The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-11-02

cisiOn, is answerable for a hundred
atrocities. Bitter feuds were engendered
by this state of affairs, between neigh
boring families, and the strifes of the
Montagues and Capulets, have found 9
thousand real illustrations in the neigh.
borhood wars of Kentucky, Missouri
Arkansas and Texas. The history ofoul
border settlements is filled with accounts
OF the most cruel and inhuman acts OF
personal vengeance, and retaliation
fhe law of Moses was fully recognized
ana literally carried out. twas indeed
all eye for an eye, and a tooth for o
tooth-and no Corsican yendetta could
have been pursued with more relentless
savagery, than the family feuds of the
border transmitted from parent to child.
American literature is replete with the
most thrilling accounts of these rufiian-
ly border proceedings-of how the regu-
lators, organized to put down the influ-
ence of the evil-disposcd persons in their
communities, and how their, at first
praiseworthy, intentions for the good of
the people, degenerated into species of
petty tyranny and oppression, and they
used their power for the furtherance of
their selfish ends, and for purposes of
personal vengeance, until they became
in turn, a terror to the weak and we'll
disposed members of the community,
who were finally forced to turn "mod-
orators" in order to regulate the "regu-
lators"-and SO it continued, and the
story Of frontier life has been one unin-
terrupted page of bloody and cruel acts
from the first settlement of Kentucky
down to the inhuman butcheries perpe-
trated in Kansas. These same old FAM
lily feuds, bequeathed from bleeding sire
to son, and this same notion of personal
responsibility, were fully revived in
Kentucky and Tennessee, and Missouri
during the recent war, and cruelty an d
inhumanly was vengeance sought and
dealt out on both sides. Men ike Champ
Ferguson and others, who had family
or feuds to settle, or wrongs to
avenge, espoused opposite sides and pur-
sued one another like blood hounds, and
with relentless determination, to the
death-considering themselves justified
in Staying their enemy whenever and
and under whatever circum-
stances they might meet. This thirst
or vengeance, added to the cruel
les and horrors of the war in the
West, and the bloody work is not
yet at an end. Champ Ferguson
and others had been educated to believe
that this mode of warfare, that this
manner of making unto themselves
law, was right, and they had besides
Inherited the belief with the deadly en-
mites from their fathers. They are
therefore, perhaps not so guilty as if |
hey had been trained in different and
nore civilized school; still they all de-
erve punishment-all who murdered
risoners in cold blood, shot farmers
own in the field, at their peaceful occu-
ations, or in their sick beds--no matter
THAT banner they fought under. II
vas terrible state of affairs, however,
shen neighbor could not place conf
lence in. neighbor, or brother trust in |
'rother; still it was no worse during |
he war than it has always been in |
lines of the most profound peace. The
esperadoes and regulators on the
rontier and in California have been
pursuing this same course,
nd in the Northern portion of Texas,
on the borders of Missouri and Ar
ansas, it would be difficult to find a
zee upon which some poor victim had
OF met his death at the hands of law
IS men, whom the law was powerless
punish. With such associations in
outh-which familiarized them with
line and cruelty-we do not wonder at
he bloody stories told of the partizan
'arriofs in the West. How different
as the war carried on in the older and
lore civilized sections of the country.
/ .
srpetrated in Virginia, in the Carroll
IS, or in Louisiana; no prisoners or
murdered in cold blood
it, on the contrary, the war was con- {
lcted on both sides with a most chiv-
ric regard for the rules established by l
and humanity. And now, \
at peace has come, there is nothing to g
venge-no personal wrongs to make n
yht by bloody sacrifice and atonement. !,
1t it is far otherwise in Tennessee and a
Kentucky-from which States we n
ceive daily records of acts of ven :,
ance, and every indication that the q
rrors of private personal strife will a
re the place of open public HOSTILE w
8, and that the vendetta will rage with q,
later fury than ever. Some means q,
'uld be adopted to put stop to this n
ody work. or
r mn n MN cmo1y ro MAN -