Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-07-28

property be made the pretext for despoiling on,
portion OF the people to reimburse the other; anG
that, too when all classes of the citizens of the
State were treated by the enemy with no discrimi
nation.
We need not say that the impracticabiiity Of
this scheme of reprisals is only exceeded by it.
theoretical impossibility. On this point the Bos-
ton Daily Advertiser justly says:
There are many Losses for which pecuniary COM
ponsaton cannot be made for which it cannot be
estimated and many which ii would pass any human skill
to assess equtab For s these the Union men of Ma
ryland will have to contrive their indemnity, and to
sustain the burden as best they can And as the record
now stands it will be the general judgment we apprehend
that this portion may be assessed charge upon them
with hardly less justice than the other assessed upon
their rebeious Deghbors. Did not the Union men also
do something to invite the invasion, when for year after
year they failed to make any sort of provision for local
feDcei Threatened 10 the first year of the war; Maryland
has been invaded for three years in succession and
what efcient movement to provide for such danger
she yet pont She is not to be held fully accountable for
the acts Of rebeous chdren but what special proofs Of
aacry and zeal for the defence Of her territory do her
loyal show US What have they done to escape
mortyng comparison which must be made between their
readiness for the defensive struggle and that of the rebel
Virginians of Lynchburg and Peter4burgf Until
more satisfactory answer be made to questions like
these than the record affords apprehepd that the
Unonsts of Maryland will find that the country holds them
in no slight degree responsible for their own losses"
If there be any sting in the concluding portion
of this commentary by our Republican contempo~
rary it Is one which might not have been elected
if the proposition in question had never been
broached; but people will inquire respecting the
"loyaP' deeds of men who are SO "oya" in acords
1t seems to be conceived by some persons that it is
lawful for the Administration to adopt any mea.
sures for the punishment Of men who are dis
Loyal in sentiment, however innocent they may
be of any overt acts against the peace or safety of
the Government Not only is it supposed that
this class of people have no rights which loyal men
are bound to respect, but in its conduct towards
them the Administration is urged to disregard all
considerations of law and to act only at the sugges-
tion of passion and revenge.
A New Yo,k journal having recently recon-
mended that all women who do not sympathize
with the Union cause should be banished from
their homes, the Commercial Advertiser comments
the blind and passionate spirit betrayed by such
suggestions in the following just terms
"That man who has conceived such proposition
should not be ashamed to utter perhaps not surprs
ing for we all given to caresslng chmera when it
has once made It's way into the mind But 1t
that such proposition could be possibly entertained by
any educated in American liberty One is tempted
to ask himself what is the of liberty If those who hays
breathed its atmosphere from the cradle up to 1t no
more Intelligent allegiance than this That Americans in
the middle of the nineteenth century should be found
the feet of the spaniards of Ava gravey medtang the
conquest OF opinion by force of and the
of sympathies by violence and Injustice strikes cruel
blow at the seleseem of the age 10 which we ve and
puts to asking with Sir Thomas Browne whether after
ALL any country be really much better or much worse
halia
ye years ago. that should live to hear men of the
blood Of Chatham and Burke of the nhe ritance of
Washington aud John Adams twsddling the sanguinary
commonpaces of superannuated spiritual despotism
To say that any human being who nhabs any State of
this Republic has right to life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness sacred and naienabe and to be inter
fered with until he she by positive overt act in
tereres with the general good and public service would
have seemed i've years ago. most agranty superfuous
The assertion rises now apparently to the height of pnb
c duty 1t not pleasant that this should be So and the
fact that is asuredy redeems the action of the Ceve
land Convention, by which Gen Frer.Dt was nominated
for the Presidency from the imputaton upon it of
being taken merely 10 the interest of yexed faction and
of disappointed personal ambition If we really need
community t3 be taught the alphabet of political
stence, the Cleveland Convention not held day
If we have still to learn that the first condition
Of national vigor, whether in peace that in
divduas should be left entirely uDtammeed in the for
nation and expression of opinion then We of all men,
the most miserable putting loyalty in tthes Of Mint
anse, and cummn, while not only neglect but posi-
lively decide to spit upon the weghter matter of the law
Such is the avidity with which any thing,
however repulsive, is received by certain persons
in the name Of "loyslty," that if modern / can
Swift should arise among us with ca modest pro-
posap for eating the children of rebels (simlar to
that Commended to British royalists by the Dean
of St. Patrck's in the of Irish children is it
not probable that he would find herd Of facile
asscntatorss who, in their eagerness to prove that
nothing could revolt the aercs loyalty Of their
stomachs, would straightway give in their adhesion
to the proposition without suspecting its plea
santry?