Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1862-08-21
ghe 9ntland agerala.
THURSDAY MORNING, AUG. 81, 1892,
THE LAST HOWL OF JEFF. DAVIS.

Ane uespoiers OF hoerty ana the savag es
Of slavery, says Occasional" OF the Philadel-
phia Press, are Infatuated at the orders Of
Gen, Pope,and announce their determination
to retaliate by the imprisonment of all the of.
hcers Of his division who may fall into their
hands. OF course this means their summary
and merciless execution. DAVIS proclaims
this purpose in letter of characteristic false
hood and hypocracy. His appeal to the
"voice Of common humanity" and to ''the
recognized rules Of war" is like the appeal OF
Satan to the hosts against the authority of God
Almighty. Never, IN any age, has reckless
rebellion against good government been so
marked by crime and blood. Not to speak
Of the perjury and reputation which dis
graced its commemorative progress of the
rebellion has been characterized by atrocities
such as should awaken the horror of all the
races of men. The massacre of Ellsworth
was succeeded by the canonization of his
assassin; and few days after, Davis
wrote his threatening message A distn-
guished Union General, debilitated by dis
ease, was slaughtered by the barbarians that
follow the fortunes of the traitors in Alabama.
The horrid brutalities of the secession muir
derers, after the battle of Manassas, and the
equally monstrous preparations after the
evacuation of Yorktown, by which unsuspect-
ing men were to be hurled into eternity by
concealed mines and bombs. have never been
surpassed by the excuses of the heathens
and savages Of the wilderness. Every kind
OF cruelty, save cannibalism, has been resort
ed to by the officers and privates of the reb-
ell army. Our wounded have been hacked
and butchered by their surgeons--our dead
mutilated and insulted-oar prisoners starved
and sometimes killed by the sentinels-our
females, while attending uron their husbands
in the nosome jails OF Richmond, made OBJ
jects Of ribaldry and scorn-and our loyal
friends in the south confined and frequently
executed without hearing. To this incon-
ceivable record the Federal Government has
responded by conducting the war with human
ity and dignity; by protecting the property of
the traitors, by paying for what our troops
have used, and by extending to rebel prison.
ers the most generous treatment AT last,
and only when it became necessary to save
our soldiers from suffering, and to checkmate
the intrlsues of the very people that have
been protected by their arms, that Govern
ment has resolved 10 adopt another policy,
and not only justified by the urgent necessity
Of the case, but BY the rules Of war among
civilized nations.
The answers the proclamation liberalization
by JEFF Davis. Fortunately there is scarcely
any crime in the Calendar that has not al
ready been resorted to by the rebels. They
cannot surpass their early and recent capaci-
ity. They may indeed execute our officers,
but this will only add new zeal and fire to
our rank and file, and long before they have
repeated the bloody experiment they will tire
of a system which will react in one wide and
sweeping revenge. Every life sacrificed by
Davis will add new leglons to our army, and
every victim to his insatate fury will be
new witness to his appalling villainy, and a
new reason for the awful punishment of him.
self and his associates.
Consider Davis proclamation in the light
Of his own example, and 1t assumes a pecu-
liar turpitude. He has plundered and I'M
povershed Southern Unionists. with indis-
eriminate despotism. He has confscated and
fequestered millions ofproperty. His hordes
have been subsisted upon the plantations of
the Union leaders who pine IN prison or fly
for their lives to the free States. 1t did not
need his Congress TO pass laws to empower
him in this hellish work He made the laws
for himself and enforced them. 1t was not
necessary 10 give him authority to despoil the
farms of Andrew Johnson--to use and ex-
haust the means of Justice Catron--to make
w. H. Polk a beggar-to outlaw and out
rage w. G. Brownlow--to throw Bolts and
thousands like him into pestifrous dungeons
and to hang innocent men in East Tennes-
see, for adhering to the counsels-of Wash
ington and jackson.
He deemed that these things should be
and they were. And when the Federal
Government refuses any longer to protect
its own foes, and to harbor the basest spies
when it directs that there shall be no more
liberation OF men who would take our SOL
diers money and their lives at the same
tine,-we hear from Davis howl that is
only an echo of that which arose from the
- II Il Al 4 r.