The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1865-05-03
A TRAGECAL DELUsEON.

The tragical deIusion of the madmeu
OF Charleston four years ago, that they
could overthrow great nation as easily
as they could FIRE upon provision ship
or upon little isolated garrison, is viz
idly illustrated by the two following ex.
tracts. The first from the Charleston
Mercury of the 10th Of January, 1861,
and the second from letter to the ITt-
tuae, written in Charleston on the 2Oth
Of February, 1868:
"The EXPULSION of the steamer Star of
the West from Charleston harbor yester-
day morning was the opening Of the rev.
olution We would not exchange or
recall that blow for millions -. The
naughty echo Of her cannon has ere this
reverberated from Maine to Texas, thro'
every hamlet Of the North, and down
along the great waters of the Southwest.
And though greasy and trcacherous
ruffians may cry on the dogs Of war, and
traitorous politicians may lend their AID
in deceptions, South Carolina Will stand
under her own palmetto-tree, un:errlted
by the snarling growls or assaults OF the
one, undeceived or uUdeterred by the
willy Vaccinations of the other. And if
that red sea of blood be still lacking to
the parchment of our liberties, aud blood
they want, blood they shall have, and
blood enough to stamp 1t all red. For,
By the God of our fathers, the soil OF
South Carolina shall be free y
So wrote men who were ready and ca
ger to smother in blood GOVernmeDt
which they did not pretend had ever
harmed them, and which they had abso-
lutely controlled. Four years pass. One
by one their hopes disappear And now
amidst the desertion, according 10 Gov.
Vance, of half their army, amidst the
imprecations and cries OF the Richmond
journals that their leaders shall not fec
by the mere wind cf Sherman's thunder
ing march, Charleston falls without q
blow, aud the crazy city that causeessiy
deGed Government as strong as 1t Is
benign, is thus described:
The wharyes looked as if they had
been deserted for half a century-broken
down, dilapidatcd, grass aad moss peep
ing up between the pavements, where
once the busy feet Of commerce trode IN
cessautIy, The warehouses near the
river the streets as we enter them; the
houses and the public buildings-we look
at them aud hold our breath in utter
amazement. No pen no pencil, no tongue
can do Justice to the scene. No imagl-
nation eau conceive of the utter wreck,
the universal ruin, the stupeRdous desc
latiou. Observation-Disclosures and
below on the right hand and left ruin,
ruin, ruin, everywhere and always
staring at US from every paneless win
dow looking at US from every shell-torn
wall glaring at US from every bat
tered door aud pillar and verandah
crouching beneath our feet on every
sidewalk. Not Pompeii, nor Heruianeum,
nor Thebes, nor the Nile, have ruins SO
complete, so saddening, SO pIaintl7ely
eloquent, for they speak to US of age not
ours, and long ago dead, with whose peo-
pie and life and ideas we have no SYM
pathy whatever But here, on these
shattered wrecks of houses-built in our
own style, many of them doing credit to
the architecture of our own epoch-We
read names familiar to US all telling US
of trades and professions and commercial
institutions which every modern city
reckons up by the hundred yet dead,
dead, dead as silent as the silent
grave of the Pharoahs, as deserted as the
bazars of the merchant princes of Old
Tyre"