The Osceola times., 1876-09-30
THE PURITAN's "IDEA" OF WAR.

II
an idea as you and your political asso-
ciates entertain of its purposes, objects
and consequences. In all your acts and
measures, and by all your speeches and
discussions, you express the idea that the
logic of blows proves everything you
choose to assert; that the successful in
vasion of one people by another has the
effect of destroying all natural right to,
and all legal guarantees for, the life, lib
erty and property of the people so inva-
ded and conquered; that after trial by
battle the victor may enter up and exc
cute what judgment he pleases against
his adversary; that the crime which a
weak community are guilty of when
they attempt to defend their lives, their
property, and their families against
invaders who come upon them
to kill, destroy and subjugate them
is 50 unparduaable that the whole body
of the offenders taken collectively, and
all individuals who partake even pas
sively of the sin, may justly be devoted to
death or such other punishment, by
wholesale or retail, as the strong power
shall see proper to inhict; that the con-
queror, after the war is over, may insist
that the hel lpless and unarmed people,
whom he has prostrated, shall assist him
by not merely accepting, but adopting"
| Il use your own words) the measures in
tended to degrade and rob them, and
thus make himself master of their souls
as well as their bodies. All rights of men
are resolved by this theory into the
Nights of men.
III aver that this doctrine, in all its
lgth and breadth, is false and perni-
| pus. 1t is the foundation on which all
very rests, and the excuse for all
rms of Tyranny, 1t has no support in
" sound rule of public law, and has
yer been acknowledged by wise or vir-
ous governments in any age since the
went of Christ. You can find no au-
.ority for it, except in the examples OF
en- whose names are given over 10 uni
,rsal cxecration. Mahomet asserted ii
hen he forced his religion on the sub
jugated East, when churches were vio-
lently converted into mosques, and the
emblem of christianity was trampled
under foot, to he replaced by the badge
of the imposter. On the same prin.
ciple Poland was partitioned, and
Ireland plundered a dozen times.
The king of Dahomey acted up
on it when lie sold his cap
tives and the men of Massachusetts, in
dorsed it when they took them in ex-
change for captives OF their own. You
and your confreres adopted it rs part
OF your political creed when, after the
southern people were thoroughly sub
: ed, you denied them all rights Of free
hn, tore up their society, abrogated all
ir-~fl;-1y -u'5..V snvt,' '',oui sV'vin-
hnts in pieces, and put them under the
, mination of notorious thieves, whom
J, II forced them TO accept as their abso-
te masters.
The results of the war are no doubt
IS Try precious. The right to traffic in the
sh of Indians and negroes was precious
the yankees and the king of Dahomey.
% hat was the fruit of their wars. But
- Jas it in either case legitimate Your
great reverence for the founders of your
political school in Massachusetts,, to gay
nothing of your respect for the authority
of the African princes, or your faith in
the Koran, will probably impell you to
stand up in favor of the ideas" which
you have learned from them. But
think / can maintain the christian law
of liberty in opposition to all your Mus
sulman notions; for God is great, and
Mahomet is not His prophet
THE CANT OF THE PHARIsEE.
1t woul lie very unjust to deny that
great many men, from the earliest pc.
riod of our history, were sincerely OPP
posed to African slavery, from motives of
religion, benevolence and humanity.
This sentiment was strong in the south
as well as the north, and by none was it
expressed with more fervor than by
Jefferson himself, the great apostle of
democracy. But this concession can
hardly be made to the political aboli
tionists. As an almost universal rule,
the leaders of that sect were ribald inf
dels, and their conventicles teemed with
the most shocking blasphemy. They
were by their own avowals, the most
cruel barbarians OF any age. Servile in
surrecton and general butchery of the
southern people was part of their pro-
gramme from the beginning. The leaders TO
whom they gave their highest admiration
were the men who-e feet were the swift
est in running TO shed innocent blood.
| Seward won their affections in his early
manhood by proposing measures from
which civil war would be sure TO come,
and in which he promised that negroes
should be incited TO &" rise in blackest in.
surrection." They applauded John
Brown to the echo for series of the
base-t murders on record. They did not
conceal their hostility to the federal and
state governments, nor deny their enmity
to all laws which protected the liberties
of white men. The constitution stood in
their way, and they cursed it bitterly
the bible was quoted against them, and
they reviled God Almighty himself
know that the mind of man, like his body
is fearfully and wonderfully made;
understand all the difficulty of analyzine
human passions, and admit we should
not Judge harshly of motives; but how
thcse heartless oppressors OF their owl
race could have any'care for the freedom
of the negro passes my comprehension
Unless you can explain it otherwise, the
Judgment of history must inevitably
be against the sincerity of theil
anti slavery profession. In the pres
ent aspect of the case il
seems impossible to believe thai
love of the negro was not assumed as 4
mere excuse for enslaving the Whit
race, just AZ their ancestors put on th'
pretense of piety to crafty their appe
iite for the property and blood of bette
; people than themselves. You must pos
itively reconsider this subject before yol
undertake again to present the aboli