The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-01-23
a Race Of PrODhe(S.

Grass does not grow on Broadway. It's
latest crop was harvested by the X nicker-
bockers and Van Tassells, and ,hencefor-
ward il ceased TO be indigenous. No
ips are rotting al our wharves in idle
ness-none drifting, filed with dead. TO
has not been seen, q moping fugitive, in
any Of our streets. The banks. with our
other mOneyed institutions, have not gone
up: neither have the railroads gone down.
Winter sends no keener shiver through the
rags which alone were to clothe US. Fam
inc has not sharpened our features: nei-
ther have the sans culottes been bawling
through our streets the frighttul demand Of
bread or blood. The fleets which lie at an
chor in our harD0r are the representatives
OF foreign governments who syrpathize
with US. The hostile ones have not yet ar
rived-they are not even on the way to Us.
Sackcloth is al a discount: silks at pre-
MUM. Thanksgiving day comes oftener
, than afore.ime and as % what Christmas
has been consul. he cash books of the
jewelers., the fancy stores, the booksellers,
and the candy men. We ca. as heartily
and drink as copiolsly as ever. Diyi-
dends were never moe cOnsOlatory, cou-
pons never SO abundant. ]. is certain that
we still live.
Men are chronlcaHy prophetic, but
prophecy is & peculiar outporing of the
south. If the seers ofthe old dispensation
were few, the st;tf-necked generations OF
the day discovered that they were at least
to be depended on. Not so with the sooth-
sayers OF the new dispensation. Like their
impudent predecessors OF ancient times, no
| failure abashes them. No matter how
completely one prediction may be proved
a sham, a fresh one succeeds il. Ignorant
and credulous, the masses adopt il and be-
! lieye in it. Over every village press there
is a presiding prophet-every grogshop
has its crowd OF such-the Rebel Congress
| is a body Of prophets. Yet a consciousness
| Ofits impoten. charlatanism never enters
the southern mind. What catalogue OF
disclaimers we have already given-it
is possible that, in the crowd Of great events
which have been jostling each other with
in three years past, some honest minds
may have forgotten the predictions SO con-
tinuously put forth by the bravos of rebel
lion. It is possible that some. despite their
overshadowing absurdity, may have been
duped into believing them. They were
mum berless and ferocious. From the
| foundation OF the Government. the South
had hectored and triumphed. It was nat
ural that timid minds--not TO speak Of cor
lupt Ones-should cover before the new
wrath Of the old bully, and believe that the
threat would be enforced and the cloud Of
predictions fulfilled
As we now realize their aasurdty,s so may
we smile at the ignorance and folly which
alone covld have incited them. We were to
be ruined by ceasing TO be the factor for
the cotton crop. The men who were grow
ing rich by tratf"king in Southern bills the
equivalents Of cotton, sugar, rice and to-
bacco. We're TO he made idle t,y the cessa-
ton OF Southern trade, ard poverty was to
follow. Our founderies, our machine
shops, all our diversified manufactures.
We're % be strlsck dead because that trade
was 10 cease. We mad relied upon the
South Tor q .larket-we TOOK every thing,
from an anchor 10 goose-yoke. Grass was
to grow IN every street, imports and ex-
ports were 10 cease, ships were 10 rot inac-
tive at the wharyes, real estate was to be-
come drug, the entire community was to
be made insOlvent, all banking capital was
to disappear IN the wreck, and furnishing
nlobs were to traverse the city demanding
bread rs the condition OF abstaining from
blood. New England was to share IN this
carnival OF ruin. It should no longer grow
rich by Cutting the South with its manu-
features. Cotton would command all such
from European centers, and a. lower pri-
ces, as free trade would hereafter be Il Joint
potentate. The whole North was 70 be te-
stroyed.
These are but Incidental figures sketched
by slayeholGing venom OF the greattableau
of Rebellion. The havoc thus predicted
was looked for, prayed .or. fought for with
desired Independence. they longed even
more for Northern ruin. We must not
only acknowledge them, but we must be
beggared also. The wish being para
mount, 1t was easy to prophecy in harmo-
ny. III not terrified by slavehohling bra
yado, we might be made to hesitate at the
prospect Of universal pauperism. Bu. the
came crazed, was apParen. TO the nerth