Weekly Trinity journal., 1863-02-28
Davis Pcrfidy Exposed.

"The order of jeff Davis to Gen. Holmes to
demand of Gen. Curtis the surrender of Gen.
Mcneil who caused ten Coufederates to be shot
in North Missouri for violating their paroles, or.
in default of his surrender to shoot the first ten
Union officers falling into his (Holmes) hands"
says the St. Louis correspondent of the Alta,
sends shudder through us; and yet the de-
mand is so impudent as to draw forth smile.
! Gen Mcneil is General in the enrolled militia
| of the State aud a Colonel of State Militia
| Regiment, in no wise responsible to tie United
States, except through his superior officers. Hs
! is a State officer, holding State commission.
! who receives his orders from State eHoer and
| reports to State officer He has been engaged
in suppressing guerrilas in North Missouri for
nearly one year. The men shot were parole
breakers; some Of them had violated their oal hs
twice. The immediate cause of their being shot
was tpe failure of the rebels to restore to liberty
an old man named Altsman, whom the guerrllas
carried from Palmyra during raid into that
town. There is another feature OF this case
which is Interesting. The men thus executed
were guerrilas--a class of men whom JET. Davis
has repeatedly refused to recognize as Confed-
crate soldiers, aud whom he still refuses to re-
ceive in exchange for our soldiers captured In
the South There sre 1000 of them on hand here
now, who have beea offered for exchange, but
whom the rebels won't receive We have enough
guerrillas to shoot ten for every officer harmed
by Gen Holmes If it must commence, by all
means let II come"
The Louisville Journal refers to the demand ia
the following caustic style:
although we do not approve the conduct OF
Col Mcneil, the rebels have little right to com.
plain of it, and none at all to avengeit. Let
the President of the rebel Confederacy consider
what his people have done 1t is all atfectation,
4 10 hunn in m N nd tn lytiih
horror the shooting of the ten Missouri citizens.
He knows that Kirby Smith hung fifteen innocent
persons near Cumberland Gap, and tumbled their
bodies into u hole, not even assigning u reason
for the awful deed lie knows that seven Fed
eral prisoners were recently shot or hung in
Louisiana under no other pretext than that they
had enlisted in the United States service in New
Orleans. He knows that his men butchered Gen.
McCook under circumstances that have mada
the blood of the nation run cold. He knows
that his guerrillas In Kentucky, Missouri and
Tennessee, all bearing regular commissions in
the Confederacy, have been In the regular busl-
ness OF riding up to citizens houses, calling them
to their DOORS and shooting them down or taxi
ing them out aud hanging them to the first tree.
or cutting their throats in their beds by the side
OF their weeping wves aud in the midst of their
shreking children. lie knows that hundreds and
hundreds of murders of this kind have been
committed by his men, and still continue to be
committed daily aud nightly. He knows all this,
and he knows that the United States authorities
have never demanded the surrender of the per
petrators of the bloody horrors, or even threat
eued retaliation. He now orders that The ten
/ United States officers first captured. perhaps
Generals, perhaps Colonels, perhaps Majors, shall
! be massacred unless II surrender shall be made
that he is fully aware cannot possibly be made.
aud his object is to inaugurate u demoniac war
fare, which, as conducted on both sides, shall
horrfy and appal the nations of the earth, and
compel Intervention. Our Government may
have need Of the highest wisdom in determining
its own action in view of these things"