The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-06-22

| and affecting to remember that each Is appeal.
ing 70 God for the purity of his motives, and
each believing that be is fighting for his home
and all that makes that home desirable. The
conversation is recalled to us by the letter of
Jefferson Davis to the Maryland Legislature,
and bis recent speech in Richmond. "As mild
hammered man." is this Jefferson Davis. ''as
ever scuttled ship, or cut . throat" To the
reader who does not know that he is fighting for
human slavery, his statement at Richmond that
there is not q true son of the South who is not
ready to shoulder his musket, to bleed, to die,
to conquer, for the cause Of Liberty here, must be
| very affecting. And when one who has not read
| the history Of Southern intolerance and barbar
| ity for the past year, understands Mr.. Davis,
piously and with dove like innocence, to say that
ito the enemy We leave the base acts Of the
assassin and incendiary; to them We leave it to
insult helpless women, how must he be touched
| with sympathy for him and his cause! And
then, in his Maryland letter, how sweetly the
arch traitor remarks that "the conquest or coer-
cion of other States would be inconsistent and
repugnant, and st war with the very organixa-
ton Of the confederate States" 1t is with this
lamb-this peaceable Christian creature-this
inoffensive, sweet-tempered, pious person-that
the country is at war. Awful!
Do our lachrymose friends remember set Of
politiciaus-Mr. jefferson Davis and his whole
brood of secessionists among the number-in
fact constituting the blatant majority OF that
nuinber-who were once famous friends Of the
Union? Were they not devoted to the Union
with their whole hearts? Were they not the
only Union men in the nation-we mean the
only original, Simon pure, unadulterated Union
mens Were they not always talking about their
devotion to the Constitution, and the fAlsehood
OF their political opponents to that venerable
instruments Were not the poor Republicans
and Douglas democrats sectional nacny Was
not Mr. Douglas killed at Charleston because he
/ was a sectional man? Nay, where is our good
| friend John Bell, who swore by the Union above
everything, and took the Constitution for plat
form and "nothin' else?" Did not the secession,
lists and traitors of to day assume to be the only
real friends of the country and ofits institutions!
| Have they not made this assumption tor years!
| There can be but one answer to these questions;
| and now we ask the question whether these men
lied or whether they we're sincere? We point to
the present position of the parties and to the
history of the past thirty years for the answer to
this question. The sectional parties of the North
with the good Union men who have been the
| dupes of the traitors in past years, are now sac
rifcing their best blood and treasure to stve the
Union and preserve the Constitution, which
| these old, self-constituted ULion men have been
secretly conspiring to destroy for three decades.
Were they sincere" Union men during all those
years?
We presume that there are men at the South
who believe that they are, indeed, oppressed by
the North. They have been Systematically and
intentionally lied to, in speeches and newspa-
| pers, with regard to the principles and designs
| of the North but the leaders know better, and
none of them knows better than Jefferson Davis.
His speech and his letter are part and parcel OF
his regular JesuticaI policy. He and his coad
tutors have always been in the habit OF attribu-
ting to others, purely as matter of policy, the
particular sin of which they are guilty. While
his minions are busy with hanging and manning
| and shooting the patriots that are found in his
| power, and confscating their property, and
driving them from their homes into poverty and
exile he ''leaves to the enemy the base acts of
| the incendiary and assaseia." While nearly
every rebelliOus State has heen forced into its
| position agains! the wishes of its people, and
compuIsion has characterized every step Of the
confederate power, he gently whispers to Mary
land, what is intended to be terrible rebuke to
the National authorities, that the coercion of
States" would be at war with the organization
of the Confederate States! What effrontery!
Well, we happen to be among those who do
not believe in the piety of this rebellion, or the
sincerity of the position of injured innocence and
heroic devotion to human liberty and Christian
virtue which its leaders have assumed We be-
lieve in the thorough wickedness of this rebel
lion. It was conceived in sin, and brought forth
in iniquity. For the men who are responsible
for it, we have no particle OF sympathy or res
pect. We regard them as the greatest criminals
of the age, and deserving of extreme punish.
ment. They have, without the slightest cause,
revolted against the best and miidest govern
ment the world has ever seen, nominally because
they could not secure the right to spread human
bondage, and really to forward the schemes of
ambitious politicians. They may prate of fight
ing for liberty, but we all know that they mean
only the liberty to carry their internal institu.
ton of human slavery where they will. They
may pat on airs but they will not avail to screen
them from the condemnation of mankind 1t is
their old way, and means just as much as it has
always meant, aud no more.
Supposing these men to be sincere in their
belief that :hey are wronged people, struggling
for their rights, what difference does it make
with US, and how does it in any way affect our
duty! Are we to lose a country because its ene-
mics are sincerely opposed to itS Shall we re-
frain from cutting ruffians throat because he
sincerely believes he ought to cut oursS But the
simple fact that the rebellion originated with
poiiticians, and that the people were dragooned
into it shows that it kss no strong basis in the
convictions and the higher sentiments Of the
people. The pious dodge, and the injured limo.
cence dodge, and the sincere dodge, and all the
other lodges Of demagogism, will be practced,
and they will doubtless haze effect upon unso
phisticated northern hearts; but they are hum-
bugs. These men are charged by our govern
ment with capital crime. They are in arms
agaas, the country. They have already forfeited
their heads; and it is the testimony Of every man
who comes from them to us, alive, that they are
moved by the most fendish spirit They long
to battle their bands in Northern blood. Then
let US permit no weak sympathy for sincerity to
give as pain Or pause. We have but one work
to do in any event, and that is to crush out trea
son, and destroy or Danish those men who are
criminaliy responsible for it-Springfeld Re-
publican.
The Virginia Plan Of the Campaign.
The New Orleans True Delta has an interest
ing letter from its special correspondent at Rich
mond. Though reaching us in such rounda
bout way, 1t is nearly as late as anything from
newspaper sources which we have direct from
Virginia. 1t is certainly as important, aud reads
ss though it were reliable:
am persuaded that within the six weeks past
the strategy o. the Confederate Government has
undergone change-or at least that it has been
caused to take on the appearance OF change.
All eyes are a: present turned towards Man
assas Junction. The enemy he's massed some
90 900 or % 900 troops Al and about Ale xandria,
and their numbers at last accounts were increas-
ing BY constant arrivals by land and river. It's
apprchended that they mean to attack Us at Man.
assas junction, where We had yesterday about
10000 increased perhaps to $4,000 men, under
Gen Bonham, which were being rapidly reinforc.
ed from this city Civil and military men here
differ, however, as to the designs of the enemy
in that direction. Some regard the demonstra-
ton at Alexandra as ieiat TO make important
movements elsewhere, perhaps upon Norfolk, or
Yorktown, or Acquia Creek, or Harper's Ferry,
or scme other point
But Gen Lee, who is by no means man to
Jump hastily to conclusions. appears to put lit
eral construction OH it. He proceeded in person
to Manassas Junction to-day, pretty fully con-
yinced that 'by the act" of Lncoln's troops
as our Congress word their declarations-it was
soon to be the scene Of a sharp and bloody con-
test. But there is no telling. Before this reach
ca you, the telegram may tell you that the enc
my continues to pursue policy of gradual and
almost imperceptible INVASION, accompanied by
succession of small losses aud irritation inhict
ed upon the Confederate army, until, they save
its prestige at home and abroad, and to save it.
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