The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-09-16
swE ARE MAKING HISTORY,,---
WHAT KIND of HISTORY WILL
1T BE?

We are frequently met by our friends, who
say, why do you not comment and hold up to
public execration more prominently this and
that enormity and outrage upon public liberty
and common decency, committed by this Ad-
ministration and lis agents &? Our reply Is, we
do our best, but to suitably notice all the afro
cities that come under our observation would
REQUIRE paper as large as the sky and a pen
as large as a mountain to transcribe it. The
Administration and IT'S agents, therefore, ac-
tually obtain considerable impunity from criti-
3 cism, from the fact that they do so much that
lis outrageous that it is beyond human ability
to notice it all. -
. tory of this era, and picture in narrative form
the cruelty, tyranny and oppression the COW
ardce, the folly and the wickedness OF the
faction which has ruled the United States for
the last two years, it will be admitted to be
the most dreadful record that the world has
seen in modern times. s@a seoaoiia =
We know of no crime against popular or in
dividual liberty-against law, equity and JUS
tice-against the peace and prosperity of the
country-that has not been committed by
turbulent, intoIerent, fanatical and blood-thjrs
ty faction, which has been dominant in the
| North. Their proceedings have been writton
! in the Internal violence of mobs-in the mean
| er and more oppressive form, but equally ille-
gal manner of governmental persecution and
proscription--in the tyranny and unscrupu-
Ious exercise Of power by military command
ers and courts-martial-in the sighs and groans
of thousands of honest and patriotic Demo
Gratis, who, for opinions sake, in the loyal
| States, have been incarcerated in the filthy
dungeons and military prisons, and camps OF
| the country-in the heart-broken lamen tatlons
and suferings of their families, thus by the
| absence of their protectors and heads reduced
| from affuence to want and penury. 1hey
will be recolected in the blood of the brave,
chivalric and patriotic young men, which has
been poured out like water to restore condl-
ton which has been forever lost by the mad
ness, blind and wicked passion, OF the evil
men who have swayed the counsels of the Ad-
ministraton They will be remembered in
the story of broken pledges, of violated con-
stitutions, of disregarded laws, of usnrpation
and violence, that has so distinguished the
times in which we live, and accomplished the
ruin of our noble form of Government! They
will be remembered in that same intolerance
that has carried political feelings into all the |
walks of private ife--broken up the harmony
of neighbors, friends and relatives-by the |
same wicked spirit of bigotry and intolerance |
that had previously brought about the war |
between the States, and plunged the land into |
mourning and blood They will not be for
gotten, because they marked out every Demo-
crat, who disagreed with their insane and cruel +
policy, victim of oppression, who was to
be follo wed by governmental, political, person
al and social outrage. These things have
been written deep in the hearts of the people,
and, with or without historical narration, will
be transmitted to future generations as warn
ings or examplesl az
Almost every man opposed to the policy OF
this despotic Administration has his tale OIL
individual suffering to recount, and his recol.
lections of affronts and injuries sustained for
an honest difference of opinion, that he will
never forget-that time can never erase from
his heart. The spirit which has been abroad,
and which has desolated our fair land, has
been a more malignant and wicked one than
any of which history has any mention. Those
who have instigated it and been its leaders
have been so wicked, that the worst and most
desperate characters of other ages and other
countries seem saints in comparisons. Such
will be the impartial judgment of history
when the passions and prejudices Of this era i
shall have subsidized, and the light of reasoal |
and calm reflection shall once more govern |
men. One of the most prominent features of
the time is the strange and extraordinary bar c
barity and cruelty chat has rendered the last !
two years so famous, and which has sought /
qualification in the acts of tyranny which would '
have caused Nero to blush, and from which E
Robespierre would have recoiled in horror n
md shame. Even these acts have been but
faint examples of the distemper and madness
which has seized hold of large portion of
,ur population, and which finds expression in
words and wishes that are disgrace to civil
,ation and Christianity, and shame even Pa
,anism and Mohammedanism.
Not only will the cruelty and atrocity of :,
he men now in power, and the fendishness u
# the spirit they have exhibited, be suitably
raced by the historians pen, but they will IL = =
ustrate the pages of tho novelist, the poet and
he dramatist. When characters from real !.
lie can be drawn of this cru, and the press :. :.
nd speech are free, the cheeks of youth and =
eauty will mantle with indignation and the =
yes suffrse with tears at the story of the e
TroDgs and the suffrings of those places, for e. g.
yer accursed in the memory of every patriot !.
, American, Forts Lafayette and Warren u u
lorious names-desecrated to the use of in y =
amous Bastiles, as if in mockery and dsdain =
nd of the hundreds of other military camps
nd prisons scattered through the country
hey will sympathize with the sufIerings of
he unhappy and innocent inmates, and exc il
rate the authors of their oppression We ar
ave no doubt, too, that, in the not distant fu- IT
are, the curtain will rise upon the dramatic I,
age upon the scenes that commemorate and cs
litably describe the crueitics and enormities er
the guilty agents of power, and that, from cd
ae pit to the crowded gallery, the execrations ar
i'll be unanimous and hearty at their infamy, M
hile the tears will flow unbidden from many Dc
a eye at the recital of their barbarities. BY nf
lie pen in history, in narrative and in poetry, de
pom the stage of the theater and by the pen th
/ of the artist and the painter, the scenes of to
ruelty and rnfianism that we have alluded to ri
i'll go down to the eye and the ear of future as
enerations, to the last chapter of recorded th
me. 54.s:z ~ - ;5- a.
We are, indeed, making history, and as pos a.
rity looks back upon the gallant, heroic and of
rilliant Vallandigham, the victim of slander be
le most foul, of injustice, and suffering the
ost palpable, and of oppression the most un-
sampled, and of power the most relentless =
I'D inscriptions, it will afford most del ight M
il contrast of moral and intellectual power to an
lie crowd of parasites of those who dogged his To-