The Big blue union. [volume] (Marysville, Kan.) 1862-1866, 1862-05-24
arHE BARBAR1sM OF SLAVERY.

The rebels have been guilty Of the most
murderous and barbarous conduct in plac.
ing torpedoea within the abandoned works,
near wells and springs, near Aag-stafs,
magazines, telegraph Offices. in carpet
bags, barrels Of -four, &c. Fortunately
swe have not lost many men in this man
ner-some four or five kil'e:. and perhaps
a dozen wounded. l shall make the pris-
oners remove them at their own peril
Dispatch frem WiUiansstary Of Gen. Geo..
B. Nc McClellon. go = 4-Ls- = q
We do not copy the above as by any
means exhibiting in the strongest light the
diabolical spirit Of the confederate troops.
but merely as a statapent from an impair
tial source, sourc1 which will challenge
the contradiction of the most bigoted and
partisan slavery apologist. Were it our
sole objectto show alone the most afro
cious acts of the rebels wo would quote
from the report Of the Senate committee on
the conduct of The war, in which the bar
barites of the Bull Run and Manassas
battlefield are recorded, and from which
we might extract evidence of a brutality on
the part of the rebels scarcely equalled in
the darkest ages. eti .y
When, over two years ago in the o. S.
Senate, the Hon. Charles Sumner deliver.
ed his mastery speech on the Bill for the
admission Of Kansas, he exposed in all its
phases the Crime, the Barbarism of Siav-
cry. "The sum of all villainles" he
showed to be barbarous in its law; bar
harous in all its pretensions; barbarous
in the instruments it employs; barbarous
in consequences; barbarous in spirit; and
barbarous wherever it shows itself, Slavery
must breed Barbarians, while it develops
everywhere, alike ia the individual and
the society to which he belongs, the es-
sential elements of Barbarians." At this
strong and searching exposition of the
villainies of the institution and the brutal
izing influence which it has upon the peo-
pie, his enemies, as was expected, heaped
upon him the vilest of abuse. And many
of his friends, luke-warm ones, perhaps.
denounced him as impractical and some
gravely accused him of exaggerating or OF
too highly coloring or overdrawing the
picture. = =. #"'a s-i't.
Twenty -four months have passed since
the delivery of that speech, during the last
twelve of which his enemies and doubtful
friends must have had abundant evidence
that the Senator'S portrayal of the work
ings OF the institution was not exagger-
ated; but on the contrary. true to life =
Incidents at the battles of Bull Run, Balls
Bluff, Springfield, Pittsburg, and the scenes
of daily occurrence between our troops and
their enemies, prove this We have re-
spected in all cases the usual signals of
truce; but they confound the hospitalities
of war by carrying our banner as decoy,
and having won, by so base and cowardly
an act, an advantage of position, they
pour thei: murderous fire on our soldiers
about to embrace them as brothers. We
give our wounded enemies water. and with
reciving strength they plunge the bayonet
to the heart Of their benefactors. We
have given free access to our military posts
and our prisoners of war, even to Con-
gressional traitors, and perpetual tr1ce to
unarmed rebels, but Northern men are i'm
prisoned or shot all over the South. We
have gallantly permitted the wives of reb-
els in arms to boast their family disloyal-
,y in the circles of our Capital, and indi.
rectly live from the public treasury, and at
the same time complacently heard of North
ern women, sojourning in the South, strip
ped to the waist and whipped with the
knout, for no crime bat. the love, of the
government of their fathers. We have
withheld, nay, suppressed the stsmpedes
and instructions of servile race, while
they force their slaves 10 throw up the
breas,works behind which they may in
comparative safety deal death to the de-
tenders of the Constitution. We decline