The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-09-21

form OF republican institutional gov
She tried to strangie Us in
u cradle with more thar a step
mothers intense hate. She tried to
crush Us in ISL by driving on. ship
ping from the seas. and then she went
TO work when she had fattened upon
slavery herself. and drugged the whole
world with her opium trade .sith well
nigh diabolic method. with her head
quarters at Exeter Hall In London,
to deepen sectional hate between the
north and the south. To-day Ink. 4
great Anaconda, she is swallowing up
with her immense gold power both the
banking systems OF our n and
our transportation as well. I. wouic
De ungraceful and ungrateful TO in
dulge in any comment upon mistakes
made by the government al Richmond
in falling to get all of our cotton out
or the southern borders, and bank
ing upon 1t in European markets when
landed at Bermuda before the block
ade was enforced and effective. 1t
would be equally unfair and unkiad TO
comment upon the mistakes made
within in the first few months Of the
war in not making impregnablc the
mouth OF the Mississippi, n that OF
the Cumberland river and the Red.
where the last two empty into tho
great father OF waters" Ii is per
fectly clear that the failure TO do this
forced the first great battle Of the
midland south out OF kentucky, out
or Tennessee into Mississippi. Else
where north OF Shiloh. General Sidney
Johnson would have been thanked out
OF position by the federal gun-boats
on those rivers. 1t is perfectly clear
to every candid mind that while mis-
X were made, n telling mistakes
at that, * not we'll nigh fatal. yet that
noble patriot Jefferson Davis aid an
he could with the lights before him.
to maintain his country's cause. It
was very evident from the early days
OF the struggle that Virginia would lie
the great battleeld. Richmond from
first to last was the key point. ana the
keystone OF the southern c~onfederacy.
II the armies OF the south could not
hold this great citadel, it was obvious
that We could make no successful stand
anywhere. General Mcclellan in his
very remarkable book has very clearly
established the fact that. had he been
other than a democrat, when he was
beleaguering Richmond with his
mighty host, had he been reinforced
as he begged General Hallock and Nj.
Stanton, secretary Of war, to reinforce
him with General McDowelrs sixty
thousand n troops idle in front OF
Washington. and had the authorities
at Washington allowed him to have
thrown that large army upon General
Lees left flank. fully occupied with
Mcclellan as he was, Mcclellan would
have cut General Lees lines Of trans
portation in the Virginia central.
Some may say sneeringly that this
never could lave been done at that
In answer to this, it may be
alleged that Stonewall Jackson's val
ley campaign was made to avert this
anticipated movement. A desperate
attack upon General Lees left by Nc
DowelPs 1000 men would have called
General Jackson hurriedly from the
valley, while SO small was his force,
IL, 1000, and SO large was that OF Gen.
eral McDowell's go, 900, that the issue
at arms counld not have beer doubt
ful. General Lee, at all times the
master Of General Mcclellan in tactics
and maneuvre, and in all the fine ele-
ments Of ~generalship, himself uncon-
sciOus Of the fact in his high devotion
to duty as he was incapacitated from
his splendid organism to understand
the desperate, diabolic policy at head
quarters in Washington in it's unwi!l-
ingness to stop the war then n there
because of two conditions not yet
reached. First, there was a democrat
in command of h army Of the Po-
tOmac, and the commander Of .hat
army at the close of the war was ex-
neccessitate logically the next presi-
lent of the United States. Sumner.
Steward and Stanton had determined
that this should not be. Secondly. the
proclamation Of emancipation mad not
been issued. Slavery had not been
abolished. Now If this reasoning be
correct. and the further suggestion be
true that because the A~nglo-Saxon
elements in the southern armies after
the fall of Richmond, there could be
no guerilla warfare following. MeI. Of
Latin blood. Spaniards, French.
Italians are addicted to the pitiable
vice Of gueriA4aing. Men Of Anglo
Saxon blood never guerilla. Thus it
would have ended the war in go. II
this be true, what al ocean Of blood,
what fearful waste Of precious treas
ure, what tears Of widowhood, what
fearful blight Of o~rphanage, what fear
full orgies Of we'll nigh hellish abandon
to rapine and murder, what fearful
responsibility must be at the bar OF
God upon the conscience of Stanton.
Steward, Sumner, who led the more
amiabie, the more patriotic Lincoln by
the nose. The seven days fights
OASoAAA
from astraddle the C~hickyhominy
back beyond McIvern Hills to the cov-
er Of his gun-boats on b James riv-
er. The second battle of Manassas,
at which Stonewall ackson rose to
the height OF a superb commander
under General Lee, was but tie step
ping stone to the invasion Of Mary
land. The battle Of ~SharpsburR On the
7th of September 1862, the 35th inniver-
| sary which has called US together to-
day was the great struggl, OF that
campaign. General Lee crossed into
Maryland and made his way direct TO
Frederick City, ignoring h existence
OF the 1900 troops a. Harper's Ferry
in sufficient proximity to threaten. his
communications through the Sherman
| doah Valley. He naturally thought
! that this garrison would De Immediate
ly removed and ordered to join General
Mcclellan. The fedora commander
having ordered the evacuation Of Har-
per's Ferry, moved slowly and eau
tiously up the right bank Of the Po-
ga