Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1862-09-10

JEFF. DAVIS BARBARIAN CONGRESS.
From the New York Herald.

SLrE. UAFlo BARBARIAN CONGRESS.
From the New York Herald
l. Men who could rebel against government,
like our. own will not hesitate long at any sort
OF infamy. 1t is not surprising, therefore, to
hnd the desperate leaders of the present hone
less rebellion vainly endeavoring to substitute
cruelty for strength, and deyising and adont
ing the most barbarous and atrocious measures
TO bolster up their sinking cause. In his last
message JEFF Davis rec ommends, and immedi.
ately upon its assemblage the present rebel
Congress entertained, propositions in regard
to retaliatory warfare, which, if adopted and
carried into effect, will completely revolution
1ze this war, and result in a most frightful and
unnece ssary bloodshed. The measures to
which we refer were introduced into the bar
barian Congress by Mr.. Foote-commonly cal.
| led hangman Foote--a noisy, clustering rebel
Congressman from Tennessee. They provide
II rebel guerrilas or those who harbor and as.
s,st rebel guerrillas, shall be punished bv IT.
Mon officers, such Union officers SHALL if cap.
tured, be put to death; that Union prisoners
shail be held as hostages for gueTrillas and
made 10 suffer the same fate; that officers of
Union negro regiments shall be hung or shot.
1t captured, and the negro soldiers sold into
slavery and that hostages shall be taken from
among the Union prisoners for, and be made
to suffer precisely the same treatm-n mt as, eve
ry rebel citizen imprisoned by our govern
ment. These bills were referred to the mil.
Q-
gress, and, as they are approved by JEFF. Da-
Wis, will probably be passed.
| Such barbarons, brutal and inhuman mea-
sures will come home, like ciirses, to those
who inaugurate them. As threats, they a.
mount to nothing, and will deter the United
States government from no proceedings which
seem to be necessary to the restoration OF the
| Union. If practically carried out they will
| only effect greater disasters to the rebels with
out at all impairing the success of the Union
cause. None but men who are blind TO all the
dictates OF humanity could entertain such san
| culinary ideas tor moment. The simple fact
that such acts are before the rebel Congress is
equal TO the efforts of dozen recruiting Off
GERS here at the North. The hanging of a sim
gle L Mon prisoner, the buichery of sim
gle Union officer, by command of the rebel
| authorities. will be followed by vengeance
as terrible as it will be speedy. Hitherto this
government has conducted the war in most
Christian spirit. Our efforts have been devo-
ted to restoring the Union, not to extermina-
ting the Southern people. Our armies have
been employed In defeating armed rebels. not
in devastating Sonth4rn--
try has been most exemplary, and, in spite of
the efforts of the rebel leaders to fire the hearts
of their followers by lying tales of Union out
RACES and atrocities, they well know that no
other army in the world has ever equalIed that
of the United States in the kindness, Justice
and forbearance with which il has respected
the homes and protected the families of its
enemies. We believe that the rebel leaders
have often profted by and imposed upon this
ciemency, and we know that the wives of the
rebel Generals Lee and Beauregard have them
selves experienced and appreciated the mag
nanimous generosity Of the Union troops.
1t is no argument against this clemency that
our soldiers hang guerrillas and give bush
whackers short shrift. These fellows, who
are farmers by day and soldiers by night; who
burn dges and tear up railroad tracks; who
fire upon passing trains and murder wounded
men in ambulances; who sack peaceful villa
ges and hang aged and inoffensive Union citi-
zens, are not soldiers, and will not be recog-
nized as such, no matter what threats the reb
ell barbarian Congress may illuminate. They
are simply assassins, brigands, highwaymen
and land pirates, and should be shot down
like dogs wherever they are caught. Let
JEFF. Davis hold one of our regular officers as
hostage for a guerilla, bushwhacker or
bridgeburner at his own peril. Already his
crimes weigh heavy on his soul, and a few
murders more less will not at all change
the fate to be meted out to him in this world
and the next. AS to the threat against Union
negro regiments, that is mere brutum fMimen,
since no such regiments now exist under the
authority of the United States government
1t will be remembered, however, that the reb-
els have already organized negro regiments,
and the barbarity of the traitors is evident
when we consider that they propose TO massa-
ere Union officers for doing the very thing
which they have themselves authorized in
their own armies. We do not the
groes, simply because We believe that they
can do more for the Union in other capacities
than as soldiers, and not because of any fear
of retaliatoryAxarfare. 1t may be we'll for the
chief conspirators at the South to understand
these few facts plainly and distinctly. The
rebellion is now as hopeless as the restoration
of the Union is certain. The very considers
tion of retaliatOry measures is an open coz
fession Of the weakness of the rebel cause.
If jeff. Davis and his crew were not mad they
would be down on their knees begging for
mercy instead of defiantly threatening retail
alton. They might as well try to avert the
blow of Heavens lightning by striking off a
lucifer match as to endeavor to check the
progress of the Union arms by talking of hang
ing few prisoners. Fools that they are,
they forfeit every chance of mercy, human or
divine, and voluntarily make them selves equal
to the most brutal savages, at the very mo-
ment when the civilized world has again re-
fused to recognise their independence, and
when the powerful government they have as
sailed has the rebellion completely within its
grasp, is marshalling its overwhe lining forccs|
by la nd and by sea, and is about to strsupf J.
treason out of existence. sessf -
We are informed that a goverpvnors ~.
applying to a Germanic Statet<fng to .as- II
our navy, has received repis0anfy t,
nish from 1000 to 10, COOS passage mono'' h
which sum is to incln44ed 1oF' ..
1