Year: 1864

From the Richmond Wig, Decsm5sr2.


We are rather sorry that the man with tho
black valise commenced his operations In New
York. We may say that we are sorry he tried his
hand on New York at all-Or at least under
present circumstances. Had he succeeded, he
would, perhaps, have effected the destruction of
a great part CT the commercial metropolis of Yam
keedom but it is not against the commercial
metropolis of Yankeedom that Southern hostility
is at this moment directed If there is any place
in the North that ought to be spared, that place is
New York. Not that its population is overly
friendly to u.s. but that it is undeniaby hostile to
Lincoln and his Government.


Lincoln was beaten just about two to one at
the late election in New York city and this tact,
let us inteTpret McClelan's views as We please,
takes the people of that city out of the category
of those sangulnary foes of the South who are
preaching universal murder and determination,
against the Confederacy by such men as Butler,
and who wildly applaud the savage warfare waged
Sheridan, Sherman, Turchin, Payne, and Mcneil.
New York, by voting for Mcclellan, expressed
her disappTobatiOn of the kind of warfare that
Lincuns party urges and that LinColn's Generals
wage. New York may be in favor of war; but
she would conduct war on civilized principles
and consequently has not made herself liable 10
that just retribution which ought TO be visited on
the other Yankee cities.





black valise will resolve TO let New York alone
and turn bis attention 10 cities more cminently
deserving of it-BOston, for instance, or Phadel-
pha. The destruOnea Of places like these would be
something like an approximate equivalent for
the atrocities that Yankee armies have committed
in the South. | would show that the South has
means of defending herself against the system of
universal arson employed by the Yankees which
would prove, perhaps, even more elicdciOds than
the direct punishment of the perpetrators Of
course we do not intend TO enter into any argu-
ment as to the right or wrong Of this matter.


We know that arson Is a very wicked thing
but we know likewise that it ceases to be wicked
when employed in their own defense by people
who have been made is victims for three long
and weary years. From one end of this COnfed-
eracy to the other, the charred and blackened
ruins Of homestcads and towns bear testimony
to the unsparing ferocity OF our enemies In the
use Of the torch; and in the meantime the non
comOatant Yankees have sat quietly at home,
feeding their fances with lurd pictures of the
connHgTation OF Southern dwellings. If they
coud have set the whole South ablaze, they
would have laughed at the spectacle and heartily
appauded the actors,


But when their own cities are threatened their
own property imperled their own homes in
danger OF the consuming fire, they discover that
arson is very horrible crime. IL is a pity they
had not made the discovery sooner. The man
With the black yalse is among them, and will
not be eXorched. He Is ubiquitous. He can be
at eight different New York hotels in one night
and there is no reason why he should not be In
half a dozen Yankee cities at the same time.


They may imagine, for moment, that they
have caught him but he will elude their grasp,
and defy their vain efforts either to arrest his
person or battle his attempts His plans are well
laid but we cannot help repeating the wish that
be will not again try 70 eonsummate them In New
York for the present.