The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1863-12-03
who Gave slavery its Deepest
wound

1t would certainly seem aS II the mad
ness so manifest in the conduct OF those
who began this war was to be carried out
in its most rabid form, even unto tee end.
The manowner aud bis frieLds would uphold
and perpetuate slavery, but every act OF
theirs tends towards its destruction =
Their very successes in the field seem only
to seal It's doom more certainly; for after
each one Of those seeming triumphs, there
has been exhibited so ierocious and insult
ing q Iemeanor, such q malicious ard
revengful spirit, that the northern mind
is more and more determined on Its abso-
Lutte extinction. Our people have hesita-
ted at times, as the contest went on,
doubtful whether an institution so deep
rooted could safely be touched or destroyed
by the national arm.
Had not Johnston come up with his
opportune reinforcements when the routed
rebels were flying from the field on that
sanguinary day Of the first Manassas, who
can say that an early peace might not
have restored slavery to its old position in
wore. aggressive, turbulent, defiant Can
the leopard change his spots Ii was
not to be. With an iniatuation marvell-
GUS and inscrutaole, those red handed
rebels forgot or needed not their narrow
escape from destruction, and shouted aloud
with insane exultation, and boasted as if
they had repeated Waterloo. They stood
bleeding and exhausted On that hard
fought field, unable to pursue, afraid to
venture from their lines. Yet with
recovered breath came back their wonted
folly and presumption, and they ezulted
as though they had mastered the continent.
Their savagery was let loose. They
carved the bones Of our dead soldiers into
ornaments for their women, they shot our
defenceless men for looking from their
prison windows. and uttered yells Of eXu.t-
alton over the prospect Of sackiug northern
cities.
Our northern people perceived the trua
character and purposes OF these halt savage
people, and arose to the work before them.
They were more than ever determined to
quench the fire of rebellion, and from that
day to this their progress has been onward.
Month by month the traitors are pressed
backward, and through their dislocated
lines come forth thousands of liberated
bondmen Not until the Mississippi shall
reverse its downward current can these
fugitives return to servitude-not until
some miracle from diabolic sources shall
reinvigorate the shattered confederacy can
the great Moloch be set up in its original
place Politicians may look back longing
ly for vanished fesh>pots, and half disloy-
al governors may still attempt a dalliance
with the accursed thing. But all is vain
and hopeless for the devoted worshipers
Up that easy ladder Of preferment they
can never climb again, slippery as it now
is with blood and tears.
thus has ithappencd that the ierceness
and malignity Of the slave power, though
undoubtedly an element of strength aad
success, has also had counteraciive
consequence. The spectacle of rage and
violence, exceeding by far what the north
had anticipated, aroused in our people an
unconquerable resolution to quell the re-
bellion, and at the same time inclined
them to regard slavery as its primary
cause Day by day has this opinion
become general and confirmed among
rejecting men, until now it begins to sway
the masses, and impel the government to
corresponding action. With each blow
aimed at the guilty institution, the rebels
have writhed and howled, and struck
more desperately to defend it. But we all
see .hat their power for evil is steadily
diminishing. No longer are they foolish
enough to talk OF invading these northern
States-scarcely can they defend that
remnant OF the insurrectionary district
which now remains to them.
The rulers Of Europe, too, after some
vacillation and coquetry with the rebels,
seem inclined to aid them no further
For this We may thank the right minded
masses of the European population, whose
feelings were averse to human slavery,
and whose wishes could not safely be
dis-cgarded They submitted chceriuliy
to some loss and privation, worked along
as best they could with inferior cotton,
and gradually accommodated themselves to
a condition of things only rem ovable by a
sacrifice of principle. Our rebels had
boas.ed they would convulse the world by
withdrawing cotton, and force the Eure-
pean governments to aid them in uphold
ing slavery. Equally futile was their
threat against the free States Of famine,
anarchy and revolution. We also can
exist without cotton, and need not to
PROSTATE ourselves before Juggernaut :
Never before have folly and arrogance
been so rebuked.- The rebel was not only
confden, in his ability to coerce mankind
into sanction of his horrible institution,
but he vaunted his expectation and purpose
so brutality and offensively, that he dis