Year: 1862

ference and courtesy Dy the feoeral omcers
and soldiers. To punish this ingratitude,
and eifectually TO repress this insolence.
General Buffers proclamation declares "that
hereafter when any female shall, by word,
gesture or movement, insult or show con-
tempt for any officer or soldier Of the United
States, she shall be regarded and held liable
to be treated as woman of the town, ply
ing her avocation." This atrocious docu-
ment will call forth from the public opinion
Of every civilized country cry Of Just and
universal indignation. What insults could
possibly be heaped on any officer or soldier
Of the Federal army compared with the in
suit now offered to it by Gen. Butler him
seifi His language presumes that they must
be lost to all sense Of decency and humans
~, of chiSalry aud honor. To tell the fed
eral officers and soldiers that, because the
ladies of New Orleans gave vent to the par.
" feelings which they share with their hus-
bands and fathers, their brothers and their
sons--even though they do so, perhaps, af-
ter provoking feminine fashion--they may
be degraded TO the level of the most aban.
doned Of their sex, is an act to which it
would be difficult to find PARALLEL in the
annals of either ancient or modern warfare.
The criminality of the proclamation is only
equaled by its folly. Is it designed, by
such conduct, to reconcile the South to the
prospects Of the restored domination of the
North! No wonder that Gen. Beauregard
Indignantly calls on the men of the South to
arise as one man, and drive from their soil
the men who would treat their mothers and
wives, their daughters and sisters, as har-
lots. II matters little in what precise sense
this proclamation is to be understood. IL
matters little whether IL means that ladies
of birth, education, and stainless character
should be given over to the lawless lust Of
an infuriated soldiery. or merely arrested
and consigned to the house of correction,
there to herd with. and undergo the dis
cipline of common social evils" We have
heard much-we have read much-about the
almost idolatrous venerstion with which A.
mericans are in the habit Of treating wo.
men.


Our unfeigned hope is that the Federal
Government will at once show its sense OF
the act by recalling General Butler. placing
him under arrest, and subjecting him to the
ordeal Of court martial. II is bound to
do so in justice TO itself, to the citizens whom
it represents. to the Federal army so foully
outraged by the act Of Federal General,
to the public opinion Of other countries. to
the national honor of which it is the guardi-
an. TO the future generations of its own sub
iects, by whom this act would be always felt
as hereditary stain and fraud. We have
carefully abstained from taking any part in
the contest between the North and the
South. Our neutrality has been even more
dictated by principle than suggested or i'm
PEELED by interest. But such an act as that
Of Gen. Butler. if not promptly disavowed,
would soon turn the scale finally and deci-
sively in favor Of the Confederate cause.
We all remember with what terrible effect
the late Count Cayour appealed TO the con-
science Of Europe TO sit in judgment upon
the Austrian General Urban, when the lat
ter ordered a whole family Of Piedmontese
peasants to be shot down on mere suspicion.
President Jefferson Davis might appeal to
the States Of both The Old and the New
World with even greater right, and We
have no hesitation in saying, with not less
effect.