Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1863-10-09
For tie ENQUIRER.
TOT Ute LHYUTET.
CRUSADE AND CRUSADERS OF TIE
NINETEENTH CENTURY.

LEITEk II.
What might have becn-bu: for the pre-
posterous elevation of Abraham Lincoln;
the international relations between the sece-
ded States and their former colleagues, not
eren the seer. Of Auburn could have foretold.
There is no reason why peace might not have
been preserved between them, as it had been
for nearly q century between the late United
States ard their Canadian neighbors. TIE
war Of 1872 with Great Britain is no exception
70 this remark for although it necessarily
placed Canada, as q partof the British domln-
ions, in a hostile attitude towards the United
States, that hostility resulted not from any
neighborhood quarrel, but from political diff
| %ferences with the mother country. Be this rs
it may, the proclamation Of the 18th April,
1861, banished all hope of q pacific arrange
ment. To that proclamation, or rather 10 the
! author, must be imputed the wicked war then
| set on foot and ever since prosecuted
! by him with all the rancor of a fend.
The measure md the man are both
before us. Stand forth. Abraham Lincoln!
| recognized ruler aud self-constituted dictator
| Of the Northern Confeaeracy 1t was you
| who, among the first, conceived the hell-inspired
! thought. Moved and seduced by the inItiga-
ton Of William Fl: Seward, it was you who first
| famed into q blaze tho Goals of Northern envy
| and hatred. Your hand first sliced and still
| brandishes the torch. The same breath that
| reused the latent fame. might, at any moment,
| have extinguished it. You breathe but to eXas-
| psrate its fury. Torch in one hand and sword
in the other, you have desolated the fairest re-
/ piop beneath the sun, and stepped the very land
| Of your birth in the gore other sons. 1t was you
\ who sent to untimely graves your friends, Ellis
/ worth ard Baker. It was Jour cowardly myr-
| midons who assaiied aud shot down brave jack
| son Mt his own threshold. BY the brutal hand
| of Butler, it was you who deliberately put to an
| ignominious death prisoner Of ear for no crime
but for a lawful and heroic act of patriotism
| History tells of no such ~1agitious and cold blood
! ed a murder as that Of poor Mumford, BY your
unlawful m it. is that hundreds Of thou:
sands have persisted in this internecine war
1 The blood Of your slaughtered bretheren, the
tears of their W idows and orphans, the wall Of
| furnished Rnl unolfsnding nations, appeal to
| Heaven against you. Nero would have envied
YOU. The scourge of Cod would have yielded
| the palm to the scourge of Satan. Verify. more
| 10y shall be in hell over one Lincoln-or Seward
than over ninety and nine Neros orA:tilas.
Think not to elude, here or hereafter, the re-
| sponsibility you have assumed. The crimes COM
.mitted by your iauiess orders-all the horrors Of
lawful right or duty, is but simple homicide, and
| may be justified or excused hut killing with
| ont authority is the very definition Of murder.
Your proclamation first gave to the contest the
|! character of war. But a few weeks before, You
had taken an oath in the face of Heaven, "with-
| ont mental reservation" as you tell US, TO main.
tain the Constitution under which you had been
| elected. That Constitution conferred upon you
no uar po,oer. This you we'll knew-yet you
| assumed it. and now stand before Heaven and
earth a self-convicted pe1arer and murderer.
Face it oat as you nay-stihs the voice OF
conscience II you can-scoff at al future account
ebility-an impartial world, q just God, will hold
YOU not less chargeable with the innocent blood
YOU have needlessly caused TO- flow, than had
your own hand pierced the heart Of each indi>
yyIdual victim; and sooner or later, retributive
~iustics, doubt it not, will reach you, your wicked
instruments, your more guilty instigator and
abe tor.
-. Still from above the murderer sounds
His awful ediet, blood for blood, sad earth responds.
And for what have you THUS courted infamy
and defed the wrath of Heavenl What have
the people of the South done to you, or yours.
which would Justify the killing or robbing ofone
ont of the hundred thousands you have plum.
dered and slaughtered Name one act for which
ono life would not have more than atoned.
Lat rs look to the p~retsxts of your manifesto
~ appeal to all loyal citizens TO favor, facili-
tats and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the