The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1863-09-07

QOAlfty) VIII De pel0 " MD OEE lVA w.
81 kinda Of CLEAN COTTON AND LINEN
LINcoLx's LErrER.-The enemies OF
Mr.. Lincoln have sometimes taken occa-
sion to say that papers presented to the
world with his signature attached, were
not written by him. We think no man
will be found of o nature so skeptical as
to doubt that this letter is genuine 1t
has a flat-boat, rail-splitting, whlskey-
drinking odor about it which allows OF
no mistake with regard to its origin
We doubt whether any other man IN his
dominions could have written exactly
. such a letter. To find one who could
come nearest to it, We should be compelled
to pass IN review the whole army Of fiat
boatmcn that once made the Mississippi
and the Ohio vocal with ribald jests and
obscene songs.
In the days Of the Union it was FASH
ionable to defend every infringement Of
the Constitution by reference to the gen.
eral welfare clause That was an enact
ment 80 wide and indefinite in it's signif-
cation that it was supposed to cover eve
ry usurpation and justify every violence.
1t was the entrance by which John Quin-
CIV Adams said he could drive wagon
and team through the Constitution. Lin
coin scorns to take shelter under any
law of indefinite Specification. He is
a military despot. and he regards his
sword knot as a better warrant for his
actions than any law that ever was en-
acted. He claims tho right 10 enamel
pate our slaves, although their possession
is guaranteed by the very Constitution,
for the restoration Of which he processes
to be now fghting--under his authority
as Commander.in-C Chief of the Army and
Navy Of the United States This is the
bo!dest ayowal Of the existence Of mil
itary despotism we have yet seen. 1t
places the property Of every man III Yam
keedom, as well as the. Contedcracy, abso
1utely at his disposal, whenever he may
think proper to denounce such man as
an enemy. The most striking feature Of
the claim is, that it utterly aboishes the
Constitution for the sake of preserving
it. He and his party still regard, or af-
feet to regard, the people Of the Conied-
eracy as citizens Of the Union. If so,
they are under the protection Of the laws
OF the Union. The laws Of the Union
prescribe trial by jury for the crime of
treason, and condemnation only upon
proof of guilt satisfactory to such jury.
they take especial care to repudiate all at
ta,nder of blood, and forfeiture Of every
kind. Yet here is a President who I'M
dertakes, by simple proclamation, to
do what the Constitution does not allow
to be done in any case, under any Cir
cumstances.
His rule Of warfare would have suited
Timour or Genghis Khan, and was ex-
tensively acted upon by those enlighten-
ed models But it has been repudiated
by every Christian people for two hun
dred years. The last that followed it
was Marshal Turenne, when he ravaged
the Palatinate with fire and sword by
which act he doubtless damned his own
soul, and earned for himself the cxecra-
tion of posterity throughout the civilized
world. Lincoln, however, but avows the
principle on which his plunderers have
all along been acting Establish the prin-
ciple that it is lawful to destroy every
thing which can he useful to an enemy,
and you justify the inter destruction of
every country into which an enemy may
penetrate Houses, mills, barns, grow
ing crops, cattle, horses, sheep, agricul-
tural implements, cities, towns, villages,
everything which can support life or be
the subject of property, is useful to an
enemy. We thus find the ruler Of a
people, calling themselves free and en-
1ightened, enunciating doctrines which
would disgrace the Sepoys, and which
even in the East have never been acted
on since the day when Hydes Ally des-
troyed the Carnatic.
The letter closes with the most humil-
iating confession, or rather avowal, that
ever covered nation with shame. The
mighty Empire Of Yankee Doodle, num-
bering 10000, 900 of stationary inhabi-
tants, and an untold number Of immi-
grants, after trying in vain for two years
and half to crush people not One-
fourth part as numerous as themselves,
is indebted, according to its chief, for its
most important victory to the valor OF
negroes But for these negroes, we are
allowed to infer, the Yankees would have
been driven like whipped hounds, yelling
and screaming, before the Confederates.
Il there is more shameful avowal upon
record we never saw it. 1t proves exact
iy what we have always said that the
Yankee is inferior to the negro, aud il
Gibbon had known anything Of the Yam
kee he would never have said that the ne
gro race is inferior to the white race,
without putting in a salvo for the Infinite
degradation Of Yankee Doodle
Tue FINANCIAL QUESTION OBJ