The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-04-09

11I LIN w - - - -
Wednesday, April 8.
eWe don't know Of better instance
az retrfbutive Justice than is now exhibited
IN the person and condition Of Albert Pike
Of ArkAnsas. He II q New Englander-
was born and reared and educated among
her freemen and amid the teachings Of JUS
tice and liberty. He wandered into Ar
kansas, became IN editor, lawyer and pub
lie man. He soon forgot or trampled upon
the lessons of wis H,and the spirit Of hu-
man equality tau 2. Him in his youth, and
waited ON every breeze Of his native air.
He became an advocate Of tho tnfamy Of
slavery-its degrading aud abominable
practices, and its bssotting and dehuman-
ixing dsspot'sms. He was not only ito ad-
vocate. He became its chosen champion.
And when treason became ripe for It's work
of ruin and destruction, he was among the
first 70 swell its tiood, became one Of its
leaders, and, to prove how his nature had
been transformed and brutalized, exerted
his rernicious bot prevailing influence to
join themselves to the rebel cause. He even
led them in battle against his own coun-
trymen-his own early friends, and en-
couraged their native ferocity to its most
savage exercise against those who were
battling for the Flag whose glory he had
sung, and which he had often sworn to de-
fsnd and maintain.
He then thought he was on the high road
to future honors in the Confederacy that
was to be. His perversity confided in the
promises Of success. His poor ambition
was lured by the delusion Of titles and of
fees which were to crown those who could
do most to destroy the Republic of their
birth. But the fate Of war was adverse. -
In Arkansas the rebels were almost invari-
State has been redeemed from traitor con-
troll. Pike himself, Notwithstanding the
exertioas he made-the depth Of depravity
in which he wallowed to prove his fidelity
TO his masters, fell into disfavor, lost u
his influence, and was cast contemptuously
aside. And now. without property, with.
out friends, degraded and dishonored, de-
spised by those he sought to serve, and
0corned by the patriots he would have de-
stroyed, an object Q. contempt to all who
love honor and revere public and private
virtues, alone in the world, he lives mon
Ument Of that retributivs justice which al
most invariably is visited upon those who
abandon the teachings Of conscience, and
give themselves over to the control of q
blind ambition or vicious passion. He is
one Of the many who have pursued the
same downward career and have encoun-
tered = similar fate. Is he not warning
to al0 Can we not learn from the calami-
~ he Aas brought upon himself, that if we
would live with honor, we must seek al
ways what is right, and never swerve from
the path Of duty:
- The miscreants Of Cole county, Till
nois. il seems, found the job they under
took somewhat too big for them. They
quailed very suddenly when they ascer.
tanned that "Cncle SANS strong arm was
eeaching after them. The prospect before
them lost its charms when they discovered
that il any more blood were ''sprinkled in
the face Of the people it would surely bs
their own. Their courage, like that u
Bob Acres, ''oozed out Of their finger ends
with almost Miraculous celebrity. They
had no computations about the murders
they had committed. They had no scru.
pies about repeating them. But, like the
whole breed of assassins, they could no,
muster pluck enough to meet true men on
IN equal footing. That was not in thei,
programme. They had no objection t.
killing unofending and unsuspecting eli.
xens>' But they set a high value on thei,
own rotten carcasses. They rather like
playing the assassin. It was deliciou.
sport 70 shoot down nnarmed men, relying
upon Tie lava for saasty and protection
7nn was sort Of rapture 10 the base and
bastard nature Of the Copperhead brutes.-
But they could not, even with the assis'
tAncs Of plenty Of "tangls-foot," nerve
their courage to the sticking point" and
make brave fight with the slightest risl
60 Themselves.
But the villains viii hardly be able q
escape the punishment due to their wan.cn
crimes. A goodly number are already in
custody, and we doubt not that "A MANY q
can Be- identified will aoon be ..gobbled
mp" and made to keep them company.
In due season they will be tried, the guilty
convicted, sentenced aud executed. At ali
this hcnest men will rejoice and none will
sorrpw for them save those who know thew
meRit the same infamous fate.
Thus it 10 with men who suffer them.
selves to be duped into the commission o,
crimes by greater villains who are shrewd
enough to conceal their completely. We
would b quite willing to let even these
Coles county scanps escape, If by doing &C
we could bring their hidden chiefs to thu
gallows to which they 90 unscrupulcusly
consign their victims. We shall catch
some Of the cowaraly big villains after 9
while. We guess they will be made terri
BILE examples Of.
- Hon. Green Clay Smith, Of Ken.
lucky, said in his speech at Lexington the
other day, that he intended to go to the Bal.
HNnv 49, q