Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-06-06

DAVIS belonged succeeQe1A poBefs Dy
possessing itself Of the Executive and
Legislative Departments of the Govern
ment. 1t has never yet corrected an
abuse or remedied an evil, of all that
then afflicted the country, but has added
immensely to the number Of both. The
salutary restraint which the South had
until then exercised, both by means OF
its persistent adherence to the doctrine OF
strict construction Of the Constitution as
TO the powers Of the Federal Govern
ment, and by the personal integrity and
incorruptibility, and seorn Of everything
dishonest or d~isreputable on the part OF
most of its Senators and representatives,
was now removed forever; and that was
effected against which the Southern
Statesmen had continually struggled
the unconditional transfer Of the powers
OF Government from the States to the
majority of the people. The tyranny OF
that majority at INC became complete,
by the withdrawal Of the Southern
states. From that day forward, moth
ing was to resist its usurpations
or curb its excuses. The North became
one immense, prejudiced, passionate,
reckless Democracy; continually to be
agitated by fierce, fiery, destructive, ir-
rational impulses, to be used by crafty
and vulgar denagogues for their own
selfish purposes, a huge, weltering, iuct-
uating mass, a tossing, tremulous, agi-
tated ocean Of humanity, equally devoid
Of reason and generosity, cruel and de-
ceitful as the sea itself; and equally in
capable, except under the influence Of q
sudden within or caprice, Of pity for the
victims Of its savage anger, OF justice in
legislation and Of stability in measures.
All such democrSeies, in all ages Of the
world, are alike.
Civil Wars arouse aIl the evil passions
that are ordinarily quiescent or are only
partially and occasionally excited to ac-
ton in human nature and thousands
who had always been mistaken for hon
est, w~ell-mesning and peaceful men,
astOund those WHO have known them,
by becoming murderous as infatuated
Malays, mercilass as tigers, lost TO all
sense Of shame, thieves, pillagers and
highways. There are thousands now
living in the North as reputable citizens,
ornaments Of the higher civilization
moral outvsIlly and even P~harisaical,
who have no. forgotten the private
houses which .uey pillaged Of books,
plate, pictures, ornsments, family pOr-
traits; the ladies from whose fingers they
tore rings, the gentlemen and negroes
whom they robbed Of watches the Ma
sonic Halls which they robbed and the
Bible upon whose affairs they defled, the
churches from which they tore away the
| communion service, the nameless deeds
Of shame and outrage which they helped
perpetrate, the wounded men bayonetted
while begging for life, or any other Of
the many Of horror in which they
were actors or Of them witnesses, and
which are common to all civil wars, and
prove that civilization is bot skin deep,
and man a wild criminal only partially
tanned.
Those actually guilty of these atroci-
ties, and who did not die on the field, in
the hospital or the death Of the damned
in prison, for whom a grateful Nation
has not provided graves and ~hesd-bosTds
and re-buried them by the side Of its En-
ropesu and Canadian mercenaries, and
Of the thousands who were indeed brave
and ~true-hesrted soldiers, merciful and
generous as they were braVe,-these, still
at heart thieves and murderers, under
the thin varnlsh Of respectability, form
but an unimpOrtant per centRge Of the
people of the North. But hat FOR which
all must answer, is, that the persistent
st0lid refusal Of LINCOLN, SEWARD and
CAMERON for months to recognize the
contest as q war and the people Of the
South as ~belligerents entitled TO the right
and charities Of civilized warfare, pro-
voked, encouraged, caused and justified
the hOrrid bsrbsrities and indecent out
RACES perpetrated at the outset every
where by the Union troops. To this
and to the long subsequent refu-
sal of the Government at Washington
to exchange for the prisoners at Ander-
sonville, or eUen to receive them ritHOut
exchange, what hecatOmbs of lost lives
are due, what sUfferiugs and agOnies,
what bitter venomous hatreds that still
endure and will only end With life By
persistently treating the Southern bel
ligerents as rebels and traitors, after
they had by every precedent ceased to be
so, the FedarGl Government prompted
and melted its troops and partizans to
murder and pillage those whom it IS out
lawed and the guilt of ten thousand
sssassinRtions rests, not only on the souls
of the President and his Secretaries of
War and State, but on that Of the whole
North, which approved, sustained and
~applauded the determinations Of its Gov
eminent, and which still bowls for plum
der and the blood Of the leaders of the
rebellion
The excuses Of the soldiery, the license
and vices Of the camp, and all the thous-
and COMMUNICATIONS of war never before
diseased and demoralized so large q pro-
portion Of any PEOPLE, because no nation
ever before submitted such immense
numbers Of men I'm 50 short a period to
the horrid ordeal. Other multitudes
infected ard corrupted by the IN
precedented temptltions and opportu-
to defraUl and plumber the public,
afforded by the enormous and wasteful
expenditures Of every kind and to spec
and gamble, by immense issues Of
i~rredeemable psper-money, both Of the
Government and the National banks,
and the consequent inflated prices and
fictitious values OF every thing; these,
also, and the value Of the paper itself,
continually ~huctuating, enriching one
by the impoverishment Of Others.
Thus all the cohesive ties of common
and human sympsthies that
bind society together were more ard
more weakened continually, until what
was, at least in some degree, q society,
but so many millions Of indi-
viduals, each looking to his own inter ]
asts and the interest Of those imme- /
dependent upon himself or con- !
nected with him, alone, and more re-
an enormous aggregation Of
banditti, each engaged in plundering the !
other. :
Even this was not the worst demorali- /
The usurpation of arbitrary {
powers by the Secretary OF State, and :
bis assumption Of the odious preroga- !
claimed by LOUIS XIV, and adOp- !
ton Of the Lettres dc Cdtchet Of that
infamous tyrant and debauehee; the 9
multitude and frequency of arbitrary Z
and unlawful arrests upon that sleek aud
officials simple order; the ille- a
galimpTisonments on no definite charges, g
but often on mere suspicion the trials
by unlSsful military commissions; the '
deportations to the Dry Tortugas Of e
persons 50 convicted aud others never q
at all, all Of whom still continue
confined there; the utter disregard for A