Newspaper articles, etc. of the Day

[thea_447]

Staunton Spectator Nov. 11, 1862

Summary: Reports that in Northern Congressional elections, the Democrats carried New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and Michigan and received large minorities in Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Lists the congressmen elected in New York and admits that the effects of the election are uncertain.


Excerpt: "The 'Herald' maintains that these elections do not indicate that the people want peace, but that they desire the war prosecuted for the Union and not for abolition."


What Lincoln has done for Freedom
(Column 2)
Summary: Charges that Lincoln has done nothing for the United States except to destroy freedom and the Constitution. Predicts that if Lincoln does accomplish abolition in the South, then the Southern states, which formerly provided immense monetary profit for the country, will be worth nothing.


Excerpt: Lincoln "has established on the ruins of the great Republic a despotism only equalled, if that equals it, by the inexorable despotism of Russia."


For the Soldiers
(Column 2)
Summary: Reports that a farmer from Augusta proposes to be among one hundred citizens who are donating $500 each to relief for Confederate soldiers. Urges ninety-nine other residents of the county to follow his example.


Excerpt: "The citizens of this county have a great deal at stake; and it is important that they should do all they can to prevent the enemy from getting here to rob, plunder and destroy their property, and to devastate and lay waste their beautiful and fertile farms; and the most effectual way for them to do this is to supply our gallant soldiers with all that is requisite to protect them against the rigors of the season now rapidly approaching."


In Spite of the North the End will yet come
(Column 3)
Summary: Speculates on the reason that the war might eventually come to an end without the North accomplishing the submission of the South. Suggests that the Northwestern states may withdraw from fighting, or that European nations might intervene on the side of the Confederates. Entreats readers to persevere and to do all that they can to support the cause so that the end may come as soon as possible.


Excerpt: "Our duty is . . . to make it the burden of our prayers, and the business of our lives, never doubting that success, final and glorious success, will be awarded us when it seems well to the Great Ruler of Nations."


Full Text of Article:
The Richmond Whig maintains that the North will continue the war as long as it is possible for them to do so, for the reason that upon its termination, without the accomplishment of the end for which it was waged, the North would be utterly ruined--the mob would be the only Government, and confusion and anarchy would reign supreme. The "Whig" concludes its article as follows:

"It is to avoid such scenes as we have pictured and such a doom as we have traced, that the Northern people will continue the war as long as possible.--They may realize many of its horrors, but they must feel that for them the peace that would result from defeat would be more horrible still. They have the wolf by the ears and dare not let him go."

Is there, then, to be no end to the war? Yes. War cannot last always; and where neither party has the power to subjugate the other, it requires only the constancy that becomes a good cause and a brave race to wear out the party in the wrong. Financial prostration or physical exhaustion will end the struggle in due time. And this, if no accidental cause should bring it to a speedier termination. Of such accidental, or, we might better say, incidental cause, there is a chance in the possible withdrawal of the Northwestern States after a while. They do not profit by the war as do the New England States.--They are not urged on by the demon of fanaticism as are the New England States. They have nothing to fear from the return home of their soldiers, as have the New England States. Reason and interest may, therefore, lead them to dissolve the unholy and unnatural alliance, and withdraw from the bloody and bootless crusade. This would give us peace. The intervention of the Great Powers of Europe is another cir****tance to which we may look with reasonable hope. Some time or other, if the war continues, it will come. It may not be as soon as we desire. It may be long deferred. But we have faith--the faith of just deduction from immovable facts--that it will come. And when it comes, it will be potential, all the more for the delay.

From all points of view, our duty is clear. It is to bear resolutely up against all trial; to husband all our resources; to bring every energy to bear; to give all that we have, if needed, and all that we are, to the cause; to make it the burden of our prayers, and the business of our lives, never doubting that success, final and glorious success, will be awarded as when it seems well to the Great Ruler of Nations.

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[NEW ORLEANS] DAILY PICAYUNE, January 8, 1864, p. 2, c. 2
Southern Ladies Going North.—The Washington correspondent of the New York Journal of Commerce says:
The number of women who have recently arrived in this city and Baltimore from rebeldom, is so much greater than usual, that the people are wondering what it all means. Women are proverbial for their sagacity under desperate cir****tances, and it may be they are getting away from beneath those pillars of the Republic which Mr. Keitt and his friends talked so wildly about clasping, and then tumbling them down to the ground. Most of these women are interested in real estate lying north of the Potomac, and while they come here to perform the farce of being loyal according to cir****tances, they boast that their husbands or sons are fighting against the old flag in the armies of the South.

