Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1861-06-07

seemed to be reached when they had treated
each other all round. One of them was up
roariously drunk, but was more quiet on being
told that he would be put off the train. On
arriving at Point of Rocks appeared the first
indications of rebellion, 500 rebel troops were
quartered here. More than hundred persons
were at the little depot, who greeted the train
loud cheers for jeff Davis. A secession flag |
was conspicuous, and seemed to be an object |
of much affection.
When we arrived at Harper's Ferry nearly
all the passengers stopped, and seemed to re-
gard themselves as secession reinforcement
Probably they were valuable acquisition, for
they were received with three heavy cheers.
There were more than 500 people around the
depot and on the platform, mostly men and
boys, one-half of whom seemed to be dressed
in military rig. A rebel officer brought from
the depot large confederate flag. AS he
waved the symbol ofrebellon over their heads,
they vexed the free air with wild hurras for
Jeff. Davis and the flag. l mingled with the
crowd and inquired of man with face that
| fancied how many troops they had in good
fighting order. He said in all about 5000,
and that they were generally well armed. I
asked if batteries were arranged to command
the approaches to the town on the Virginia
SIDE He said there were. l did not dare to
push my inquiries farther lest suspicion would
be excited. Detention among them would
have been the reverse of pleasant.
Harper's Ferry fromits situation is strong
military point, and if attacked with success
without causing great loss of life, it must be
done from the Maryland side. The rebels
can blow up the railroad bridge, and guard
with cannon the approaches to the town from
the Virginia side believe vigorous attack
upon the Maryland side of the town by body
of $4,000 men, could carry the place, or by
investment starve them into surrender
With the advantage of position, they will fight
if they are attacked. Five companies of con-
federate troops who seemed to be well armed
and equipped, were marching and drilling in
one of the streets Guards were stationed
along the line of railroad for two or three
miles, at only a few rods distance from each
other. While was upon the platform l no
ticed few men who looked at me with sort
of screw-augur, or cork screw expression, but
did not offer to examine, or disturb mcin any
way. Save at small town few miles west of
Harper's Ferry where the rebel ensign was
raised, and some noise was made, | saw no
more of secessionists For about 200 miles
after leaving Harper's Ferry there were very
few passengers upon the train, and but three
or four in the car with me.
Taking paper from my pocket l read a
letter from doctor of divinity, justifying Sc
cession, and declaring that slavery was an in
stitution recognized as right in the bible, and
established by God himself l thought of
some ministers in the North who would be
likely to say the same things if they lived in
the South.
Stupendous and wicked as slavery is, there
are teachers of religion who make it appear
plausibly good, and succeed in compelling the
admiration of those who are reared under its
influence, yet all the while right and wrong
hold the same relations to each other that they
did in the beginning. Justice ultimately be-
comes an embodiment of the destroying angel,
representative of destruction, shifting down
the false teacher and the wrong-doer, like a
giant whose bones are iron No matter if
doctors of divinity ESQ called sanctify slavery
in the church, and surround it with halo of
glory, hedging it in with sermon, prayer and
psalm, yetiti a self-destructive and vanishing
thing. 1t carries within itself the principles
and causes of its own humiliation, for there is
not a single wrong connected whit, or caused
by it, however insignificant, or obscure, that
Almighty Justice cannot reach False priests
hide the truth away in the dark and hold up
a vanished little picture oftheir own creation
before our eyes to shut off the light of the sun
and Gods own landscape of the everlasting
hills and illimitable sky, forget that they them
selves and their little pictures are mere notes
in the snnbeams to obstruct the eternal rays.
They pass away, and justice and truth. go on
their eternal course. Those who come after
them will smile to see how incredibly small
was the influence they produced. The thin
gases of deception may be difiused in saying a
prayer, or by twisting the system of slavery
with the deceres of God.
feel about the same sensations in looking
upon the progress Of this great rebellion, that
| would in watching the course of a tempest
that is swayed by some mysterious agency,
the wisdom of which know, but cannot COM
prehend, that moves things from their accus-
toned position, and alters their relations to
each other, and passes away, leaving the air
clearer and purer than it was before
Crossing the Ohio river at Parkersburg l
again caught sight Of our national flag. Under
its protecting care could doze the rest of the
way to Muscatine, or look with sleepy eyes
upon things in these exciting times not worth
recording. Yours truly, G.
!
DULL TINES AT New ORLEANs.-The New
Orleans Delta of the 26th ult., says:
The arrivals of river steamers at this port
for the week ending on Friday noon last,
were twenty -three in number, of which two
were from St. Louis. The receipts of this
week are the most meager on record for the
last ten years, and show positively the exis
tence of war between the North and South.
Of course, we need not at present or hereaf-
ter, be fearful of any scarcity, as ere long
Tennessee, Upper Louisiana, Arkansas, and
other States of the Confederacy, will have
products enough in this market to supply all
wants.
nwEach additional arrival from South
America swells the dreadful account of the
numbers destroyed by the recent earthquakes
IL