Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1864-03-01

was maintained by the United States that 9Th
emancipation of enemys slaves is not among IL
acts of legitimate warfare In the instruction
from John Quincy Adams, as Secretary of Stat
to Mr.. Middleton, at Saint Petersburg, Oct il
1920, it is said: ssThe British have Broadly as
serted the right of emancipating slaves (privai
4 property as legitimate right OF war. No sue
right is acknowledged as a law of war b
writer's who admit any limitation. The right
putting to death all prisoners in cold blood an
without special cause might as we'll be pretend
cd to be a law of war, or the right to use pois
oned weapons, or to assassinate."
/ Disregarding the teachings of the approve
writer's on international law and the practic
| and claims of his own Government in its pure
days, President Lincoln has sought to con
vert the South into st. Domingo, by appeal
ing to the cupidity, lusts, ambition and the teroc
ity of the slave. Abraham Lincoln is bu
the lineal descendant of Dunmore, and the i'm
potent malice of each was foiled by the fdeli
( ty of those who, by the meanness of conspira
tors, would only, if successful, have been sedu
oed into idleness, filth, vice, beggary and death
But we tire of these indgnities and enormi
ties. They are too sickening for recital. His
| tory will hereafter pizloqy those who committed
and encouraged such crimes as immortal infa-
my.
| General Robert E. Lee, in recent battle or
der stated TO his invincble legions that the cru
| Ell toe seeks to reduce our fathers and mothers
our wives and children to abjeet slavery
| He does not paint too strongly the purposes OF
| the enemy or the consequences of subjugatiOn.-
What has been done in certain dist riots, is but
| the prologue of the bloody drama that will be
enacted. 1t is we'll that every man and woman
should have some just conception of the hor-
rors of conquest. The fate of Ireland at the Pc
riod OF its conquest, and of Poland, distinctly
! foreshadows what would aW ait u.s. The guillo-
tine, in its ceaseless work of blood, would be re-
viyed for the execution of the 'rebel leaders,
The heroes of our contest would be required to
lay down their proud ensigns, on which are re-
corded the battle fields of their glory, to stack
their arms, lower their heads in humiliation and
dishonor, and pass under the yoke of abolition
misrule and tyranny.
hateful inquisition, made atrocious by spies
and informers; star chamber courts, enforcing
their decisions by confsoatons, imprsonmeBts,
banishments and death; band of detectives,
ferreting out secrets, lnrking in every family,
existing IN every conveyance; the suppression
of free speech; the deprivation of arms and fran
chises ;the ever present sense of fnferority would
| make our condition abject and miserable be-
you'd what freemen can imagine. Snbjugation
involves everything that the torturing malice
and deyilish ingenuity of our foes can suggest.
4u0 UGStEuCGiOI Uk OuE tAO CQ1
ton of whites and blacks, the obliteration of
State lines, degradation to colonial vassaage and
the reduction of many of our citizens to dreary,
hopeles, remedies bondage. A hostile police
would keep "o-dern in every town and city.
Judges, like Basteed, would hold our courts, pro-
tected by Yankee soldiers. Churches would be
| filed by Yankee or tory preachers. Every Of
| fee would be bestowed on aliens. Absenteeisn
would curse US with all its vices. Superadded
! to these, sinking Us into lower abyss OF degra-
dation, we would be made the slaves of our
| slaves, hewers of wood and drawers of water
| for those upon whom GoD has stamped indelli-
| bly, the marks of inferiority. The past or for
eign countries need not be sought into to furnish
illustrations of the heritage of shame that sub
jugation would entail. Baltimore ST. Louis,
Nashville, Knoxville, New Orleans, Vicksburg
Huntsville, Norfolk, Newbern, Louisville, Fred
rioksburg are the first fruits of the ignominy and
poverty of Yankee domination.
The sad story of the wrongs and indignities
endured by those States which have been in the
complete or partial possession of the enemy, will
give the best evidence of the consequences of
subjugation. Missouri, magnificent empire OF
agricultural and mineral wealth, is to day a
smoking ruin, and the theatre of the most rovolt-
ing crueities and barbarsms. The miEions of
tryanny consume her substance, ,plunder her cit
liens, and destroy her peace. Tie sacred rights
VI IT6SIu6U dE0 SLEuCh QOWua duu bu0 OlOOQ Oh
her children, her maidens and her old men, is
made TO flow, out OF mere wantonness and reck
lessEess. No whispers of freedom go unpunish-
ed, and the very instincts of selfpreservation
outlawed. The worship of GoD and the rites of
sepulture have been shamefuly interrupted, and
in many instances, the cultivation of the soil is
prohibited to her own citizens. These facts are
attested by many witnesses and it is but just
tribute to that noble and chivalrous people, that
amid barbarities almost unparalleled, they still
maintain proud and defiant spirit towards their
enemies.
In Maryland, the judiciary, made subservient
to execute absolutism, furnishes no security fcr
individual rightsor personal freedom members
OF th9 Legislature are arrested and imprisoned
without process of law or assignment of cause
and the whole land groaneth under the oppres-
sions of a merciless tyrrany.
In Kentucky, the ballot-box has been over
thrown, FREQ speech is suppressed, the most vex-
alious annoyances harass and embitter, and all
the arts and appliances of All unscrupulous des-
potsm are freely used to prevent the uprising of
the noble patriots of sthe dark and bloody
ground" Notes of glaGness, assurances of a
brighter and better day, reach US, and the exies
may take courage and hope for the future.
In Virginia, the model of all that illustrates
human heroism and self-denying patriotism, al
though the tempest of desolation has swept over
her fair domains, no sign of repentance tor her
separation from the North can be found. Her
old homesteads dismantled, her ancestral relics
destroyed,her people impoverished, her territory
made the battle ground for the rude shocks OF
con.ending hosts, and then divided, with hire
ling parasites moekingly claiming Jurisdiction
and authority, the Old Dominion still stands
with proud crest and defiant mien, ready to
tramp beneath her heel every usurper and ty-
rant, and to illustrate afresiil Ler SIC 4oemper
1yranpss, the "proudest motto that ever blazed
On nations shield or warriors arms"
To prevent such effects, our people are now
prosecuting this struggle. 1t is no mere war of
calculation no contest for peculisr kind of prop
erty, no barter of precious blood for filthy lu-
ere. Everything involved in manhood, civliza-
tion, religion, law, property, country, home, is
at stake. We fight not for plunder, spoils, pill
lage, territorial conquest. The Government
tempts by no prises of "beauty or booty" to be
drawn in the lottery of this war. We seek to
preserve civil freedom, honor, equality, ,resides;
aud blood is well shed, when ''shed for our fam
lily, for our friends, for our kind, for our country
for our GoD." Burke said, "a State, resolved
to hazard its existence rather than abandon its
object, must have an infinite advantage over
that which is resolved to yield, rather than car
rv its resistance hevOnd q cprtainiDOint.n 1t is