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]