The southern aegis. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1857-1862, 1861-07-20
THE EVIL SPIRIT OF THE WAR.

THE EVIL SPIRIT OF THE WAR.
The ultra republican papers denounce
Hon. John j. Crittenden for desiring to
settle the difficulties of the country by COM
promise The New York Post says:
Z" Mr.. Crittenden and his small knot of
adherents may suggest what compromises
they please, but until the supremacy of the
federal government is recognized from the
Potomac to the Rio Grande, until the Stars
and Stripes float again over every fortress
within our boundaries, until tie al icss-v.
rebellion have laid down their last musket
and the leaders of rebellion have paid the
last penalty for fomenting the most wanton
and malignant crime that our country ever
witnessed, the demand and wishes of the
people of the North will not be satisfied"
10 understand what the South has to
deal with, such paragraphs as the above
are Instructive. There is an air of patri-
otto zeal about the style and language
which totally fails to conceal the fendish
spirit of the writer. The amount of pure,
unadulterated despotism and heartess
cruelty evinced in those few lines is be-
yond conception. The complete humilia-
ton and subjugation Of The South is osten-
tatiously presented as a sine qua non. But
that is nothing. There is no more recog-
milton of the rights of the people of the
South, than if the purpose were distinctly
avowed with it, to make all the whites
slaves, and to install the negroes in author
ity over them. And the fact is, we have
read and heard more than enough of North
ern journalism and pulpit oratory to con-
vince US, that nothing would better crafty
many of the editors and preachers of that
section, than just such result. They are
actually mad, and no other word so truly
expresses their condition. 1t is moral in
sanity, and blended with false notions of
patriotism, some of them are incorrigible;
and failing to realize their fell purpose of
hate against the South, they would only
be fit for lunatic asylums. We do not
say. tbs -as GH-,rn -pf ste~ Oh : Z ositirc-
insanity is the natural result of such ma
lignant fanaticism.
The writer of the quoted paragraph
would see any amount of slaughter as an
essential to the end he proposes. And
then after all the slaughter and desolation
with which he would crafty his frenzy,
his Unsuitable lust Of blood would demand
the "'last penalty" Of the "lcaders of the
rebellion"
Now who are the leaders 4? This sort
of talk is simply ridiculous. Is Jefferson
Davis, President of the Confederate States
of America, one of the leaders He was
in the Senate when his State seced-
ed. Who are the leaders? The men of
the several sovereign conventions" who
repealed the ordinance of ratification or
passed acts of secession, were elected by
the people. The "leaders of the rebellion"
then, are the people, and the men in au-
thority but the servants Of the people,
The "rebellon " is but the expression of
the universal will of the people.
But why does the Nc'g York Post make
this insolcnt and deyilish demand ? The
writer most audaciously states his ground
for it. He says, until all this is done,
"Mc demand and risheS OF THE PEOPLE
OF TIE North mW not be satisfedw
In this language we have the idea of
Northern supremacy, authority and dicta-
torial power clearly expressed. 1t is not
thing of the present. The North de-
mands that the South shall assume GER
tain phase and condition according to the
dictates and wishes of the former. This
is the end of liberty and Union. for it pro-
poses the bondage and humiliation of one
section at the will of another. 1t inaugu-
rates an era of undying hate
1t is needless to pursue remark upon
such theme. IF the government of the
United States is animated by such spirit,
there can be no end to this war but the
recognition of the Southern Confederacy,
or the complete subjugation of the South,
and the extinction of slavery. We believe
such must be the character of the war,
and it is well that the people should so
understand it, They have been constantly
deceived by plausible pretences, and
double tongucd policy, that palters with
the sense; but the delusion ispast, and
they would be arrant fools to be further
duped by such false pretence and gross
duplicity.-Iatapsco Enterprise.
The number of physicians in the United