Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-05-30
The Last Hope of Treason.

The Last Hope of Treason.
The Richmond Dispatch expresses as fol-
lows the purpose and policy of the rebel lead
ers :-"The only means of securing our own
independence is the sure one of increasing
the discord among our enemies, and render
ing certain the breaking up of the federal
Union" They began their work with this
purpose, and they will pursue it while any
portion of their power to do evil remains. 1t
is not merely the successful secession of the
southern states that they seek, but also a COM
plete dislocation of the federal Union itself.
1t was for this resson that they chose to seek
their ends by violent means rather than to ask
for a separation of the southern states by
means Of a national convention. In defiance
and scorn of the constitution, they asserted
the right of secession and meant to break up
the Union by constrainng the whole north to
acknowledge this right.
And they felt sure of making their conspir-
acy successful, and of producing Immediately
general breaking up of the nation in the
midst of which they would swiftly organize
their southern confederacy' and make it
supreme. Mr. Lincoln was TO be put out of
the way in Baltimore; the federal government
was to be left in confused Reorganization and
they were to be at once masters of Washington
and the situation. The failure to get secession
action in Maryland, and the slow movement of
Virginia which was disincinedt to secede both
cred their plot little; but their gravest mis-
take arose from misconception of the char
acter fthe northern people, who, unlike most
southern communities, had not been trained
by the institution of slavery to a revolutiona-
ry disregard of law and order. In speeches
and pamphlets ''for private circulation" the
conspirators told the southern people that Sc
secession would be safe and peaceable, first,
because the Yankees were cowards second,
because they were merely sordid money get
tiers; and third, because the secessionists had
friends enough in the north to control its ac-
ton, accept the treason, and make war i'm
possible. They were mistaken.
1t should not escape attention, that while
asserting their doctrine of secession as
means OF destroying the federal Union, the
Richmond traitors will not tolerate any appli-
attempt to apply it there has been scornfully
rejected by the leaders, and voted down in
their congress. There have been several at
tempts, especially by Georgians, to have the
doctrine recognized as proper thing for the
"confederacy," but the leaders are fierce
against it as a reasonable heresy when used
for any purpose save the destruction of wha
they call the sold Union," meaning not only
the union between the north and the south,
but also the union between the northern states
themselves. The federal Union must be ut
terly destroyed, they say; but secession from
their "confederacy" must never be tolerated
If they could close the war in such a way as
to establish their independence" they would
have a 1uriaus quarrel among themselves
about this Fright of secession" The doctrine
would sorely plague its inventors.
The conspirators were miStakenin their cal
culations. Their expectations have been dis
appointed. The only hope left them is that
expressed by the Richmond Dispatch II,
through the Vaccinations Of their copperheal
friends, they can produce so much discord at
the north as will battle the endeavors of the
government to crush the rebellion, they may
finally succeed. They have no other hope.
Their friends at the north did not prove to be
so numerous as they expected; but there are
enough of them to produce some agitation and
encourage treason to persevere. In the cop
perhead influence, if anywhere, they now ex-
pect to find means to render "certain the
breaking up of the federal Union;" and this
influence is at work in their behalf with all It's
force. Under any other government in chris
tendon there would be quick work in sup
pressing such virulent helpers of treason, but
here they will be bafied, put down, and con-
signed to dishonor, by the force of the loyal
sentiment Of the nation. This last hope to
which the rebels are clinging SO earnestly will
utterly fail, and leave them to the ruin their
crime and madness have prepared.