The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1864-08-27

When the Greeks had destroyed the navy Of
xa.x,.. ct Sal,mis, and had sont that monarch IN
,,,x, bstk e. susa Mardo,0us the general whom
h. had lief, behind 10 finish the work be had SO un-
fortunately begun, thought it would bc master
stroke of policy - detach the Athenans from the
.3rocian alliance 10 accomplish this object, hc sent
II them Alexander. the son ot Amyntas, King Of
Maccion and aneestorof Alexander the Great, with
proposals both from himself and from the " Great
hing" as the Persian monarch was styled. Alex
andcr had joined the ressians upon oonapoison, and
was nj the bottom, true friend 10 Greece III gene
cgal and 10 Athens in particular. He really be-
heyea that they would not be able TO withstand the
power Of XeIxes and spoke from his heart when he
advised them to Weld while Il was yet time, ana
avoid the terrible consequences of conquest after
pr5tysc,ed res stance lie delivered the message OF
Mar,lonlus, which was these words we extract
the passage from Carey translation of Herodotusl
Men Of Athens why are You so mad as 10 levy
war against the King: You neither pet the
better Of hun nor resist h,;a forever. You are
ACQUAINTED with the multitude Of has army, and
their achievements; YOU have head of the force
that Is even now with me; 80 that even II you
should 20, che better Of us and conquer, of which,
however, you have no hope ii you think sobery J.
another much more numerous will come against You
Suffer not yourselves then, 10 be deprived OF your
country, and 10 be continually running the usk OF
yonr existence, by equalling yourselves with the
King but be IL concil.d to him; and Il is in your
power 10 be reconclcd honorably since the King 50
disposed" Such the message OF Mardonius,
which Alexander enforced with all the eloqucnce III
his power foresceing," he said, that they would
not always be able 10 carry on the war against
Xelxes, whose power was more than human,
and whose arms were very long. The terms, III
decd, were so favorable that they might well have
tempted any people who were not determined to
live and die free ana independent. All injuries were
10 be forgiven, their territory was to be restored,
their temples and private dwellings rebuilt; they
were TO have much additional territory rs they
wished ard were 10 live under their own laws. But
the Athenans spurned the offer. They would have
nothing Of Xerxes; and they Were determined TO
make war upon him long the foot Of Persian
soldier pressed the soil of any part of Greece.
After the lapse OF more than two thousand years,
We find the emissaries Of Yankee tyrant using,
III the capital of Virginia, 10 lntndatc the Pres-
dent Of the Confederate States, the identical
train of argument employed by Il satrap o:
Persia frighten the frecmeu of Athens into COM
phance with the wishes Of his master. And the cir
cuInstances too, almost identical. The Persian
already IN possession Of all Greece north Of the
PeloponnoslIs; he had ruyaged Attica had burned
Atlls ami had quartered his army for the winter
in tho rirh plains OF Thessaly by force persua-
sion, Greek nation after another had been
brought beneath his yokee, until few remained but
those who had fed TO join the banner of their coI-
,,all b-t ~
Sparta and Atheas. But the forces of Greece when
ever brought into conflict with the Barbarian, had
sither been uniformly victorious, or had LETT i'm
peli.hable memorial OF what courage and patriotism
can do III a struggle even with the most tremendous
odds. LcOnidas and his three hundred Sparttns
had been slain at Ghern0pyir but the tyrants fleet
had been woTsted at Artinisium, and utterly de-
stroyed at Salamis. He himself had fled in dismay
from the scene Of conflict, leaving that huge army
the largest that the world ever bcheld-to follow
him i'll his flight TO die Of hunger and disease /;
to pave with their bones the highways Of Atica, OF
Thesstly, Of Macedonia, and OF Thracc, from the
Pireus TO the lioespont. And now, with his pres
tge gone; with the charm Of his inyincibility dis
solved forever with his egions scattered, never to
be reunited with but three hundred thousand left Of
the five million four hundred thousand that had
lately shaken the earth with their tread his general
holds precisely the same language TO the men who
had broken his power that he had used. while that
power III the plcntude OF its vigor and threat
sgod to overshadow the earth. You are mad to
fight the Kiug-l,is power is beyond Imagination
you can never beat him-it you defeat this army
another viii come, Sc, Ne, &c.
The Yankee Is III Possession, also OF much OF our
territory. Some bI5ey betrayed to him at the
beginning Of the war the rest he obtained by the
sheer weight of his superintendent armies. But
for three years have beaten him upon every bat
tle-eld in which he has not numbered three to one
In the current campaign, hc has been everywhere
Iepulsed with appalling slaughter. His losses have
been 10 ours As SIX 10 one. His odd flag" Of
which he processes to be proud, the emblem Of
defeat and disgrace. 1t has flown oysr more routs,
more panics, more disasters OF every kind than all
the flags OF ali the world witnessed one gen.
eration before. And with army thus beaten, thus
demoralized, thus dsgraced, thus slaughtered, the
Yankee tyrant sends emissaries who talk TO the
Commander-in-Chiet of those very armies at whose
hands they have sustained all these defeats and dis
graees, though they had been victorious every
field who tell him that We had better make terms
.o,c, before the universal Yankee nation gets its
hanging, and general confiscation; who talk about
the Irresistible power Of the Yankee nation us il We
had never tried it, and knew nothing about it who
threaten Us with new armies if those i'll exist
ence should not be sufficient who assert that there
Is no hope Of our escaping from the wrath Of the
mighty Yankee nation. The arguments are the sane
with those employed by the Persian satrap But when
We come to the terms, struck with the incon-
parable superiority of the Persian Idolater to the
Yankee Puritan i'll everything that Christian man
should hold sacred The one proposes not only to
restore the country, to rebuild the houses and tenn
pies, to torgire all injuries to pay for all property
destroyed but if all this should not be sufficient,
to give them other and better lands ia addition, in
whatever part OF his dominions they might select
The other proposes that nasnuch as he has already
by proclamation attempted to destroy thousands of
million: OF our property, that property shall thus
remain destroyed; that We shall have nothing fol
the destruction Of our houses and lands; that there
shall be no forgiveness OF injuries; that fleets and
armies shall still occupy country and its coasts
that our people shall go TO the foot-stool OF the ty
rant with ropes round their necks and that he in
consideration Of their ablect submission will only
select some two three hundred victims for the
halter, and let the rest go free Such are the pro-
posas Of the tyrant whsse forces We have beateron
hundred fields, and who now talks rs maenifcently
Seward was writing letters to Adams promising to
end "the rebellion" in sixty days