Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-02-25
TIE RAGE OF DESPAIR.

The Charleston Mercury of the 18th Of
January is remarkable for its slashing
criticisms on the rebel army and the rebel
leaders, and bitter, passionate avowals Of
the desperate straits in which the Confed-
eracy is placed. 1t wants "no more jeff
Davis foolery," but "men, real men, ear.
nest men mot mermaids, with heads
of monkeys and fshy attachments
Georgia and South Carolina are in nc
mood for triAing. "South Carolina don't
intend to be conquered. She intends to
fight. She don't intend to be hampered
or turned over to the enemy. When she
is thus dealt with there will be reckoning
reckoning where there will be no re-
specters of person." But even more he
roically exclaims the Mercury:
1--WE stand to- day as gladiators stripped
to the fight; we are ready and trained to
enter the struggle for life or for death.
South Carolina is ready to become the
arena of the republic. Her sons are ready
for the contest. Make of her whole soil
military camp-strip her to the waist
she will not shrink. But give her her
gauntlets and her sword, and she is ready
to stand or fall where she is"
The condition of the Confederate SOL
diery in the Coast Department is declared
to be disgraceful. Lawlessness and disre-
gard of authority prevail everywhere,
Most of the calsmities of the Confederacy
are charged upon JEFF. Davis. He it is
who deGes all law and so breaks down
discipline. Congress lies PROSTATE at his
feet:
Reckless of the Constitution-regard-
less of his relation to the Legislative branch
of the nt-contemptuouso of theiI
authority, his nerve is only eminent in re-
sistance, where obedience would be alike
duty and honor. The man that cannot
obey cannot command. Unfortunately
for us at this time. our Executive is most
eminently conspicuous in both vices, is
impractically obstinate and lamentably
weak"
Thus the Mercury runs on. "What
General" it asks, "has been cashiered for
incompetency-what Lieutenant General
for ineficiency-what Major General for
incompetency-what Brigadier for worth
lessness-what Colonel. or Captain shot
for lawlessness in their commands ;" In
its anger and contempt for rebel officers
and men, the Mercury breaks out into eu-
logy of Sherman, as the model whom the
" chivalry" should initiate:
1--WE want nerve in Congress-we want
nerve in our Generals. 1t is nerve that
has carried Sherman to Savannah-it is
that which is now carrying him to cut the
Confederacy in half. His is an army of
discipline-an army of soldiers-not a
mob of ragamuffns. He has no Generals
with rolls of twenty or thirty thousand
men, and twenty or thirty hundred in the
field. His men stand to their guns-not
to peoples chicken-coops and barn-yards.
His men are full in hand at their posts.
He holds them there. He is a general"
Having thus vented its spleen at rebel
Generals by eulogizing Sherman, it pillo-
ries JEFF. Davis in the same manner by dis
coutsing of Mr.. Lincoln, who, it says, has
run the machine" with a "stern, in
flexible purpose, a bold, steady hand, a
vigilant, active eye, sleepless energy, a
fanatic spirit, and an eye single to his end
-conquest-emancipation. 1t adds:
"He has called around him in counsel
the ablest and most earnest men of his
country. Where he has lacked in individ-
ual ability, learning, experience or states
manship, he has sought it, and has found
it in the able men about him, whose as
sistance he unhesitatingly accepts, whose
power he applies to the advancement of
the cause he has undertaken. In the
Cabinet and in the field he has consistently
and fearlessly pressed on the search for
men who could advance his cause, and
has unhesitatingly cut off all those who
clogged it with weakness, Unity, imbecil-
ity or failure. Force, energy, brains, ear
nestness, he has collected around him in
every department"
The Mercury caps the climax by saying
thatin Davis it finds "a contrast, appall-
ing and sickening to the heart"