Year: 1863

PrOVOCntiOns for vengeance.


The following is a thrilling extract from
a speech delivered hy Rev. DIR. Bellows, at
the opening of the Union League Club,
New York, May -:


II you see n head hit it" was the Irish
mans instruction to his inexperienced COM
panion at tho fair. " Ii YOU SEQ butter
nut, shoot him. has become the Compcu-
dious programme of Union men in Missouri
friend Just from there told me that a
member of the Legislature had lately de-
scihed an interview with II man from the
border, who told him that his own case
might serve to illustrate the condition of
society in his region. 81 had five brothers
in-aw, and every one of them had sworn to
take my life, simply because adhered to
the Union. They sought to shoot me
through my own windows, to waylay me,
TO Kill me anywhere or any how. | have
succeeded i'll staying three of them. shall
not feel that my life is safe till have killed
the other two" \ boy of sixteen con-
ccalcd in Il Union house. saw his own
mother taken out and shot before her own
| door, i'll wantonncss, 10y an Internal gucr-
rllla crew. lie went out the moment the
assassins had fled TO pick up her lifclcss
form; counted the womds-thcrc were
nlne-and having buried his mother, in
stantly STRIPPING us he was, enlisted i'll the
Union army. He had already made sure of
the slaughter of seven rebels by his own
hand, and he sworc he would never cease
until ho had two more rebel livcs-Oue for
each shot in his mothers body These are
the terrible passions which the malignity
of the foe has aroused in the hearts of our
brethren on the border! DO you wonder
at them? Is it not absolutely essential to
selt-prescrvation that they should adopt
the policy. nay, let me rather say, yield to
the passion of determination, under such
furious hatred as our enemy feels and prac-
tees towards them? Can You wonder
that they form solemn leagues and cove
nants of common defence, and swear oaths
of mutual tidclityY Said one of thcm--an
ultra peace man who, in the worst Kansas
| times, had refused to wear secret weapons /:
" DO you know what it means'-and his
face, said my friend whom he addressed,
gIared with terrible carncstness as he
spoke" do you know what it means 10
srcar jy iSpndtiOH? For have so sworn
to have the blood of every rebel that ON
any pretcnce comes sncaking into my neigh
borhOod." He had seen dozens of honest
Union men taken out by these villains and
shot without provocation


1t was the possibility of scenes like this
in our own communities that started the
Loyal Leagues. In Baltimore where they
began, the danger was not merely immi-
nent it had already fallen. The invasion
of Pennsylvania aroused Philadelphia to u
sense of her own peril as possible border
city. Men began to look round to see
whom they could depend on should men,
nlr Iii, l..
find courage TO turn traitors III their deeds
New York, three months ago, when this
club had its inception, did not know, from
party appearances and anmositcs, how
soon it might become necessary here to
compel every man openly to show his hand
There was clustering treason in every as
sembly. How soon a fearful trial of
strength might arise between the uucondi-
tional loyalty of the city and its partisan
trcachery, none could tell. Loyal men be-
gan to feel round for their peers. They
wanted to know 1rkO was trhO, and they
determined to form an association in which
men not afraid openly and Internationally
to commit themselves should enter into sol
emn covenant to stand by each other in any
and every moment of danger to the country
and the cause to fly to council in the sud
den eXigencics possible in the dark future !;
TO lay shoulder against shoulder and form II
phalahx when social or commercial Whit
tlers and towards should asSail the govern
ment or threaten our domestic security to
frown down with solid indignation the
sympathy Of a light-minded, pleasure-lov-
ing, fashion-ed crowd of vulgar rich, with
Southern interests and principles this
was the original object Of this Union
League Club. Happily the most threaten
ing part of the cloud, whose fury it was
erected to draw off, has already dispersed
under the wholesome wind of popular
agitation. But how much remains for
club like this to accomplish in purifying
the social atmosphere of this metropolis !
Here, men who love their country with
pure and devoted affection-men of solid
character and undertaking loyalty without
regard to party or sect, but only men tried,
known and trusted-are to come together
to confirm each others faith, to nerve each
other to fresh sacrifices, to counsel each
other in times of doubt, and to uphold each
other in hours of calamity, to meet every
disaster with fresh reserves of hope and
confidence, and to resolve, after every post
ponement and vexatious delay, on a new
patience, and longer Persistency.