The Portland daily press., 1868-01-09


Among the atrocities committed by the
dominant political party, the Democrats for
get one which is worthy of the grand inquis-
itor in the best days of that unpleasant Span
ish institution that invented so maay exquis-
ite torments. In both their individual and
collective capacity, Republicans have ever
since the spring of 1865 been heaping Goals
Of fire upon the heads of their late antaso-
nists of the South. 1t is only few days ago
that it was ann )unced that Beecher-the very
man whose appearance in any Southern city
in 1860 would have been promptly rewarded
with an disagreeably adhesive garment, red
olent of tar and adorned with feathers--ha1
given a thousand dollars to Gen. Lees col
lege. For this act of cruelty and oppression
the reverend gentleman was promptly patted
on the back by the New York Tribune, the
organ of the Northern Thugs. The editor of
this bloodthirsty sheet, fit successor to Tor
quemada and Ximenes, not long ago carried
the terrors OF his white coat and red bandan-
ma handkerchief to Richmond ITSELF Arriv-
ing there, and spreading fear and dismay
through all the Virginia borders by the cruel
and vindictive roll of his savage eye, this
heartless oppressor calmly Talked into court
and affixel to the bail bond of the leading in
surgent chief a signature which, if ports be
true, is so fearfully and wonderfully executed,
in chirographical point of view, that grave
doubts have arisen in the minds of the most
eminent Southern jurists as to its constitution
alitity. Such is the low cunning, however, of
this editorial bandit, that it is doubtful if
Judge Black himself can bring the gross GRIM
inality of the signature home to him in a
test case before the Supreme Court, for the
most skillful experts he could summon before
that tribunal would be at loss to know
whether the scrawl was that terror-compell-
ingname, Horace Greeley,or "a gridiron struck
by lightning" like Rufus Choate's pen and
ink rendering of the word "which."
tits fitting that Boston, that home of fa-
naticism and headquarters of the inquisitori-
al junta, whence went forth rifles to John
Brown and negro regiments to Fort Wagner,
should lead all others in carrying the black
flag southwark. Hence it surprised no one,
when the war was over, and the South lay
almost a-dying at the feet of the Vandals who
had achievedits conquest, that Boston should,
with brutal heartlessness, ignore the chival-
rous feelings of the soldiers of the lost cause,
and send shpload of food to the starving
poor of Savannah.
Unhappily the recital cannot stop here.
"The historian OF the future"-a convenient
lay fig,re, much affected by essayists as
means of displaying ideas not current with
their contemporaries-will chronicle the ex-
asperating fact that the North, not content
with relieving physical want, devoted itself
for series of years to instilling into the
minds of the Southern youth something OF
the culture of books, He will "write in
blood" that free schools were opened every
where, and that northern impiety did not ev-
en- stand aghast at putting primer into the
hancs of Dixie's little rhite children. He
will not fail to dwell upon the bad eminence
of George Peabody, another northern ogre
whose ancestral Yankee taint had not been
eradicated by years of devotion to English
roast-beef and humming ale, nor washed out
by years of wading in the all-encircling fogs
OF London. He will tell of millions given ior
southern education with intense emotion,
but will become eloquent as he recounts the
bold and manly words OF some of the South
ern trustees of the fund, who refused to ac-
cept the trust because Yankees were to be
their associates in the work.
Let not citizens of Maine fatter themselves
that their remoteness from the scene of op-
preston will relieve them from any response
bility for the wrongs that the South suffers
aC Northern hands. so long as Gen. How
ards birth place is remembered, Maine cam
not escape her full share of infamy. Last
winter cry for food came up from the
South and Gen. Howard even went beyond
the strict letter of the law in answering it
speedily and generously. Whites and blacks
shared alike in the governments bounty, dis
tributed by the one hand of a soldier whom
rebel rifles had deprived of its mate. This
winter the same distress is no sooner made
known at the headquarters of the Freedmen's
Bureau than measures are taken for its relief
with the like alacrity.
AHC ASs>o auu AIoSI IOiiiAS CouHI III luis
black Indictment, is but thing of yesterday.
The production of cotton is the most valuable
of all the industries of the South. The Unit
ed States imposed an internal tax OF two
cents per pound upon that staple, and last
year derived therefrom revenue of some
twenty three million dollars. But Congress
had no sooner assembled for its present ses-
sion that the House of Representatives voted
to repeal the cotton tax, thus relieving the
South from almost its sole contribution to
the national treasury. OnTuesday last the
Senate concurred in this action, only limiting
the operation of the law to cotton raised dur
ing the year 1868. 1t is unreasonable to
expect proud and cbivaIrous people to en-
dure with patience outrages like these.