Year: 1865




| CIVIL STRIFE-Our sister State Missouri is


in a very unhappy condition. Whilst through


ont the South, peace settles ike calm over all


the broad field OF s.rif there only the fe. spir-
it of Jiscord broois lik, a cloud, frem which


fierce lghtnings fash, and loud thunderings are


heard threatning to strike and rend. 1t is not
probable that the excitement following the for
chile expulsion of the Supreme Judges from
their seats-the violation of the sacred ermine
| by imposition of the rude hands of soldery, will
Of itself lead t. civil war. Shocking as it is to
| 4 American sentiment the resentment has stopped
| short of bloOdshed, and like other violent emo
iions viii subside with time But this is only
one of the crashes which reverberate from the
dark nortentous cloud, still charged to the edge


with i adly electricity, and any incident may
draw the fatal stroke.


For she has rushed Llindly and madly into
condition, which will not suffer her to be at
resin which the elem of society will not,
| nor cannot compose themselves in harmony.
She has bold hardy, freeborn population,
whose higher feelings she has wholly ignored,
| and for political reasons, one portion OF her peo-





other. No tyrant in the zenith of his power
ever attempted boldrr strike, with people
accustomed to a voice in public affairs. There
certainly never was time since the days of Al
fred when a monarch Of England could have
done the like. The people of Missouri, and
most especially the portion disranchiscd, are
lineal descendants of those stubborn old free
- &
magma charta from the hands Of king John, and
retained it too, until the present.


OF course no one, reasoning calmly as we can
here, removed from the scene of strife, expects
that this dsfranchsement will stand. 1t was
conceived in hate under the disguise of patrio-
tism, and executed in blind and unreasoning
passion. 1t is not thus that great fundamental
principles of free government are established
Certainly not such will stand the shocks to
which all free constitutions are exposed in the
storms of party con test If there be in any
fundamental idea Of constitution one particle
of injustice, real or suspected, it is a canker
which unless eradicatsd, is sure to destroy. 1t
must be not only pure, but unsuspected," or
il must surely die.


1t was much TO be desired, therefore, and still
is, that the people sh ould have remained quiet,
and bowed to the passing storm. With the re-
turn Of reason, would have come wiser conn
sis, and the evil would have been, no doubt,
corrected by the very men who perpetrated the
wrong. Hence, postponing that day, If not
leading to tloody issues, the rash conduct of
Gov. Fletcher is to be deplored. We cannet
see, indeed, that he was wrong in prince pie,
since the offices of the judges had become va
Gated by an ordinance of the very convention
under which Gov. Fletcher himself held Office;
and we have sought in vain for any plausible
argument in the St..Louis papers, to sustain
their rights TO retain their seats But he did an
unwise and unnecessary act. wantonly, and in
manner to shock that reverence for the judiciary
which Is characteristic of all our people and
which, in time of peace, takes the place of
standing armies in the protection of society
He had the power to establish proper court
and obtain the records by civil process The
old judges would soon have become tired of sit
ting silent like the old Roman senator's on the
invasion of their city, and 60 ne peaceably to
their homes. Gov. Fletcher has made them
popular martyrs, and thus thrown a burning
torch into the midst of the infiammable mate
rial which lies around him on every side. To
expect the least, parties will become more bitter
and unless the President, by some bold stroke
for public peace, under the clause of the consti-
tuition guaranteeing to each State a Republican
form of government, should take the State in
his own hands, and provide for another conven-
ton on the just and equitable terms adopted for
North Carolina, there is little ground to hope for
any end of the matter shot of resort to arms


Ia Virginia, although there is earnest protest
against the government Of Pierpont, cannot
discover that it is bitter. Everywhere else
throughout the area of what was once the
Southern Confederacy, peace prevails without
prospect of interruption.