Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1863-02-28
/" Despotism.

"Despotism."
Under this caption the Portland CONNER
cial attempts to ape its reasonable coadjutors
in heaping odium upon the Administration,
under the aimsy garb of"Democracy." The
Ut two numbers Of that paper contain ex-
tscts from sspeech Of Dr.. ODDS, Of Ohio, who
was imprisoned in August last in Fort Lafay-
ette for reasonable practices, interspersed
with quotations from the Marysville Express.
one Of the most servile instruments Of jeff.
Davis on this coast. We are surprised, how
ever, that either of the papers implicated
should expect to make the people believe that
DIR. Olds's statement is not tissue of exag-
gerations and downright falsehoods, height
ened in vindictiveness by the remembrance
of his own imprisonment; but we are not in
the least surprised that that a person who
would be guilty of the capital crime of trea-
son would not hesitate to lie, especially when
by 40 doing servile press stand ready to
magnify his sufferings, and elevate him upon
the throne of martyrdom.
p This DIR. Odds says that prisoners in
Fort Lafayette suffer many hardships, but
unfortunately for his sophistry and the Of
feet it was intended to produce, he &C.
knowledgcs in succeeding paragraph that
these hardships might at any moment have
been ended simply by taking an oath which
any loyal citizen of the United States would
not hesitate to subscribe at any time or place,
or under any circumstances. We do not pre-
sumo that the quarters at Fort Lafayette are
furnished in. tho height of elegance, neither
do we believe its inmates are entitled to books,
papers, maps, drawings, and other expensive
comforts and luxuries, while tho Government
is spending such immense sums Of money,
and cmpoverislling herself. to subduc just such
men as DIR. Odds companions. Their fellows
in the South consider a tobacco-warehouse,
reeking with its stencil and filth, a fit place of
confinement for the odd Abolitionists," and
if they have single reciprocal pulsation of
the "sympathetic" feeling for their brethren
in Fort Lafayette, they should set obout the
reform, and give our incarcerated soldiers,
many of whom suffer in the delirium Of fever,
whilo their wounds tester for the want of
proper attention, the aid that would scarcely
DO refused TO their adversaries by the least
civilized people on tho face of the globe.
But what admirable complacency these hire
lings of Davis exhibit in connecting and send
ing forth these base fabrications! With the
clarion voice of the patriot Brownlow still
ringing in their ears, who was cast into one Of
their tobacco-house Bastiles for no othor Of
fence than his devotion to the Union, they
pattern their complaints after his, shifting the
scene to Fort Lafayette and lacking tho blame
upon the Administration, as the most direct
mode Of refutins his scathing charges. And
all this is done under the hypocritical mask
of democracy" 10 what base uses will
they next prostitute that once respected
name! Even on the eve of battle tho cry
of the vultures is heard shouting "Domocra-
Cyl! Tho rebellion is encouraged in every
conceivable form, and when retributivn fol-
lows in their footsteps, they exhibit trump
antly the infallible talisman, tho word ODE
mocracy, and CLAIM exemption under the po-
tent charm. Loyal Democrats does not
your blood boil with indignation when your
honored appellation is thus used as the COW
ering for disloyalty? These conservatives"
stignatiso our Government as a dcspotism.
Let it be despotic enough to crush treason
in any form in which it may raise its hideous
head.
The CALIFORNIA SENATOR.-On tho 10th