The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1866-04-05
Severe Criticism.

/ composition worthy of the immortal Ju-
MUS. In its power, in its force OF bitter
ness and sentiment, it is an unequalled
piece Of writing Of the personality of
the article we have nothing to say, but
submit it to our readers as a specimen OF
most extraordinary composition:
The civil war in America is ended, and
the abanner of the bars" that waved
over Jackson and cleaned upon the track
of Stuart's reckless riders has been put
away as men hide the trinkets of dear,
dead love.
Although the blood of Virginia's best
sand bravest is not yet dry in the valleys,
nor has the grass grown over the prema-
ture graves of the manly Confederates
who fell before Petersburg, yet MIR. E. A.
Pollard, pretty writer and talented edi-
tor in along newspaper article, denounces
ex-President Davis, Generals Lee, John
ston and Beauregard, and says "the
Southern people disgraced themselves for
ever when they refused to fight to exter--
mination; that they lack courage and
endurance-statesmanship and intelli-
gence." He criticises campaigns, ridi-
cules strageticaf movements; sneers>a at
retreats, and laughs at every heroic effort
of the brave men who have left to history
q N I'M n, nrtaI name
Who is MIR. E. A. Pollard? He is 3
virginian, the editor of thes= Richmond
Examiner, and the author of the "South-
ern History of the War" We have grief
for the first, bushes for the second, and
contempt for the last.
During all those years of carnage and
of blood, this Richmond Examiner was
an insatiate hend of opposition and ha-
tired. Step by step it broke down the
brave, fond heart of Sidney Johnston
again and again it lacerated and gored
the sensitive soul OF Beauregard; week
after week it denounced the heroic efforts
of Joseph e. Johnston; and now, when
Jefferson Davis is chained amid the waves
of his rock-ribbed prison, it tries to stab
his reputation and his honor.
1t is not cften that men like Pollard
and Jordan can gloat over the agony of
such spirit and the degradation of such
a name 1t is not often that such a bo
som as Lees is laid bare for the thrust
Of every ruffian's spear, or the dagger Of
every coward's hand. tits not often that
dcsolated nation writhes under the
blows of it's children and the cruelties of
its own offspring. 1t is not often that
the world furnishes human hyenas to ex-
hume the bodies of her sainted dead, and
howl in horrid delight over the revelting
feast.
Pollard wanted determination, but he
was in New York city, hob-nobbing with
Greeley, and telling the pleasant story in
his pleasant way of the four years. war.
He wanted fifty thousand men to fight
million to- the death, but he never fell in
beside them and proffered to share COM
mon fate Like Jobs war-horse, he
snuffed the battle from afar Sheddy is
cheap, and humbug is cheap, and Henry
Ward Beecher's patent sermons are
cheap; and sincerity, faith, honor, chiv-
airy, manhood how pure and unpopular.
Pollard's mother State lies PROSTATE in
the dust, her hearth.stones desolate and
her idol shattered. All ever the land he
can see her bereaved daughters weeping
for the young, fresh faces that looked
back to them from the heat and yellow
dust of the conflict just before the horses
feet trod them down. He can almost
hear the breezes from the Wilderness
singing their melancholy dirges over
Stuart and Ashby, and Pelham, ar Hill,
and Jackson, dear to God. He has no
love, nor veneration, nor Tenderness, nor
pity for any of these but tearing open
the graves of the immortalized dead, he
blends them with the living in one sacre-
ligious anathema of contemptuous hatred.
Drape the picture of nation in its ag-
ony, and cover it's laurels with the mourn
ing cypress Furl the conquered banner
with a farewell look, and shrine its men,
ory in our heart of hearts; but to the
brutal hardihood of those who curse and
villify a ruined race, give vengeance,
scorn, and never-dying contempt.
History tells how Coriolanus halted his
victorious legions beyond the Yellow III
Der, but that Nero fiddled goodly tune