New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-05-07
LIES.

ness, anu pOSoloil may tCoehy tnoANsV IL T" A'N'N
conspicuous manner than he would wish.
This Southern Confederacy is certainly based
upon falsehood in morals and statecraft
and if, as seems probable it has no
other chance for q short.lived existence than the
active PRONUNCIATION of lies, it must come to
speedy end at no distant period. He must be q
wise and wary man, and man of many re-
sources, who can deceive fellow-creature to
his mortal hurt; that wisdom has not yet been
given to man which con cozen and cheat ma
ton out of its existence.
1t is not pleasant to us thus TO speak of any
fellow. creature not even Mr.. JEFF. Davis; but
then, as we know, to apply to him another Scrip
tural phrase that "he is q liar, and the truth Is
mot in him." and that thousands of lives and
millions of treasure are to be sacrificed to the
ambition of him and his fellows, we do not care
to stop to choose our phrases, or to mince them
if we did. This gigantic rebellion, OF which he
is the head, was conceived in Slavery, begot In
fraud, ard feeds and grows fat on lies.
If any one thing has been made more manifest
than another throughout this Secession business,
il is that the leaders dare not trust the People. The
question Of separate Confederacy has never yet
been submitted TO them either as whole people
or as separate State soveregnties, and never
will be, simply because the leaders do not dare.
1t is very true, and We hasten to do them the
justice to acknowledge it, if there were no reason
for fear, they would still be prevented, by that
naughty contempt they feel for all who are not
of their own class, from consulting either the
wishes or the opinions of the people IN relation
to the matter. But Us, after all, "mud-sills'
are quite as necessary and useful in their way
as the more ornamental parts Of the architecture
of human society, it is the fear of the expression
of their wishes and opinions that has barred the
submission OF the question Of Secession to their
votes.
Nor is this the only way in which they show
their fear lest the truth should be known. The
newspapers of the South are full Of lies, and
common rumor more than justifies its ancient
reputation, for not even BY an accident does it
blunder upon the truth. A censorship of the
press, or that sense of honor known even among
thieves, forbds Southern journals, and the few
Southern persons who have the intelligence or
the ability TO take Northern newspaper, to
promulgate the intelligence from the North. An
equally strict surveillance is exercised over all
correspondence. Prudent merchants Of New
Orleans, and, we presume, Of other places, who
wish to avoid suspicion, and to insure chance
of the Transmission Of their letters, send them
unsealed, well aware that no seal lie regarded
except to secure the destruction of letter as q
safe alternative, when time fails in the examina-
ton of large mail. A Southern gentleman,
who left Southwestern city week ago, is
shocked and amazed at the state OF things at the
North. ave know nothing of it at the South"
he Declares it is all studiousy kept from us :"
I" Great God we are lost ~ exclaims another,
when be sees the unexpected uDanimity and
activity of the North, which in his section also
they are not permitted to hear of. Further
north, where it is impossible to keep back all
intelligence, it is still so distorted and so mixed
with lies, as to answer the same purpose.
gentleman from Virginia, not more than sixty
miles south of Norfolk, informed us q few days
since that the two positive statements implicitly
relied on in that section are, that Gen. Scott
has resigned, and lies in chains at Washington,
and that the only way the North can raise any
troops is by throwing open all her jails
Aud this is not accident; it is a system. The
truth will be fatal to the cause of Secession.
Let the South once kuOw that the North is a
unt-that il has rallied as one man to the de-
Tense Of liberty and our time-honOred government;
that they have been deceived most grossly by
their own leaders, most cruelty by the promises
Of Northern traitors in and out of office, and
Northern newspapers equally vile, and the fear
i've or only unsympathetic, will rise in their
strength and crush treason aud traitors together.
On this theory the Otherwise inexplicable at
tempt to conceal the slaughter at Fort Moultre
has a purpose, and the gigantic lie of Mr.. JEFF.
Davis, that Fort Sumter was taken without the
loss of single life, is, Ike the other almost
innumerable lies of his last message, simply in
accordance with consistent plan. If there is
such thing as historical evidence OF fact, 1t
may be considered proved that the number OF
lives lost at Fort Moultrle was several hundred
We have the testimony Of four different persons,
differing in their opportunities for observation, to
the same fact, of which they were all eye-wltnes-
ses. If any doubt could be thrown upon the
statement of the two German soldiers, not be-
cause they may lot be trustworthy, but because
they are unknown, or upon that Of the gentleman
published yesterday, because his name, which we
were not at liberty to give was not given, that
objection cannot be made to the testimony OF
Capt. COrsOn, wellknown citizen of Staten
l. IA 10 tha tast nf all