The Shasta courier., 1863-03-28
The Slanderer.

That individual who would build up his
own reputation upon the ruins of another
mans honor, is base wretch, and it would
be disgracing the name Of the 1lmighly to call
him MAN.
The robber who meets you in the broad
glare of day, and robs you of your money, is
a prince, in comparison to that thing, who
bears upon his shoulders the impress of the
human form divine" who, by vile SLAM
ders, traduces your character to elevate him.
self, and make you miserable and despica-
bic, is a disgrace to human nature, and
Whip should be put in every honest mans hand
To lash the rascal naked through the land.
What can be more base and dastardly than
! for person who pretends to be a man, and
extends to you his hand in token of friend
! ship, says many pretty thing to your face,
! but when your back is turned, he goes and
tells his neighbors that you are not a very
'nice man, " g he has doubts, :" SO he is a lit
tie suspicious, y '' it will do no harm to watch
| him, y s. he will be found out after awhile, !"
he may be a clever fellow, but" and
all such sly hints, &c. That you are guilty
of a thousand little vces-wher, if all the
sins he has himself committed could be given
to the world, he would be branded by his
/ fellow men with worse mark than that put
upon the brow of the murderer Cain. Pol
! lock, in his . Course of Time, says:
i That SANDER is the foulcst whelp of sin And the
man
In whom this spirit ccnter'd was undone.
! His tongue set on fire of hell his heart
Was black death; his legs faint with haste
1 To propagate the lie his soul had framed
His pillow the peace of families
Destroy d, the sigh of innocence reproach'd,
Broken friendships, and the strife of brotherhoods.
Vat Il bo sia nd haar Tho
Number the midnight watches, on his bed
| Devising mischief more; and early rose,
| And made most hellish meals of good mems names.
From door to door you might have seen him speed
/ Or placed amid group of gaping fools,
And whispering in their ears with his foul lips.
| Peace fed the neighborhood in which he made
His haunts; and, like moral pcstilence,
Before his breath the healthy shoots and blooms
y social joy and happiness decay'd.
Rels only in his company were seen,
nd those forsaken of God, and to themselves
Tenu up. The prudent shuund d him and his house
snc who hal deadly moral plague
Those who speak reproachfully of fair
causes much bitter feeling in this world But
| tits deliberate slander-
4 y hose edge is sharper than tho sword; whose
tongue
0ut-venoms all the worms of Nile whose breath
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belle
All corners of the world kings queens and States,
Maids, nations-nay, the secrets of the grave,
This vipcrous SANDER enters.
Yonder goes one searching for the author
of the inuendo, whose suspicious and ven-
omous remarks have, while " riding on the
posting Winds" grown into an Internal lie,
but the base heart that would blast fair
fame, shrinks away before the investigating
eye of Justice, and hides itself under the
| mantle of cowardice.
The whispered tale
That like the failing Nile, no fountain knows
Has been sent afoat upon busy talking
world" to destroy the happiness and peace
of some innocent victim, and eat up an hon
est name, while the careless rascal who gave
it life, bastard like, denies its paternity
When wo contemplate the gall and the bit
terness of outraged innocence, entailed
through foul SANDERS lip of lies, the lines of
Cowper are recognized as full Of truth,
The man who darcs traduce because he can
With safety to himself is not
There appears to be a crying evil in all
communities, an evil which has existed in
world perhaps as early as that fatal period
When murder barred his arm and rampant war
Yoled the red dragons of his iron car,
and ever since its pestilential influence first
scourged humanity, and poisoned society, it
has prevailed to the engendering of disease
and malevolence, battle and bloodshed. HUI
man laws have punished them in vain, and
that Divine commandment, Thou shalt not
bear false witness against thy neighbor, has
been more generally disregarded than any
other injunction of the holy law. 1t ranks
second to none except, perhaps, the sin of
Cain-what myriad woes are not attributable
10 ~, ~ ,,A 1f
The fairest hopes of man. the purest, love-
liest, holiest of woman, alike have fallen in
its whitening track. Great Heaven forbid
that we should e'er be called to answer for
the crime. We belive that large majority
of the community everywhere are scarcely
aware of the heinous nature of this terrible
sin, and a still larger proportion are guilty in
different degrees, unconscious that they are
indulging a propensity which must inevita-
bly, degenerate into culpability of the very
blackest moral dye. We are exhorted to for
give our enemies, task we all think hard
enough, but God himself cannot forgive a
slanderer. We believe it to be the unpar-
donable sin.
We have said his sin is second to that of
murder We will recall it. The assassin
who stabs me in the dark kills but the body,
are we alone of clay, or is there nobler,
holier something for US. ''There is a spirit
in man''-shall the assassin of my name. my
fame. my honor, my integrity. be ranked
with him who merely kills the body? As
far as the immortal soul rises superior to the
mortal body, so far the crime Of him who
stabs the soul exceeds that of the midnight
ruffan. We would not wish our bitterest en-
envy so hard fate as the sanderer deserves.
We would most devoutly calculate from
envy. malice, and all uncharitableness. good
Lord deliver usl'' but It's not in human ma
ture TO be charitable toward the foul mouthed,
venom tongued and diabolieal slanderer.
The blacklist imp of perdition is not more
loathsome in our sight than be. God grant
that we may all grow better than we are. but
we would not insult 0mnipotenee by praying
forgiveness for The slanderer.