The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-05-03
me E1pIo.iee e q I.,s, ses salfana..--A

One of the most terrible accidents, as
far as loss Of lifo IS concerned, recorded in
the annals of modern times, is the explo-
sion and burning Of the steamer Sultana,
on Thursday last, on the Mississippi river
above Memphis By that single catastro-
phe over fifteen hundred lives we're lost.
War has led US to calculate losses Of life
by the thousand ,snd coOIy to contemplate
hecstombs of slain. But before the wsr
such an accident as this would have thrilled
the land from center TO circumferencs with
horror. The fact that the Sultana was
loaded with returning Union prisoners,
just exchanged in the Southwest, will
increase the grief Of the ma
tion. The poor fellows, just
escaping from the death in life of Ander-
sonviIle, and fastening hOmewsrd, full Of
Joy and happiness, looking hopefully and
yearningly forward to the meeting with
loved friends, were doomed 70 desth from
wave and fre,-terrible, sudden, inevitable
death. Half the North will mourn for the
poor boys who have thus given up their
lives. rffl
The explosion of the sultsns il, TO our
minds, but another evidence of the bar
bsrism and malignity of the rebellion, re-
Gently illustrated in the st. Albsns raid,
the Philo Parsons piracy, the attempt to
burn New Yo1k city, the conspiracies at
Chicago and indianapolis, and that hor-
ribls crime which has capped the climax Of
infamy-the murder of the President.
The frequency of sccidents occurring to
steamboats, and railroad trains containing
Onr soldiers, and especially Union prison
srs, recently released from Southern prisons,
cannot have escaped public attention.
Recently the burning of the General Lyon
off Cape Hstterss,snd the loss of over five
hundred Union soldiers, Mortified the nation.
Here we have new and trebly-terrible
disaster, this time occurring on an inland
steamer but, curiously enough, on one
which, like the Lyon, is loaded to its ut
most capacity with Union soldiers. The
coincidence is worth noting.
But we have further evidence to support
the indictment which We bring against the
chiefs of the rebellion for the murder of
the men on board the Sdstans. A corres-
pondent of the New York Tribune, wri-
ting in Richmond on the day the Sui
tsns was burned in the Mississippi
gives an insight into the rebel
secret service, and discloses the fact
that certain eternslly-infamous villain
named Joseph Stinson had offered to pro-
cure the destruction of the 'enemy's ships,
vessels, ship-yards andother public work." I"
if he were paid twenty-five per cent. of the
value of the property destroyed. Further
correspondence sho VS. that the offer was
accepted by the rebel Secretary of the
Navy, and that the agents of this StinsOn
did actually destroy the steamer
j. q. Russell, on the Mississippi
river, by ineendisrism, Other vessels may
have been destroyed, but there is no record
of it. In view of these fscts can there be
any doubt that the same diabolicsl spirit
and policy is still at work, and that the
scoundrels who destroyed the ]. h. Russell
also destroyed the General Lyon and the
Sultans. To the candid mind there can be
no doubt of this. The burning of our steam
boats, and especially of those employed
IS transports for our Union soldiers, is,
robbery, piracy, the burning of cities, and
assassination, a part of the programme of
the rebel chiefs. Beaten in fair and open
Gght their cowardly malice prompts such
acts ss these, which cannot aid their fallen
fortunes single jet, but which brings woe
and grief upon the North in its hour of
victory, and thus grstiies the hellish spite
of traitors.
Are we not making the lives of our brave
soldiers in the field, and the lives and prop
erty of loyal citizens in the North and in
the lately called border States, cheap by
our loose way Of turning these double per-
jured villains loose into society upon psrole2
We entreat our authorities to reserve some
of the outburst of mercy for the survivors
of the brave men who have saved the
country, end for the loyal inhabitants who
have ever been true TO the Government,
and who in the border States have faced
constant perils in their fidelity.