[thea_447]

[NEW ORLEANS] DAILY PICAYUNE, January 10, 1864, p. 2, c. 2

Letter from Antelope.

[Special Correspondence of the Picayune.]
New York, Dec. 30, 1863.
New York has seldom witnessed a more gay or "merry" Christmas than the one just past. Santa Claus and Kriss Kringle were here, there and everywhere, and money was literally poured out like water. To get into some of the silk, jewelry, fancy, millinery and toy stores at any moment during the whole of the day preceding, was almost an impossibility—so crowded were they with anxious buyers—while at night, or "Christmas Eve," the streets presented the appearance of a carnival. The markets were also filled to overflowing, and wagons stood for whole squares leading therefrom, unloading their contents to the eager and joyous crowd. The theatres, to use a popular phrase, were "crowded from pit to ceiling," and to all outward appearances there was nothing to indicate but what we were blest above all other lands.
And the joy and merriment were sincere beyond all doubt! Not a hollow notch could be detected anywhere! There was no sham, no forced putting on of gayety, but it was deep and spontaneous. I have pondered on it much since—pondered, sorrowed, shall I say, wept? Had a quarter of a million been laid in the dust? Was our hearth-stones vacant, and was the Angel of Destruction still abroad? The merriment was earnest—the laugh rang loud—the hilarity was bounding—the eye flashed brilliantly—it was not a dream! . . .

[thea_447]

SAVANNAH [GA] REPUBLICAN, May 20, 1861, p. 1, c. 2
The Confederate Postage Stamps.—The Montgomery Advertiser says the design for the Confederate Stamps has been selected and a contract partially made for a supply. The new stamp is very beautiful, and quite in contrast with the old. The size is a trifle larger, and in the centre is an elegant steel engraving of Washington, (a front view,) taken from his well known portrait painted by Stuart. It will meet with universal approbation, and will probably meet the public eye early in June or as soon thereafter as practicable.



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[thea_447]

SAVANNAH [GA] REPUBLICAN, January 25, 1861, p. 1, c. 1
A greenhorn standing by a sewing machine at which a handsome young lady was at work looking alternately at the machine and its fair operator, at length gave vent to his admiration with:
"By golly! it's purty, 'specially the part kivered with caliker."

[thea_447]

1863
Lincoln has issued a proclamation, calling upon the States to furnish 300,000 troops. If that number do not volunteer under the persuasive influence of "advance pay, premiums and bounties" by the 5th day of January, they will be drafted--the draft to commence on that day.

The return to the volunteer plan, says the Richmond Whig, is a confession that conscription had failed, just as the resort to conscription was a confession that volunteering could no longer be relied on. The plan now is to unite the two exploded and impotent systems--men are invited to volunteer, and are warned, if they do not, that they will be drafted. But the draft has lost its terrors, and cannot therefore be used to frighten into volunteering. The promise of large bounties will have more effect, and bring into Lincoln's net a worthless few, who will engage to do anything for money, but who will be far more anxious to avoid fighting and get out of the army than they were eager to accept the blood-money that drew them into it. Such men will never stand before troops who fight from principle, and for everything most cherished.--Lincoln's new call is a confession to the world that the "rebellion" is too strong for him, by at least three hundred thousand men; and as his other estimates in this way have shown how far he has underrated the strength he had to overcome, it will naturally be suspected that, even should he succeed in raising this number, the result will show that he has again miscalculated. But when, as we feel assured will be the case, it is soon that he comes far short of obtaining the number that he confesses are needed, the whole world will understand that his attempt at subjugation is a hopeless abortion.


Origin of Article: Richmond Whig

[thea_447]

The Spectator, August 18, 1863, p. 1, c. 4: "To the Soldiers of the Confederate States."
Summary: An appeal from Jefferson Davis for the populace to redouble their efforts in the war effort. He details the preparations that the enemy forces are making for an invasion and reminds the readers that the result of a Northern victory would be "subjugation, slavery, and the utter ruin of yourselves, your families, and your country." He takes a fairly soft view on the numerous soldiers absent from their regiments and attributes their absence to homesickness and the need to take care of their affairs. He believes that fear of punishment is causing many who would return to hesitate. In order to rectify this situation, "The President declares a general amnesty and pardon and assures the public that with the return of these soldiers the Confederacy will be able to secure victory in the impending battle."
Excerpt: "Conscious of their inability to prevail by legitimate warfare, not daring to make peace lest they should be hurled from their seats of power, the men who now rule in Washington refuse even to confer on the subject of putting an end to outrages which disgrace our age, or to listen to a suggestion for conducting the war according to the usages of civilization."

