The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-08-08

! =. UiVen under my hand and the seal Of the
Sso ~ States Of America, at the CITY
u hichmond, this 18th day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1869.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
ny the President: j. P. BENJAMIN. Sec
1 rotary of State.
The Northern Rebellion.
III is to the credit of human mature that
Great Wickedness seems ALWAYS incredible
h hate columns of the daily papers have
peeh crowded for six iavs With Tho
aifocious cruelties and the sayaoa evces-
ses oi the last week-cruelties and exces-
ses uneNampled in the history of riots
WI .ne exception, possibly. of those OF
! the iirst French ReyoIution-ail5l yet tbe
people ma 1t hard to believe that these are
! no, sioss Congregations. The Northern
1 mt ,l character, modified and ener-
saleo ny man y century of peace and pros
! peflty; cannot be made To CON nraharf t1,o+
TOW type of the race which has bea,, ~
uuceo IN another country BIZ the combined
tlnHuenGe OF a faith that first e,2chsins sf3a
| fhen daEkenS the human mind tT-g.s,, ! z
ca. government, the most affect povertv,
ana aVfeIous system of in-and-in FrsaSc1 ,
ing. The result has been a creature iii,
| al the brutal passions and instincts az
! man III the first savage state, wifi, some
vague intelligence of the material c,t h
iof civilization. and power to use lit. 3nt
without any of the higher intellectual and
moral qualities which belong to the age.
1t IS this class, made fat and strong upon
American food, and licentious under Aine-
rican liberty, that broke. all bounds ten
days ago, and committed deeds.of cruelty
| over which a Sioux would have screamed
with delight. But why they should have
broken bounds, why they should thus
| have suddenly defied the restraints of law
at TINS particular moment, is the ques-
ton that really needs to be answered. and
the only rational solution of which people
are even slower to accept than the rela-
tons OF the shocking inhumanity OF the
rioters. Nevertheless, the truth must be
told fearlessly, and well for the people if
they believe it in season. :.
The riots Of last week were not the mere
passionate outbreak Of a popular discon-
tent, but the first act of an attempted rev.
oiutlon. The rioters themselves have been
excited by the Copperhead press and Cop
perhead speeches, and still more by dill
gent and numerous emissaries visiting the
haunts OF vice. by discomfort with the
draft, and by that appeal which never
tails with the vicious-the hatred of the
rich. They only knew that at a certain
time they were to rise-it might be on one
preteXt, 1t might be on another, but the
draft was a convenient one at this mo-
ment. 1t was, of course, impossible to
nix a limit to their excess, or to confine
the torrent of their unbridled lust to q sim
gle channel. The first point was to create
riot, and to control it afterwards, if pos
slble, into an organized revolution.
we are not, we beg our readers to under
stand, building up theory or induloing
IN conjectures from which to draw plausi-
bic deductions. We are dealing in facts.
The draft was a pretext for the riot: the
riot was intended by the Peace party as a
Northern revolution which should over
throw the Government, oyerawe the North,
and compel 1t to accept such terms of peace
rom JET. Davis as he, under such circum-
stances, would consent to give us. .
Go back to the moment when Lee moved
from the Rappahannock. The rebels
knew better than we did that Vicksburp
and Port Hudson could hold out but lit
tie longer; that Bragg must fall back be-
tore Rosecrans, incapable of doing any
thing better than escape and dispense if
that should be possible: that Charleston
would probably be ours on the first vigor-
| Gus attack; that Mobile must soon follow;
and that all these events accomplished.
Jor which only a few weeks were needed.
the Southern rebellion would no longer
have an existence except in Lees army.
Some great bold stroke alone could save
the Confederacv, and if its Northern
friends were ever to help it, they must do
so now or never. Lee broke camp, marched
hundred and fifty miles northward, and
invaded Pennsylvania. 'r
II he had no friends in front Of him, and
an enemy in his rear, no general ever did
madden thing. The enemy in his rear he
despised and believed he could easily dis
pose Of; and he had friends in front. He
next step was TO dispose of Hooker. But
just here the plot halted; he did not dis
pose OF Hooker, but Meade disposed of
HIM. That saved the North. '
For had Lee defeated the Army of the
Potomac, the next step was to march
either upon Philadelphia, Baltimore. or
Washington, as might seem best. Riots
were to break out over the North, follow
ing an example first set in this city; the
loyal North was to be held in terror and
subsection, Stephens, the rebel Vice-Presi-
dent, was to be in Washington to dictate
the terms of peace which Lees bayonets
were to enforce. That New York might
be utterly powerless at this juncture, her
troops, for the, first time in her history,
which surprised everybody then, but the
motive of which is apparent enough now
on pretense OF repelling invasion. 1t
was to welcome Lee! So complete was
this plan, so well matured, and so certain
was 1t deemed of success, that the Rich
mond journals prematurely announced
the defeat of the Army of the Potomac:
which the conquerers would condescend to
grant the conquered; prematurely announc-
ed that while Lee would march victorious
ly into Northern capital, the Northern
people would be held in subsection by in
surrections among themselves. And all
this was to happen on the 4th of July,
when this city was checkered with pos
tiers calling on the citizens to rise in rebel
lion against the Government, and Cover
nor Seymour was at the COoper Institute
with perhaps fitting speech for such an
Occurrences, which he certainly did not
have for the actual occasion. The battle of
Gettysburg discomposed the plans of the
conspirators, and sent Lee flying back
across the Potomac. Then came the news
of the fall of Vicksburg. Clearly. the re-
bellion waste ride triumphantly into pow
er over the ruins OF the Government, and
the necks of the people, stretching out
the hand of good fellowship to the North
ern conspirators, who had helped it at the
right moment, was not eliminating in tri-
umph, but sinking in helplessness and
disgrace. Could that which was meant to
help it merely save it? A Northern revo-