Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-11-12
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
INSIDE VIEW OF SECESSION.


days an address to the people of Arkansas from u
pen of the Hon. L. w. CAN'T, who, some 81 GU
readers may remember, was elected IN the yea
1860 to represent one of the districts OF tina
State in the Thirty-seventh Congress OF the Unite
States, but who carried away by the drift OF tn
secession current after the outbreak Of the wal
Joined the insurgents, whom he had opposed in tn
initiatory steps of their infatuated movement, ant
became an officer in the Confederate service.
Early in the month Of june last Mr.. CAN'T wa
second time during the war taken as prlsone
by our forces, and has remained in captivity unit
recent day, when, on being released for the pur
pose of exchange, he deliberately elected Il
abandon the cause and fortunes of the lnsurrec
ton. He states in his address, which IS issued
from Little Rock, the capital Of Arkansas, under
date Of October 7th, 1868, that he has recently
been through the entire South, and that, " having
studied its resources and wept over its ruin, ana
having become fully acquainted with It's condition
and the character of its rulers" he has ohoseh'
after long hesitation" to retire from any further
participation in the war, and to exhort his 1eioW-
citizens to desist from the longer prosecution OF
ruinous and hopeless contest. His appeal to this
effect is most eloquent and cogent, enforced as 1t is
not only by considerations Of civil duty, but by
most earnest and pathetic invocations drawn from
the suferings endured by the people, and from the
outrages and crueties to which they have been sub
iected by the license of the Confederate command
ers and soldiery in Arkansas.
The picture drawn by Mr.. CAN'T Of what he has
seen and heard within the lines Of the military
power of the insurgents is as shocking as 1t is gra
phic. We shall retrace few of its dellneatlons,
for never did picture carry on It's face more
suggestive moral.
Mr.. CAN'T states that, through tee influence OF
Robt W. johnson, member of the Confederate
Senate, as he had previously been of the Senate OF
the United States, Gen. liindman, well known IN
Washington for the turbulence of his temper and
the coarseness Of his manners, was appointed TO
command in Arkansas He ruled the people with
4 rod of iron Declaring martial Law throughout
the State, he arrested, imprisoned, and, BY mill
tary commissions, caused to be- executed all per-
sons who were brought into suspicion of " Unlon-
ISM" or who had incurred his recruitment FOR al
legged military offences. A few lines from this
de.pot composed the only commitment on WAlcn
respectable citizens have lauguishea IN the public
penitentiary for months, with their heads shorn and
subjected to all the rigors of condemned felons.
He plundered the people By his military requi-
sitions and in mere wantonness caused cotton tc
be burned in quarters where il ives known that nc
hostile foot of the Federal soldiery could pene
trate. And all these order. we're, executed by
"rough and brutal men" II citizen complained,
SAYS Mr. CAN'T, !" he was snubl e3r r,rnde,cl, or
imprisoned oftener all these thinss.' Tho mill
tsry commissions of this epauette a's"-caa' iePt
no records. "They spoke awav the lives Q. the
citizen aud the soldier" who, dying, LETT 70 sign
In one instance this mysterious @al remorse-ess
tribunal condemned citizen e. Ari,ansss % six
months imprisonment but Hinduen, ny stroke
of hi. pen, raised the sentence to capital punishment,
and the victim wa, accordingly executed
And of all these things, adds Mr.. Can't, Gen.
Jefferson Davis was ulyinformea After months
of protraeted agony under the vexations and out
RACES of this military tyrant, the people at last In
answer to their strong crying and tears, received
for their only reply and their only satisfaction the
information that /" Hindman was in Arkansas with
out authority from President Davis" And it was at
least supposed that the man who had thus "robbed,
piIlsged and destroyed, oppressed and murdered,
and crushed out the very life of the people without
authority, would be put upon his trial as culprt,
and meet felon's DOOM" But nothing was done
to bring Hindman to justice. He was still allowed
to carry on his depredations and his cruelties un
der tho cover of Lieut. Gen. Holmes, who had
been nominally placed in compland over him, but
who is described by Mr.. CAN'T as remarkable
chiefly for his inef6ciency and debility of mind
and body.
The writer then proceeds to sketch the reverse:
and losses which have overtaken the Confederate
cause in the Southwest, under reckless and incom
petent leaders. He brings powerful impeachment
against the executive talent of Gen. Davis whom
he describes bigoted in his partslty for certain
Generals, and as unreenting in his political resent
ments. And. after an exhaustive review of thu
military and political situation, Mr.. CAN'T arrives
at the conclusion that it is the perative duty
the Southern people, and especially of the people,
of Arkansas, to whom his appeal is addressed, K
. abandon the struggle with the Government as on
which promises by its proiongation no hope OF sue
ces. hut anlv the nrosnect of the total eYhaustio