The southern aegis. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1857-1862, 1861-12-14
THE SOUTHERN EGIS.

we should triumph in battle, it may be our flag
will float over Washington and Philadelphia and
Boston, Terrible threats, we say, but whta
are they compared to our threats and Cur doings
against them. Already We have invaded Vir-
gina, her people flying before our soldiers their
little towns and their homes made dcsolate.-
According to our own scant and unwilling con-
LESSONS, not even a dog remains in Philippi, and
at Grafton and Rowlesburg on the immediate line
of the railway every second house is vacant
1t amazes me, that we OF the Northwest are not
touched with pity and with shame, at this an
guish of the great mother State we who are, as
one may say, the children of her bounty, citizens
OF these noble States which were carved out of the
territory she, in the munnfcence of her large
heart, gave rs free gift TO the Union. Surely
it becomes not us to pierce the heart of our moth
er, we at least should stand reverently and s,rdly
aside.
But further, we are gathering together our
means and collecting our men to march to the
conquest of Richmond; we propose to overrun
Mississippi and Louisiana, and some have sugges-
ted that their levees should he cut, and their
magnificent river should be turned in on the IN
hahitants. We will, we say, subdue Memphis
and humble Nashville, reduce Charleston and
bring down the pride of New Orleans And
these threats of ours are not the vague threats of
strife to which we are compelled in seedefcnce,
but what we deem the just and necessary designs
of that war of subjugation which we will not
relinquish. "They issued letters of marquc, in
wiling adventures to prey on northern COM
merce." What could they do else when we
were going TO blockade their ports, to shut them
out from all the world? We, in our hcnefccnrc
had conceived the grand and notable idea, M
heard of till then in the lapse Of ages Of starving
out many millions of people. We would not
we said, send them the stores of our tcrminG
granares, of our productive fields nay, more, if
a ship from some distant land, which had heard
with wonder that at last it had been thought of
to starve into submission a whole people, moved
with sympathy, pity, or desire of gain, crossed
the ocean carrying food to their shores, we We're
resolved that our steamers of war should bar their
entrance. The south had no navy; all they
could do was to issue these letters; and it was
but as the blow of a child against the heavy and
clenched fist of man, compared TO our scheme
against them. We cry out that we only wanted
them to submit; if they would submit we would
hurry to them with whatever we have-we
would outStrip the winds in our swiftness to lay
our products before them. lfhey would subusN
would we on such terms submit to them? would
we not die first, and must we not expect the like
OF them, else they would not be our brothers.
Death to them has become hcroism; we should
despise them lift had not. And was it thus your
IothSio iiSahl Sou w plcSci VIC VIC CHlOu w dS
it thus they expected you to prolong and con-
tinue their bond of kindness, of good will, and
fraternal forbearance? No, no; be sure they did
not fear it, this thought did not trouble the last
days Of yonr Washington; when his great work
was completed, the old man awaited death in his
own we-loved Virginia, if it had he would have
shivered his sword to atoms and died broken
hearted.
No, it did not occur to the fathers of the Union,
that the people of greater and therefore stronger
number of their beloved States would endeavor to
starve into submission the people ola lesser and
therefore weaker number of those States-the
mother with the babe at her breast, the little
ones toddling around at the board of their faith
er asking for bread, the subject population for
whom the North has been so pbanthropic, all
included i'll the dire attempt; no. be assured,
that terrible vision never startled the calm soul
of Washington, never ruffied the mind of the
just and liberal Franklin, never froze the magnan-
imous hearts of Jefferson and of jackson. No,
they did not think it: they did not dream it;
they died in peace.
do not say the people of the South will starve.
take comfort in the belief That they will not,
but our attempt is not the less terrible because
God has placed other means at their disposal
But we have two grand excuses. First, we have
made the discovery that there is majority of
Union people at the South, and we are going to
their assistance. IF there is such majority, the
Southern people are the most extraordinary that |
ever inhabited any part of our globe. Six months
ago, Mt the extreme South, when they voted for
their conventions, there, was large. alnost unan-
imous, vote against the Union. Is it likely they
have become more friendly to us since? Is it |
not much more likely that our persistence in
compulsion has divorced from us even the friends
we had? For the Border States, which acted la
ter, North Carolina elected a convention which |
decided to go out unanimously; Arkansas did
much the same; Virginia and Tennessee submit
ted their ordinances to the people, and they were
sustained by heavy majorities. Our second ex-
cuse is, that the people of the South left to them