The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1901-08-23
CHICKENS COME HOME TO R00s.


Chickens come home to cost" is an
old saying but a true one. While of
course we are all anxiously endeavor-
ing to forget the trying days of the
Civil War yet occasionally we run up
against some gentle reminder of the
heroic? deeds of the Generals in the
Union Army. The SUN speaks thus
of a speech recently delivered by
England's Home Secretary in justi
fcation of the recent South African
outrages:
When Generals Sherman and Sheri-
dan were burning houses and destroy
ing farm products in the South dur
ing the Civil War it probably never
occurred to them that their savage
way of making war upon non-com-
batants would one day be cited in
the British Parliament in vindication
of British brutalities in South Africa.
Yet that is just what has happened
and what was bound to happen when
British politicians were compelled to
defend the barbarous methods which
have been adopted to conquer the
Beers. 1t is significant, however,
that the Hon. Joseph Chamberlain,
who is the spokesman of the Govern
ment, hatters himselft that the British
commanders in South Africa have not
yet resorted to measures as extreme
as those of Sherman and Sheridan.
Regarding the devastation policy"
Mr.. Chamberlain is reported as say
ing, at was nothing compared with
General Sherman's campaign in the
American Civil War" The British
Colonial Secretary added that he had
talked with General Sherman, and
the Northern commander justified his
action ION the ground ofhumanity."
Not only is General Sherman's
humane" incendiarism advanced as
a complete vindication of British
methods of making war in South
Africa, but the policy of the United
States Government in the Philippines
is also cited by Mr.. Chamberlain as
a precedent for threatening the Boer
leaders with Punishment from South
Africa and treating the burghers now
in arms as "banditti. Mr.. Chamber
lain is certainly a close student of
American history. He has watched |
the progress of our war with the
Filipinos, and has read General Mac
Arthur's proclamation informing the
followers of Aguinaldo that if they
persisted in guerrilla warfare they |
would be dealt with as bandits. He |
has been gratifed to find that the
United States has made precedentsi in
the past 40 years which may prove
invaluable to Great Britain in the
present crisis. AS to arrning the
Kaffirs and using them against the
Beers, Mr.. Chamberlain could |
silence American criticism by recalling
the fact that the United States Gov
eminent had nearly 100000 negro
soldiers in its service during the Civil
War. Nobody north of Mason and
Dixon's line ever admitted that it |
was wrong to arm the slaves in the
South and array them against the
Southern white people. If it was
right to use the black troops against
the Southern Confederacy it cannot
be wrong, in Mr.. Chamberlain's
opinion, to use the Kaffir hordes
against the South African republics,
should great Britain ever need the aid
of such allies.
1t must be Notifying to every
humane American to know that when
the British Government is assailed
for its cruel methods of waging war
in South Africa it is able to report
upon American critics as effectively
as Mr.. Chamberlain did in his speech
to the House of Commons on Thurs
day. Ofcourse two wrongs do not
make right and never will. sheri-
dams tactics in the Valley of Virginia,
and Sherman's policy of devastation
in Georgia and South Carolina were
pra, administrations ofthe savagery
of war. 1t was Sherman who said
tersely: "War is hell" When Great
Britain is now accused of making