The Shasta courier., 1865-05-20
SHASTA COURIER.
A Ira gicaI Delusion.

The tragical delusion of the madmen of
Charleston four years ago, that they could
overthrow great nation as easily as they
could fire on a provision ship or on little
isolated garrison, is wildly illustrated by the
two following extracts. The first is from the
Charleston Mercury Of the 10th OF Janu
ary. 1861, and the second from letter to the
Tribune, written in Charleston, on the 10Th
of February, 1860;
1.-The expulsion of the steamer Star OF the
West from the Charleston harbcr yesterday
morning, was the opening of the ball OF the
revolution We would
not exchange or recall that blow for millions.
The naughty echo of her cannon has ere this
reyerberated from Maine to Texas, through
every hamlet of the North, and down along
the great waters of the Southwest. And
tbough greasy and treacherous rueians may
cry on the dogs of war, and traitorous pollu-
clans NAV lend their aid in deceptions, South
Carolina will stand under her palmetto tree,
unterrifed by the snarling growls or the as
saults of the one, undeceived or deferred by
the wily Vaccinations of the other. And if
that red sea of blood be still lacking to the
parcbment of our liberties, and blood they
want blood they shall have, and blood enough
to stamp it all in red. For, by the God Of
our fathers, the soil of South Carolina shall
be free !"
So wrote men who were ready and eager to
smother in blood a Government which they
did not pretend had ever harmed them and
which they had absolutely controlled. Four
wears pass, One by one their hopes dsap-
pear And now, amidst the desertion, accord
ing to Gov. Vance. of half their army, amidst
the imprecations and cries of the Richmond
Journals that their leaders shall not flee, by
the mere wind of Sherman's laundering march
Charleston falls without blow, and this era
Nv CITY that causelessly defed a Government
as strong as it is benign, is thus described
I" The wharves looked as if they had been
deserted for half century-broken down,
dilapidated, grass and moss peeping up be-
tween the pavements, where once the busy feet
of commerce trod necessarily. The ware
houses near the river the streets as we en-
ter them the houses and the stores and the
public buildings-we look at them and hold
our breath in utter amazeu9ent. Every step
we take increases our astonishment. No
pen no pencil, no tongue can do justice to
the scene. No imag nation can conceive OF
the utter wreck, the universal ruin, the stu
pendous desolation. Ruin -ruin-ruin -
above and below on the right hand and the
left; ruin-run -ruin-everywhe and
always; staring at us from every paneless
window looking out at us from every shell
torn wall glaring at us from every battered
door and pillar and Veranda crouching be
meath our feet on every side walk. Not
Ponpeii, nor Hercalaneum, nor Thebes, nor
the Nile. have ruins complete, 50 sadden-
ing, so paintively eloquent for they speak
to us of an age not ours. and long ago dead,
with whose beople and ife and IDEAS we have
no sympathy whatever But here, on those
shattered wrecks Of Anuses, built in onr own
style, many of them doing credit to the arch
itecture of our epoch, we read names fanlll
lar to us all, telling us of trades and profes
sions and commercial institutions. which
every modern city reckons up by the hun
dred yet dead. dead, dead as silent as the
grave of the Pharaohs as deserted rs the
bazars of the merchant princes of Old Tyre. :"
-Harper's Weeklg.