The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-03-09

Another Benedict Arnold.
The most atrocious treachery that has YET
been perpetratcd in the South Is that Of Genl
Twiggs, ANNOUNCED In the Dispatches W gh6I Eve
ming Post yesterday. He is the General Of The
United States in command Of the troops and for,
tifcationss of Texas holding the commission oil
his eeSnssy inlbis pocket And hound ID honor,
both as an officer and a man, TO protect its prop
crty and its people. Bat with more than TWEEN.
ty-five hundred soldiers under his control, and
with nearly million and half Of dollars's worth
Of forts, arms and ,amunitior, he surrendered the
whole to the enemies Of the Union.
This Twiggs 1t appears, has been for some
time suspected by the War Department of, inf
deity and reasonable purposes, and measures
were on foot'to supercede him in the Texan d.
vision of the army. Troops to supply the place
ofany that he might have disposed to follow his
example went cut in the Daniel Webster, some
days since, and Colonel Waite. OF. Camp Verde,
Texas, had been ordered to relieve the unhappy
General; but he must have got wind Of these in
tentions, and anticipated his own transfer by
transfer of his command to the secessionists.-
| Nothing in the act Of Benedict Arnold, when he
|
the British army, was more treacherous, vile and
disgraceful than this act Of General Twiggs.
| If he disapproved of the course of the govern
ment under which he served, he might have re-
signed the commission he bore; if his politics
1 jumped with the crazy politics Of the seceders
he could have joined them without forfeiting his
| honor; but to -disband the torces.. and to yield
the property of the United States TO those who
proclaim themselves its enemies was a deliber-
ate and ignominious bascness. No soldier who
had the smallest regard for that most precious
quality of the martial character, honor; no man
OF honest instincts, who holds it his duty to be
faithful to the.trusts reposed in him; no gentle.
man, even, eager to save his reputation from the
faint of dHplicity, could have for moment con-
sented to the course of conduct which Twiggs
has chosen-how, then, could the general of-sn
army, entrusted with the care and defence Of ez-
tensive posts, and who ought to be soldier,
man of honor and u gentleman, all in one!
General Twiggs has simply made himselfin
famous; Georgia, which seeks his services for
the nonce must despise his want Of fidelity; the
secessonists will discard him when they have
done using him; and after the present excite
ments are passed the whole nation will scorn him,
as the American and British alike scorned Ar
mold. 1t is said of the latter, that when he re-
tired to Great Britain to reap the reward Of his
wicked folly, he expected to perceived by those
he had served with open arms and abundant
honors; but they universally turned their heels
upon him, and even the innocent little children
of the traitor were pointed at and jecred by the
children in the Streets N. Y. Eve. Post. .
The NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
The matter most likely to give trouble is the
collection of duties by the Louisiana govern
msnt on goods shipped for ports above on the
Mississippi and its tributaries. This makes the
commercial freedom Of the river, which both the
Louisiana convention and the Montgomery con-
gress have assured, sham. The collector ut
New Orleans, after assuming to act under the au
thority Of the State of Louisiana refused to pass
the goods entered at the port for transportation
to and delivery at Louisville, KY, and other
ports of delivery unless the survivors at the lat
ter ports, holding their commission, from the
United States, and performing their duties with.
in state loyal to the Union, would acknowledge
the authority of the state Of Louisiana, by cam
ceiling transportation bonds given in her name, to
secure the payment of duties on goods imported
by sea. The interior ports of delivery above
New Orleans are twenty in number, and among
them are Nashville and Memphis, Tenn Louis
vile, KY, Cincinnati, Ohio; Evansville, Ind;
St. Louis, Mo; Whesng, Va; Pittsburg. Pa;
and Cairo and Alton, ILL., The duties collected
at these twenty ports Of delivery have, during
annum. For the year ending June 80, 1851, they
they exceed 100000. The refusal of the col
lector at New Orleans to pass goods in bond for
transpoI tation to the ports Of delivery above,
and the exaction of duties at the former ports.
for such was the effect of his requirements du
ring the first seven days of this month), not on
ly subjected importers to the onerous obligation
of paying the imposts before the goods were
needed for consumption, and thus deprive them
of a privilege secured by the revenue laws, but
it forced them either to resort to other chan
nels Recommendation or pay double duties, for
the department cannot recognize the collector
at New Orleans, who has resigned his commits
sion and assumes to act under the authority OF
the state of Louisiana; and, therefore, the pay
ment of duties to him does not exonerate them
from the payment to the United States. But
there is larger view of the subject which is of
far graver Importance. The revenue derived
from merchandise imported for consumption, 10y
way of New Orleans, into the great states Dor
dering on the rivers which have their outlet to
the Gulf of Mexico, through the territories of
Louisiana, has been monopolized by her. In so
doing she has struck fatal blow at the free nav
igation of the Mississippi, by making the inward
commerce of the West by sea subject to her au
thority and tributary to her treasury. The Sec
rotary dwells at length, and with much emphsis,
upon the singular conduct of Louisiana in assum-
ing to arrest the free passage of goods from the
ocean to the states above her, to estimate their
value by her own officers, to assess imposts on
them, and to exact from the importers, not her
own citizens, bonds for the payment of the du.
ties and for their transportation to places out of
her own territory to which they were destined. =
The control thus assumed over the commerce of
the Mississippi goes far beyond the pretensions
set up in the Old World on the basis of ancient
rescription-pretensons which have been in
times past a fruitful source of dissension and
bloodshed, but are now condemned by the gen
eral Judgment of mankind .-lSpringfeld Rep
A BARBARous uOurRAGE.-The Baltimore
American Of yesterday says: Another of those
acts of barbarism which occasionally disgrac the
South and shock every sense Of humanity was
perpretrated in Harris county, Georgia, early last
week. negro man named George, owned by
Mr.. Abel Nelson, ST., was suspected OF having
committed gross personal outrage upon the
wife of Mr.. Isaas N Middlebrook, and upon that
suspicion vas arrested and lodge in Jail. night
or two afterwards an infatuated mob, overcoming
the opposition of the Sheriff, broke into the pris-
on, seized the negro, and conveying him to the
outskirts of the town, there chained him to tree
and despite his earnest protestatons ofinnocence
burnt him to DEATH Can re fecting southern men,
adds the American justly complain of the bitter
hostility of the North to- their institutions"
when acts so revolving to civilization are its not
unfrequent incidents? g.sE ,srst ala Bio
LETTER FROM MIDDLE TExAs.-The followingi is
| from gentleman who has lived in Texas for
about twelve years. TO his brother III Chicago:
TEXAS, Feb. IA, 1861.
s Dear Brother We have trying times here
on account of going out of the Union. Our Con7
| vension has passed secession ordinance, which
will be referred to the people to vote on for or
against on the 23d. l think the action OF the
] Convention now in session at Washington will