communIty-consisting
of the lower end of Meigs, the upper
end Of Hamilton, and the western por-
ton OF Bradley, numbering not less than
a thousand voters. On Thursday before the
absurd was put in circulation in re-
gard to the southern troops, nearly all OF these
Thousand Union voters had had a meeting at
Georgetown, where their regularly organized
companies, comprising not less than five or
six hundred armed men, had been mustered
and drilled under the old Unien flags, and had
been addressed by Dan Trewitt, Mitch. Ed
wards, and a fellow by TIE name OF Matthews,
In a most inhammatoTy and rebelIious styIe.
The assembl9ge we understand went hcmc
wild with excitement, pledging, no doubt, to
stand by each other with their arms, under
any and all emergencies. FortF-eight houra
after this meeting the ridiculous rumor refer
red to was put in circulation, for what object
can only be left to conjecture. It is suspected
that it was done for the purpose Of testing the
strength OF their forces and their promptness
to act upon a sudden emergency. The signal
was given, and in twelve to fourteen hours, viz:
by 10 o'clock on the morning of Sunday, as
many as eight or nine hundred men, are Az
ing toward the encampmeHt of the Confeder-
ates, large numbers Of whom were armed with
rifles, shot guns, knives, and a few with scythe
blades, as we are told. The prompt obsdi-
ence to the call, we have no doubt, mors than
satisfied the leaders, and at once d~ispelled any
doubt upSn that point. The men, however,
were wholly unorganized, going along in
squads, without any regular plan, but az they
said, bound to have a fight. Finding no enc
my they dispersed in the afternoon to their
homes.
The above, we believe, are the facts Of the
case-but what is the moral to be learned from
the facts? In the first place, it is very evil
dent that a large class of the Onion men
of the section Of country referred to,
have been most wofully blinded, deceived
and misled BY a few Of their unprincipled
leaders. They have evidently been taught
to believe by these leaders that the Confede-
rate States, or the State Of Tennessee, are
AAIAALAbAtE Jun AfGEaNl VI LltiA AlENNS OF
some encroachment upon their liberties, and
that they must fly to arms to protect them
selves. We believe that the people in that
region have been more wilfully imposed upon
and misled than any other people in the
whole country. They have been urged and
implored during the whole summer, to read
nothing, to hear nothing, to listen to nothing,
coming from papers or speeches not blindlY
advocating the Union. They have been
urged to arm themselves, to muster at all
convenient times and places, and keep them
selves we'll ~drilled-they have been haran-
guedb by men reckless in their political schemes,
with no real patriotism or devotion TO the
Union, but an intense desire to advance their
own selfish interests-so that the whole COM
munity there, thus misled and wilfully de-
ceiVed-aTe in a high stale Of excitement
have regularly armed themselves and are blind
" weaving a net which may involve their own
and their neighbours destruction. The exhi-
bitiOn Of Sunday is she legitimate result OF all
this mastering, this uncsIled-for drilling, and
these infiammatOTY speeches, made by
men who really care not one farth-
ing for the people only so far as to use them
for their own advancement. It shows, too,
that these speaking leaders have got up a
whirlwind in the CO immunity that they cannot
manage if they woodland have fed the pas
sions Of the people by vain promises of aid,
in men and mOney-until the people will risk
their own lives-EiH bIindly rush headlong
into danger, and cover themselves and
the whole country in which they live
with destruction and devastation. Strange
strange it is-that people will thus throw
aside the ]counsels of those to whom they have
looked in times gone BY, TO guide them in the
way of safety, and trust themselves to be
dragged along by men in whom they never had
the least confidence, but whose ambitious de-
sigLs have led them almost upon the very
brink Of ruin. Thus it always will be when
any people wilfully shut their eyes against ar
gument and reason, and listen no longer to the
]counsels of the wise and the patriotic.