Full Text of Article: After more than two years of warfare scarcely equalled [sic] in the number, magnitude and fearful carnage of its battles--a warfare in which your courage and fortitude have il****rated your country and attracted not only gratitude at home, but admiration abroad--your enemies continue a struggle in which our final triumph must be inevitable. Unduly elated with their recent successes, they imagine that temporary reverses can quell your spirit or shake your determination, and they are now gathering heavy m***** for a general invasion in the vain hope that by a despearte [sic] effort success may at length be reached.


You know too well, my countrymen, what they mean by success. Their malignant rage aims at nothing less than the extermination of yourselves, your wives and children. They seek to destroy what they cannot plunder. They propose as the spoils of victory that your homes shall be partitioned among the wretches whose atrocious cruelties have stamped infamy on their Government. They design to incite servile insurrection and light the fires of incendiarism whenever they can reach your homes, and they debauch the inferior race, hitherto docile and contented, by promising indulgence of the vilest passions as the price of treachery. Conscious of their inability to prevail by legitimate warfare, not daring to make peace lest they would be hurled from their seats of power, the men who now rule in Washington refuse even to confer on the subject of putting an end to outrages which disgrace our age, or to listen to a suggestion for conducting the war according to the usages of civilization.

Fellow citizens, no alternative is left you but victory, or subjugation, slavery, and the utter ruin of yourselves, your families, and your country. The victory is within your reach.--You need but stretch forth your hands to grasp it. For this and all that is necessary is that those who are called to the field by every motive that can move the human heart, should promptly repair to the post of duty, should stand by their comrades now in front of the foe, and thus so strengthen the armies of the Confederacy as to ensure success. The men now absent from their posts would, if present in the field, suffice to create numerical equality between our force and that of the invaders--and when with any approach to such equality have we failed to be victorious? I believe that but few of those absent are actuated by unwillingness to serve their country; but that many have found it difficult to resist the temptation of a visit to their homes and the loved ones from whom they have been so long separated; that others have left for temporary attention to their affairs with the intention of returning, and then have shrunk from the consequences of their violation of duty; that others again have left their posts from mere restlessness and desire of change, each quieting the upbraidings of his conscience, by persuading himself that his individual services could have no influence on the general result. These and other causes (although far less disgraceful than the desire to avoid danger, or to escape form the sacrifices required by patriotism,) are, nevertheless, grievous faults, and place the cause of our beloved country, and of everything we hold dear, in imminent peril. I repeat, that the men who now owe duty to their country, who have been called out and who have not yet reported for duty, or who have absented themselves form their posts, are sufficient in number to secure us victory in the struggle now impending.

I call on you, then, my countrymen, to hasten to your camps, in obedience to the dictates of honor and duty, and summon those who have absented themselves without leave, or who have remained absent beyond the period allowed by their furloughs, to repair, without delay, to their respective commands; and I do hereby declare that I grant a general pardon and amnesty to all officers and men within the Confederacy, now absent without leave, who shall, with the least possible delay, return to their proper posts of duty; but no excuse will be received for any delay beyond twenty days after first publication of this proclamation in the State in which the absentee may be at the date of the publication. This amnesty and pardon shall extend to all who have been accused of, or who have been convicted and are undergoing sentence for, absence without leave or desertion, excepting only those who have been twice convicted of desertion.

Finally, I conjure my countrywomen--the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters--of the Confederacy, to use their all-powerful influence to those which their patriotism has no freely and constantly offered on their country's altar, and to take care that none who owe service in the field shall be sheltered at home, from the disgrace of having deserted their duty to their families, to their country, and to their God.

Given under my hand, and the seal of the Confederacy States, at Richmond, this 1st day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.



I call on you, then, my countrymen, to hasten to your camps, in obedience to the dictates of honor and duty, and summon those who have absented themselves without leave, or who have remained absent beyond the period allowed by their furloughs, to repair, without delay, to their respective commands; and I do hereby declare that I grant a general pardon and amnesty to all officers and men within the Confederacy, now absent without leave, who shall, with the least possible delay, return to their proper posts of duty; but no excuse will be received for any delay beyond twenty days after first publication of this proclamation in the State in which the absentee may be at the date of the publication. This amnesty and pardon shall extend to all who have been accused of, or who have been convicted and are undergoing sentence for, absence without leave or desertion, excepting only those who have been twice convicted of desertion.

