Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1862-01-14
The American Question In
England.


ing the deeds Of the conlederates as closely !
a. we How those OF tie iecerals, we might |
possibly find that the progress towards cav
age vengeance is not very unequal Ia both |
parties. So far. however, as events have
publicly tTanspired, il is the north which Is
growing fierce and bloodthirsty it Is the
high protesting puTitans who threaten TO
murder in Geld blood it is the citizens o!
New York and b ,stun, claimed credit for
civilization and literary taste, who are ex-
ulting in the commission Of wauton de-
structiun. War ia terrible enough at best,
but even war has its mitigations among
civilized mon We do not in Europe when
We take city cut the Threats Of all the
women and children, cs the Taipings have
dope in China neither do we burn down
the city and sow salt upon the site, as was
sometimes done even in Enrope 10 D ,rbar-
QUO days. We do not t, rture orr prisoners
efter the manLer described in Mr.. Cocper's
redsbM novels. As civilized and Christian
med, we put some bride ever the wOrst 10
stincts Of our BDimal nature, even IN our
moments Of most Intense excitement
There are things we are ashamed to 90 IN
the beat Of conflict, and we count that MAJ.
q mere william who, when there is no night
raging, can enjoy revenge without danger,
and can feel Il feroeious joy in the intiicuon
Ct suffering.
There are bad signs in the recent news
from America. Already have the northern
government threatened to hang up all the
prisoners they may take at sea, aud already
bave they filed prisons condemned with
victims, whom they boast they are about to
put 70 death. 1t is quite clear, according
to all laws, divine and human, that the fed
eral government. have no more right to
hang these men after taking them prison
ers AZ sea than they have t. hang any pris-
oners they take On land. 1t would be muir
der TO d. so. But We much fear that this
crime would have already been committed
If it bad depended solely upon the will of
the northern republic. The S"utherners,
however, also have prisoners, and prison
erS Of note. They have chosen from them
by lot q number, equal TO that OF the sea-
men threatened, who are to undergo the
ssms hardships and endure the same fate.
Here are the fret steps taken towards
fer dish emulation in human sacrifices -
Meantime the two sets Of prisoners are
tortured by comlortless dungeons, hard us
sge aud prison diet. The house of repre-
Sentatives takes another eager step for
ward in this downward path and addresses
the president to iufict the ptives taken
from under tho British flag. OF course
this would he but signal for further re-
tsliation, and would but send other officers
Of the northern army into clUsa c0nfne-
ment IN the prisons of the south. 1t Is a
game of torture, the north leading of and
the south following suit. Up to the present
moment no actual murder has been COM
mitted. We may, however, expect every
doy to hear that some one of these priso-
ners had died under the hardships he is
enduring, and that prisoner on the other
side has been publicly hanged to revenge
his death. IL this dreadful play of death
is once begun, it must 90 II till the pris
ons are emptied on b til sides, and The war
between the Anglo Saxon Americans will
he like q war Of eannibSis.
Again. there are limits to the rights Of
destruction, which even Il nation at war
may exercise We read in Grotius, aud
other writers upon the state of war and
peace, that all people who deserve the
name Of nation have. in oil times res
pected things which are beneficial, ~ the
whole human race. Thus there is "a rule
derived from the authority of holy writ
that fruit trees shall be spared wherever
found The IMPLEMENTS of the husbands
Quer and not TO destroy, is the right Of n
belligerent natl Of civilized beings Yet
we are t. III, with dastardIy exultation,
that fleets have gone forth from New Lon.
den and New Bedford, ladcn not with S. l.
diers aud arms. but with stones; and that
these fleets, with their stony burthens
scutted broadsde, have UbltereG, for years
20 come, the channels Of entry by sea to
those cursed cities, Charleston and Slvan
nah" The object is to strangle these
great ports Of commerce; U t to repossess
them, but To destroy them for al time
"Of the effectiveness of such a stone block
Rde." writes the exulting journalist OF New
York, ''there can be no doubt. The main
ship channel leading to Savannah, is but
two hundred and fifty yards across in the
narrowest place. and can be perfectly bar
red by dozen If these vessels. Charles
tor harbor is equally eligible to the same
treatment Once sunk, these ole hulks
become points for the accumulation Of al
iuVials which the rivers bear down, and Of
the sands which tho tides carry back
There is q natural tendency in such ports
to form distractions, and all We have to
do Is, as the physicians say, ID assist ra-
tuFe' Becoming thoroughly Undecided in
the sand, these Accommodations but advance
with time, forming uuconquerable obstacles
TO re opening the harbors, and establishing
blockade which the highest pressure DIP
llmacy Of the world will be utterly power
less to raise" If this be ;rue-ant we
believe the fact Of the attempt is establish
edit is an act of hostility to the whole
human race. The civilized Greek refused
to put out "the eye Of Greece )" the savage
American sails in full security to pa-alyze
all the senses by which the southern States
might communicate in all time to come
with the outer wOrli. at must be cln-
fessed" says this exultiug vandal, "thcre
is something wonderfully gratifying in this
silent, resistless peace Of Mathematician
justice. The calmness Of the method is
fne, and chat ddeHrre in its way; no vul-
gar theatrical vengeance, no laying of the
city in ashes, as those hatred braggarts of
Charleston threatened, but silent blight
falling on them as th-ugh out of the night
-daaily, inevitabie-and leaving those
perhdous cities In u petrihed death in life"
People who would do an act like this would
pluck the sun out of the heavens to put
their enemies iu darkness, or dry up the
rivers that no grass might forever grow or
the soil where they had been offended -
Yet such men ask for our sympathies, and
there are scattered few among us who are
not ashamed to identify themselves with
Thorn and their doings.
Later from Port Royal
New York: Jan 10.
The steamer Oriental. from Port Royal
the 9th, arrived this morning. She met