Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-09-14
The Horrors of civil War.

In to days issue we give the savage speech
of JIM LANE, at L~eavenworth, Kansas, advising
the most barbarous measures in retaliation for the
outrages committed by QuANrRILL and his band
in their foray upon Lawrence. Mr.. United
States Senator LANE, a leading spirit in the
Republican patty, the people of
Kansas to organize a military band for the
purpose of exterminating the inhabitants of six
counties in Missouri, adjoining the former State,
without reference to age. sex or condition. regard
less of their political views or sympathies, and
TO thoroughly devastate the country, sweeping
over it with the destruction of a prairie fire.
According to the census of 1860, it appears
that the counties which LANE recommends the
people of Kansas thus to devastate, through the
agency of volunteer bands unauthorized by law or
the constituted authorities, contained a population
of some $1,000. Unofendiug. unarmed, aged
and helpless citizens, and innocent women and
children. with the spirit of savage LANE recon-
nends TO be exterminated to atone for wrongs
for which they are not only ~guiltless. but from
which they would shrink with instructive horror.
While QUAsTRILL. the scholar and associate Of
LANE. and his confederates deserve the most
cOndign punishment for the infamous outrages
they committed at Lawrence. i; i'll becomes the
men who COMMITTEES deeds of similar a~tro.ity to
recommend and urge the retaliatory measures
which LANE suggests in his blood thirsty speech,
at Leavenw0rth.
The terrible tragedy at Lawrence and the re-
~taliatory measures proposed by LANE are some
Of the horrors Of civil war which the editor of
the Journal so forcibly foreshadowed would re-
suit from an armed conflict between the people
Of this nation. In depicting the very scenes
which are now occurring. the editor of that print
said:
We can imagine no evil equal to All American
civil war. The separation of the whole Confed-
eracy into independent nations would be harmless
beside il. We can not endure the thought of it.
Can language be more expressive in port-aying
the terrible evils now upon the c~ountryr
Il must not be forgotten in this connection
that the leading Republican prints, such as the
New York Tribune, the Indianapolis Journal,
the Chicago Tribune, the Cincinnati CONNER
eial, the Buffalo Express. and others Of that
class. after the election of Mr.. LINCOLN IN 1860,
hcPSabCuJ tcCidfCo tuCiI cntIc HbluzHccc w itb
the dissatisfied States withdraw from the Union
and pledged themselves to resist all coercive
measures to keep them in. Said the Journal:
They kno~ very we'll that. If they are determ
ined to leave the Union, no Republican will care
10 have them stay. A Union preserved only by
intimidation and force. is a ~moekery. and it is
better broken than whole.
The Chicago Tribune said:
mo man knows what public policy may de.
mand Of the incoming Administration; but the
drift of opinion seems TO be that. If pescesble Sc
ee-sion j. possible. the retiring States will be as
sisted 70 90. that this needless and bitter contro
versy may he brought TO an end IL the Union
is TO be dissolved a bloodiess separation is by all
means 20 be coveted. Do not let US make that
impossible"
Yet with such declarations staring them in the
face, these journals are the most extreme in de-
handing the prosecution of a civil war, which
they declared 1.-The separation Of the whole Con
~feieracy into Independent nations would be
harmless beside it." and approve the savage bar
barities suggested by Lane in his Leavenw worth
harangue. Can there be more startling evil
dence presented of the moral and political de.
pravity of the times than the instances 10 which
we have referredf What hope for the country
when such a spirit prevailsf