The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1863-02-06
The Use of God in War.


Cincinnati Enquirer, which contains long
leader reminding the radicals ofthe Black
Republican party that they promised, in
the event Lincoln would issue a procla-
nation declaring the negroes free, the
Lord would at once make bare His arm
smite the rebels hip and thigh, and smile
graciously upon the armies of the Union.
The Enquirer urges that considerable Pc
Rod has elapsed since such a proclama-
ton was issued, and yet no signs of a spe-
cial interposition in their behalf are APP
parent. |. seriously questions whether
slavery is the God-abhorred institution
the Abolitionists would have the world
believe, and says:-
at may be thought by some, rather
strange than otherwise, that God. who is
reported to be allwise and Interchangeable,
and who established slavery in the law as
given to Moses, should of late come ont
so decidedly against it. We suspect the
true explanation Of this to be-and indeed
it is in entire conformity with the clerical
idea that all wisdom and Interchangeable
ness are theologically the expressions of
relative qualities, and mean simply that
God thinks thus and thus, as he is at
present advised. Not that he does not
progress, and is neither amenable to rea-
son, nor affected by the force of public
sentiment. The era of Moses was consid-
erably before the day of the Parkers, the
Phillipses, the Garrisons, the Lovejoys and
the Beecbeys. 1t was before the days OF
William L. Stone, in the New York Spec
tator, and of Charles Hammond, in the
Cincinnati Gazette, and long before the
days of those greater luminaries, the Tn
J,meS, the Posts, the Independents, in whose
foci the negro is so exalted and illustrated
that even his maker would hardly recog-
nize his own handiwork in the glorified
being that is presented to his inspection.
Had God, in his first dispensation, been
favored with the assistance ofthe Beecher
family, with an occasional word of advice
from Greeley, Brownson, and Giddings,
there is, at least, room to conjecture that,
upon the slavery question, the Leviticus
would have a very different appearance"
In concluding, the Enquirer thus eau
terizes the Abolitionists:-
"And now we, on behalf of the people,
have the right to inquire: Where, Dye
priests-ye men who professed to know
the whole counsel, and speak ne DEGREES
of the Almighty-whera are the victories
that, in his name, We promised? Where
is the united people, the restored conf.
dence, the reconstructed Union, the win.
Dictated Constitutions; where the hope OF
extending our Nationality over this vast
continent; where is our present and our
hope of future prosperity; where, even,
that civil liberty which we once boosted
as our peculiar birth right; and which
we once fiattered ourselves never would
and never could. be taken away?
"0ver all these things you promised,
upon certain conditions, an especial exer-
ton of divine guardianship. The condi.
tons have been complied with: where is
the guardianship? We are deeply hui
inflated people; with little prospect ex-
cept for deeper and less tolerable humil-
iations. And your darling and peculiar
trophies-what are they? Twenty or thir-
ty thousand negroes, seduced or driven
from their homes, naked, homeless, starry
ing and dying under the parental care Of
yourselves and Government. Does the
all,seeing eye of God look down upon a
scene more redundant in all the elements
of sorrow and repentance?
And we have the right. to say further:
that in making these promises in the
name of God, you lied. What is more,
you knew at the time that you were ly-
ing. You knew nothing Of His will. 1t
was your own mad passions and fanatic
designs that you presented to the world
as divine revelations. At once hypocrites
and destructives, you have labored to
plunge this country into war, and are
now laboring to bar every avenue to its
extrication. Upon you, the slaughter Of
our battle-felds, and the desoation Of
our homes have no influence. You are
as incapable Of pity, as you are Of re-
morse. In this unholy enterprise you
have prostituted your reason and you're
ligon If the worst of all sins in this
world is blasphemy, you are the worst Of
all blasphemers. And if on the last great
day of account you do not call upon the
rocks and mountains to fall upon you,
there will be no particular use for rocks
and mountains in the divine economy.