Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1862-1865, 1864-04-02
From the London Standard
THE HORRORS OF THE AMERICAN WAR
HOPLEssNRss OF THE EFFORT To sUBJU-
GATE TIE sOUrH-DUTY OF ENGLAND


Skce TIA. lorg distant day when the fathers of cur
race and bearded Warriors migrated TO this island
from that Sctlssvig shore which is oundng
With the tramp Of armed hosts calamity comparable
TO this war between North and South has beasn
the men of Anglo Saxon birh. Twice in our civil
has our nobility been all but eIterminaed and in the
middle ages the ack Death and other plaques swept
of their thousands from among ose whom the sword
had spared. But We might almost count of on our
fingers the thousands OF coun!rys defenders who
have persisted in the most disastrous OF our foreign
ware. We think We speak below the mark if We say
that in this gigantic and most murderous Of
which is now raging everywhere IRON tho Potomac to
Rio Giande men die in both armies at the of half
million year. Let bring into the calculation the
countless widows and orphans who are mourning for
the dead aud introduce into the pic the wide desc
ation OF once fertile and happy country the ruined
towns the deserted villages the blazing homesteads;
let US add to il the moral plaques, the cruelty, The lust
the uncomfortable hate and fury, which animate the
combatants the development OF the fsndish element
aud the eclipse OF all that il godlke in the breasts OF
the combatants, and shalt obtain faint picture oil
this Pandemonum which has beon made OF the America
which under such happy auspices vas colonizsd by our
knsmen not many years eg'.
The Federal Americans must surely have lost oil hope
of col queriDg back the allegiance OF the South. Il
was just year ago that New York newspaper editor
put plsnly before his readers the oil the adv
ges which had been reaped in two years Of war; Is
the picture any brighter than at the time when the
following description was given OF the way in which
the North was "ayengins Su nt,rp" The sum total CT
the Federal loss being 100000 that Of the Con.
federaes at 223 900 comparison infinitely unsat is
factory to begin WITH the writer continues" But this
is not all. We have spent almost Two thousand mill
ions more OF money than they have spent We have
m = de 200 900 of women widows, 900 900 Of
children fathsiess We have destroyed the constitution
of our country We have brought the ferocious saw
agery Of INTO every corner OF society. We have
democrat xsd pulpits 30 that our very religion is
source of immortality AID blood Instead Of being
wants of Christ ministers servaLt, Of Satan.-
The land il full OF contractors thieves provost mar
shals and Thousand other tools Of illegal and despoc
power, as Egypt Was Of vermin in the days OF the
Pharaohs. We are rapidly degensia ing in everything
that e1alts nation Our civil xation is pershng. We
are drifting into inevitable civil here in the North.
We are turning our homes into chaInel houses There
is corpse in every family. Tho Angel of Death sits
every door, The Devil has removed from Tartarus 10
Washington" With the exception of the last state
ment the strict veracity OF which cannot vouoh
this graphic description, when penned, was as true
il il terrible II after another year OF slaughter ard
misery we cannot add to it, it is because such darkness
does not admit Of deeper shade.
Are we, then tamely TO stand by without much as
lifting up voice against the continuance Of this
horrorf While America Is rushrg to her suicide,
there none in England who will even call out, Hold
Il canno we trust be laid to the charge Of this journal
that its writers have been unmindfu of the sacred
duty of recommending peaceful counsels, even when
such advice becomes wesrsome for its very sameness
We rjoice, too, to think that there many in Eng
land who are heartily disposed to work in the same
good cause. There DIFF ,rent ways in which they
NAV aim at this enc. There those who ourselves,
heartily sympathize with the Confederacy IN their
Q rugge 70. ndependence-of such men has
been formed the Southern lad pendence Association,
which endeavors to put an end to the war by
urgi upon the European Governments the duty Of
rec gnizipg the South. Il ia possible however, that
there are many sincere friends of the North who de-
70 pacifcaton earnestly those who confess to
trary To include all these there has been lately
set on foot "Society for Promoting the Cessation
OF Hostlties in America" His object by wide asso
ation by petition, by the publication OF papers, by
enstng in its the great of the clergy and
ministers of the Gospel to put all the moral pressure
possible on the people and Government Of Eng-
land, the peoples and Governments of America SO 10
by acme means or other the blessings Of peace
to that distracted country. 1t is good work, in which
no man should wish to be backward. These soce.i,
are prepared to cooperate without jealousy The only
difference Ia that the 10 more enlarged and
,.tho basis than the other. Every man who depre
,aes the continuance Of this miserable slaughter and
havoc among those Whs speak our language, and are
or Less related TO by ties Of blood and
must feel that is not his duty to stand aoof any longer
We recommend every of any position or fusnee
o Join one other Of these societies without delay,
nd give at least his mite towards tho furthenoe Of
humane movement