Finally, I conjure my countrywomen--the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters--of the Confederacy, to use their all-powerful influence to those which their patriotism has no freely and constantly offered on their country's altar, and to take care that none who owe service in the field shall be sheltered at home, from the disgrace of having deserted their duty to their families, to their country, and to their God.

Given under my hand, and the seal of the Confederacy States, at Richmond, this 1st day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.
By the President:
J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State.

The papers throughout the Confederate States are requested to copy the above proclamation, at the earliest moment, and for twenty days thereafter, and send their bills to the Private Secretary of the President.

[thea_447]

Republican Vindicator, May 22, 1863

The Northern Press on the Death of Jackson



(Column 5)

Summary: The death of Stonewall Jackson is an irreplaceable loss to the Confederate forces, as all agree, on both sides, that he was "the most brilliant rebel general developed by this war." The Richmond Enquirer claims this loss is greater than if the Confederates had lost a whole division of their army. The Southern victory at Chancellorsville, therefore, was costly. This article *****ses Jackson's military prowess, highlights his battle record, and describes his personal demeanor.



Excerpt: "Stonewall Jackson was a great general, a brave soldier, a noble christian and a pure man. May God throw these virtues against the sins of the Secessionist, the advocate of a great national crime."


Origin of Article: New York Herald

[thea_447]

Shameful
(Column 7)

Summary: This article criticizes the magnanimous response Yankee prisoners have received while in transit to Richmond. In the North, there is a penalty of death for anyone showing sympathy to Confederate prisoners held there. The Yankee prisoners should not be mistreated, but neither should they be honored.



Origin of Article: Lynchburg Republican

[thea_447]

Republican Vindicator, April 29, 1864


Retaliation


(Column 1)

Summary: The editor comments on Lincoln's address at the opening of the Sanitary Fair in Baltimore, in which the President called for a person-for-person retaliation of the massacre at Fort Pillow, if investigations reveal that a massacre is indeed what occurred there. In rebuttal, the editor contends that General Forrest killed the African-American and Union soldiers who resisted capture, an appropriate procedure in war. If the President truly wants retaliation, the editor warns, then let him be advised that the approach is two-sided and should not end until he has met his "retributive share," thereby ridding the African Americans of their worst enemy (Lincoln).



Full Text of Article: Retaliation.

At the opening of the Sanitary Fair, at Baltimore, Abraham Lincoln delivered an address in which he adverts to the horrible (?) massacre of his black and white soldiery, at Fort Pillow, expressing his determination to retaliate man for man, if investigations making shall prove it a massacre. The "atrocity" (?) of such wholesale slaughter of men, who refused to surrender when surrounded by Forrest and the demand was made, thus signifying their intention to fight to the death, and who were killed in the contest over the possession of the fort, and not after their capture, appalls him, who, safe under his guards at the White House, could without a compunction of conscience, sees Butler rule with worse than heathenish brutality over an oppressed city or deliberately send forth his fit representatives, Dahlgreen and his cut-throats, to assassinate our President and Cabinet, sack our Capital, and let loose a hireling soldiery to commit whatever of crime their impious desires or devilish ingenuity might suggest.

If Forrest had put to the sword the captive negroes and their officers, he would not have conflicted at all with the enforcement of the laws of those Sovereignties which helped to delegate authority to the Government over which Mr. Lincoln presides, but which for the past three years have maintained an independent Government. These laws make the penalty--death, not only to those negroes who array themselves in open hostility to their masters but also to those white men who aid or abet them, as for the instance old John Brown. The evidence of this hostility could not have been stronger than when Forrest entered Fort Pillow and found them accoutred with their warlike implements and dealing death and destruction to their masters under him. He did not capture them and then kill them, but killed all who resisted. If this be a subject for retaliation let Mr. Lincoln begin. It is a two-handed game at which both parties can play and which we opine he will be loth to commence, as will prove to him "too serious a mistake" indeed. If retaliation is commenced we trust it may not end until the Grand Commander-in-Chief of the Sable armies of the Union, Old Abe, himself shall have met that retributive share which shall rid the earth of a tyrannical homicide and the African of his worst enemy.