, 1865-02-21
Chicago Grtbna1f,
=. THE FALL OF CHARLESTON.

TuESUAls fEbdQAh1 Il. Aoo1s
. THE FALL OF CHARLESTON.
The Richmond papers announce unquali-
t1edly the evacuation of charlcston-thc birth
place Of Treason-the cradle Of Secession
the nursery Of Rebellion. There can be no
doubt that liz evacuation was followed ny its
Immediate occupation By our forces, and Tint
The Federal Flag now ~avcs over that city
We IA have an interest in that little town
which il wholly apart from Its commercial or
military importance. Many of the 1oya1 peo.
ple OF the North feel speculative desire to
invest q few Thousand dollars In salt, and
having reduced the present site Of the city Of
Charleston to condition favorable for plant
Ing, to BOW 1t carefully from center to sub.
urb. and from the Ashley to the Cooper river
with that fsuitf1l crystal. They would even
be willing to set apart fund to be conseerat-
ed for all time to the single purpose Of keep
ing the site OF the former city Of Charles
ton soWn with salt, so that
Its perpetual steEility, unrcliered by single
blade Of grass, should be q monument to MI
generations that here slavery and aristocracy
had znade war upon the Union aud Liberty.
Our people hare a cool, calm and reasonable
is shared by no other spot on earth. There
nearly forty years ago. In the person Of Judge
Hear, council for the State Of Massachusetts,,
the free States were tweAked by the nose and
told that Charleston mob was more power
ful than they an were upon any question In
Tolving alaveFy. There Calhoun Felgned and
notification and rebellion were longed for in
Jackson's time There, from jackson to LIN
coin, the hercsy OF. secession WAS preached
There the last convention Of the Democratic
party was held, tn order that the pressure
Of the flre-eaters Of South Caroltna might
&gaf1 with the Southern Democrats to induce
them to open the ball of secession, By sec1d-
ing from the party of their special friends at
the North, all OF whom were devoted In their
subservieucy TO the Institution of slavery.
At Columbia, now in our hands, the first
ordinance Of secession Was passed, and at
Charleston The first military steps toward
rebellicu were taken. At Charleston our
Government 1nints, forts, and custom-h 3uses
were first seized, our money and aims
stolen and distributed among insur-
gents; there rebel troops were raised,
oflcered md drilled, SO that before
the Inauguration Of President Liucotn
twenty thousand South Casolinn rebels were
there In arms, while the government had not
aregimtnt 1t for service. There during the ex-
piring ngonies OF Buchanan's mal-adu,inistra-
ton, the streets blazed ptght1y with bondres
and the dwellings with nlu1nina tions to fan
the flame Of rebellion and fire the Southern
heart ever each new triumph Of the rebel
cause In other parts Of the siaTe States.
Their joy Was proportionaie to the astonlsh.
meut, detection and grief Of the people OF
the North to see those whom we had held as
our brethren thus swift to shed our blood.
Three Eeeks before the end Of Rnchauan's i
admins stlhtion rebel guns fred their first shot
upon the Federal flag floating orer the Star
of the West, then bound with provisions for
the felfefef Fort Sumter 1t is not hyper
lole 10 say that in the person Of Shsrman the
Star OF the West" ia ayenging the insult.
There BcanreEard. after months Of engineer
ing labor, opened the WIRE in manner worthy
of slave-ho1ding chivalry by concentrating
the FIRE Of batteries manned BY nineteen thou
eand men on Major Andcrson's little squad at
Fort Sumter, while the whole city Of Charles-
ton looked On from their housetops In m
ecstacy oftoy to find that Southern rebels could
whip Federal regulars when they had nu-
merical superiority Of 800 to /. In short,
Charleston began this rebellion. Charleston
hns sent desolation over the South aud
mourning into every Northern home. AL
the tnsolence, mcanness and crime that per
tains to rebels and rebellions is intensified In
Charleston.
We do 1iehteously glory therefore In the
fall Of this nest Of vipera. coupling our re
joicings with profound gratitude to God, who
4e ~ onno ft,a EnS ofU TIA oud {fn r,