Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1861-08-30
Tho Downward Road.

Tho Downward Road.
Wo devote large space today to extracts
from several days files Of Northern papers, as
showing tho temper Of tho Northern mind
These will be better than any mere description
The vindictiveness Of the North is not only
extreme, but is directed against objects, some
Of them dear to every free people, and others
sacred and respected throughout the civilized
world.
In what manner the freedom of the press is
assailed, has already been explained; and the
news published to-day presents another chap
ter in confirmation.
The frenzy Of the mob is now excited against
the "peace flags" by which, as mute orators,
those who object to the wicked war waged by
their government, endeavor to make their pro.
test These far.between symbols Of linger:
ing humanity and sense Of justice, are torn
from the flagstaff, and rent into thousand
rags.
To the persecution Of all those ministers OF
religion who refrain from Offering incense to
the Northern Moloch, tho Northern people,
through their government, are now adding an
other step in the downward road-that step
which is the lowest of all, and enters the do
main of ..dowright barbarism. They have
begun to war upon the women. They have
arrested a number Of ladies, and the journal
which records the achievement, oyults that tho
work is but commenced
When the war will open on the children and
babes, has not yet been announced.
Adespotism more CALLING and more intolerant'
so all embracing, so craven and SO low, the world
has seldom seen. In opposition in con
tempt, of solemn constitutional guarantees,
citizens without an accusation, without hear
ing, without an explanation, are seized at their
own homes in the night, and stealthly hurried
off to distant prison, where they are shut mp,
as in tomb. The claims Of justice and the
mandates Of the law, in their behalf, are spurn.
ed Fort Lafayette is q Bastile whence not
even the wall Of distress is allowed to
come. What more is done or seen in
the most drspotic country on earth: Even
to those who submit to their sway, the right
to demonstrate is denied The sense of justice
is stihed. The voice even Of lingering pity is
hushed and punished. The presses which
dare to intimate that citizens have rights, and
that there are such things as constitutions
and laws, and that the Southern people are,
perhaps little better than wild beastS-thest
presses are silenced and destroyed. The lead,
en- tyranny has now stricken down the respect
which woman enjoys wherever civilization
reaches. Again, we ask, in what country On
this globe, whero civilization has so much as
dawned, is so cruel and odious despotism to
be seen?
Swift indeed, has been the course OF the
North in it's downward road Almost at one
plunge have its people parted with those pri7I
leges and rights which other communities have
purchased with suffering and with blood and
deemed that they bought them cheaply. They
have seized on the South as with the grip o.
death and attempt to drag us down to theil
own degradation.
Having determined to be free from their
companionship even in their best estate,
thousand times do we resolve that they
shall not drag US into the gulf, into which
they have plungedl Let them war upon
women, if they will Let them abolish courts
and constitutions Let them suppress discus
sion, and let them mob every man who i:
guilty Of soul We have no part or lot with
them. The very means they employ for our
subjugation, thousand times repel US, and
awaken the utmost energy of the uttermost
resistance. Parting with them under a sense
Of wrong, and because Of uneongeniality, they
have replaced these feelings by an intense dis
gust and an unconquerable aversion.
It seems as if Lincoln is, in the hands o
Providence, pursuing that course which will
force the North to repudiate him and his wick
ed party, just as he forced the South to reject
his rule. His outrages solved all doubts fol
Us, and united the Southern people as one
man. He will now drive the North to revo
lutionary renudatioa Of his administration, il
the people there have not had every idea oi
liberty and every instinct of manliness extin,
guished in the fires of their fanatical passions
and sectional hates.