His allies in newspaper offices attempted to throw the blame upon the
loyal press and portion of the community. This was but a repetition of
the cry, raised by traitors in arms, that the government, struggling for
life in their deadly hold, was responsible for the war: "If thou wouldst
but consent to be murdered peaceably, there could be no strife."
These editors outraged common sense, truth, and decency, by speaking of
the riots as an "uprising of the people to defend their liberties,"--"an
opposition on the part of the workingmen to an unjust and oppressive
law, enacted in favor of the men of wealth and standing." As though the
_people_ of the great metropolis were incendiaries, robbers, and
assassins; as though the poor were to demonstrate their indignation
against the rich by hunting and stoning defenceless women and children;
torturing and murdering men whose only offence was the color God gave
them, or men wearing the self-same uniform as that which they declared
was to be thrust upon them at the behest of the rich and the great.
It was absurd and futile to characterize this new Reign of Terror as
anything but an effort on the part of Northern rebels to help Southern
ones, at the most critical moment of the war,--with the State militia
and available troops absent in a neighboring Commonwealth,--and the
loyal people unprepared. These editors and their coadjutors, men of
brains and ability, were of that most poisonous growth,--traitors to the
Government and the flag of their country,--renegade Americans.
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