The Placer herald., 1866-12-01
First Gun Of the Confict-A few Timely
Words.

Our dispatches from Indianapolis saya man
was killed there by mob and several Others
wounded in front Of the hotel where the
President and his party were sptoping. It's
the first gun of the conflict. The shadows Of
the coming night began to lsngthen, to grow
darker and more gloomy. The men who
were shot at Indianapolis were of course fred
at by their eighbors, their fellow townsmen.
We may see in these murderous assaults, as
in vivid and bloody mirror, miniature
picture of what is in reserve for US through
the progress of the causes now in operation,
unless those causes are arrested by the great
bulk Of respectable citizens without reference
to party lines. The Indianapolis riot is a
foretaste of what the people in every consid
cradle town and in every county of the North
ern States may expect unless the great mass
of good men resolve that the unhealthy ex.
citements which now exist and are daily in
creasng shall cease.
If no efforts are put forth by men who have
and order to check the headlong fury of un.
scrupulous demagogues who are perpetuay
pouring oil upon the tlames how long will it
be before the very worst elements of society
will be in the ascendency? How long before
fana,ical assassins, too bigoted, too brutal ,
and too stupid ever to have had thought be.
yond their own evil passions will seek to arouse
the vengeance Of the mob against those who
differ from them in opinions, to waylay and
assassna'e? One disgraceful deed begets an.
other. In one village there may be major
ty on one side; in the next, majority on
the other. In one State the masses may fa
vor one side; in another and an adjoining
State they may favor the other side. Ii seems
to be natural for unthinking persons, carried
away by their heated imagination aud by ideas
Of their own certain infaIlibiity, to look up,
on one side Of a question: to ignore views
from any other point, and TO regard nothing
but immediate consequences.
The President is threatened with itnpeach-
ment. If, under the circumstances, this be
actually attempted, there can be no question
that it would be regarded by a respectable
majority in many of the States, and by
handed, extra judicial, unconstitutional and
revolutionary measure. 1t would natural
ly, almost unavodably lead to a divided au-
thority, to divided allegiance; 10 house Of
York and house Of Lancaster, each side an
alternating the other; the partisans of each
shooting and hanging the partisans of the o.
thel; divided States, cities, counties, villages
and neighborhoods, friends and relatives and
citizens, and kindIing such fires in the human
hearts a; such fueds have never failed to light
up. Each side would denounce the other as
traitors, and its adherents as traitors. Each
would declare that "treason must be made
odious;" each would be very likely to take
grounds in favor Of any extreme course in the
spirit Of retaliation, and not few would ia.
vor the extrmation of the enemy.
In Boston, the adherents of the Presiden-
tial or constitutional party would be seized
imprisoned and shot. In New York, the rad.
icals would share the same fate and thus the
fires of a consuming vengeance would rage
over the whole country till the consumption
should make it desolats' till nothing should
remain but blackened and bleeding country,
covered with plague spots afflicted with fam
inc and disease, with ships rotting at the
wbarves, with railroads torn up aud all BUSH
ness ::smiteu with paralysis and death. In
one State the majority would overcome the
minority, and ertablish State government
recognizing one of the parties in the general
government, and in another State the major
,y would establish State government rec'
ogniziug the opposite party in the national
Government. lnnumerabls guerilIas would
run at large acknowledging allegiance to
no party and making friends with each by
turns as should best serve their purpose for
punder. Parties would at length crystalize
around military cheiftains, the wreched peo-
pie would cry out in the bitterness Of their
souls for peace upon any forms, for any sort
Of government that should relieve them from
their intolerable miseries; they would pray
for rest as Ajax prayed for light, and in the
horrible phantasmagoria Of blood every ves-
tige Of freedom and republican institutions
would disappear and military despotism,
perhaps several military despotisms, arise on
the wide spread ruins Of the republic.
What, we again ask, will the people ofany
party gain by civil convulsions? They will
gain-while slavery. They will gain pover>
ty, fever stricken, plague haunted poverty.
They will lose-their liberties, their lives,
their property. The cheerful hum of business
and OF industry will forsake the land. They
will loose the common blessings of civilized
society. They will loose every ythng that
makes life desirable Let them remember
the advice of the great bard, "beware of the
entrance to quarrel" and such quarrel as
the one we refer TO would be-and let them
rise up now, while they have the power, and
prevent the great calamity. Let them vote
down every man who hints, in the remotest
degree, at unconstitutional violence and
civil war. Let the infant hydra lie seized
and crushed now, before his strength shall de-
fly destruction on.-Lonisville Journal.
The Times says that the sales of California
leather in San Francisco alone exceed in value
81 100000 annually. The quality of the
leather is said to be in high repute in Eastern