Hillsborough Recorder
Sept. 18, 1861
Page 2
CONFESSIONS
OF WEAKNESS
The indiscriminate
arrests made by Lincoln,
of men and women, are so many confessions of weakness. Some of the arrests are made—that of Mr.
Faulkner, for example—simply to have an offsett
against the Confederates, for the security of the Abolitionist Elv. Other
arrests—that of Mr. Johnston, for instance—because he happens to be a nephew of
Gen. Johnston, of the confederate army.
It is supposed that near relationship will make Gen. Johnston feel, even
when the military arm of Lincoln
cannot reach himself. The arrest of
women is surely the last confession of weakness. Miss Maria J. Wiedel got a slender living by writing letters
from Washington
for the Southern press. She is a clever
woman, smart and showy, and her sympathies, it seems, are with the South. For this she is arrested. Mrs. Phillip Phillips is the talented and
lovely wife of Colonel Phillips, formerly of the Charleston
bar, subsequently of the bar of Mobile, and lastly of the Washington bar. A man of talents, he served Alabama
in the Congress of the United States
for a while, and afterwards settled in Washington,
as a pleader before the Supreme Court.
His wife, the daughter of J. C. Levy, formerly of this city, now of Savannah, was one of a
bevy of Jewish girls, equally talented and beautiful. She, too, sympathizes
with the South, and for this she is arrested. Could there be any more conclusive as well as
contemptible proofs of the cowardice and the weakness of a Government reduced
to this necessity? But, as if this were
not enough, we are now told that the
arrests will hereafter be kept secret. Why,
the despotism of Venice
and its mysterious silence as to the fate of prisoners is re-enacted once more,
and in this nineteenth century. To cap
the climax, the press is forbidden to utter a comment on the acts of the
Government. This is the divine right of
Kings over again; re-enacted with a vengeance!
The Constitution,
the laws, the habeas corpus, the
press, the feminine tongue, all suppressed at one fell stroke of the
usurper! Was there ever more conclusive
proof of cowardice and imbecility, as well as tyranny! Was there ever a more lamentable confession
of weakness? Is it not more
driveling—meanness and baseness, mixed with a madness which lacks even a
paroxysm of power! And all this
suppression of tongue and pen, press and law, and Constitution, extends only
over his own domain! Is it possible
that, in his own precincts, he needs to silence society, public opinion, the
freedom of speech, the press, the laws? Is it possible that he is so jeoparded in his own domain? Could we wish better proof of the monstrous,
vile, reckless and wretched character of this vulgar despotism?
--Charleston Mercury--
[Transcribed
by Sharon Strout]
