The Dregs Which the South is Drinking.
WHILE the whole nation has been involved in the guilt of slavery, and the judgments of God have been visited upon the North as well as the South, no one will deny that the South has been most guilty in this matter. They have defiantly cherished the iniquity in their very midst with all its appalling horrors before their eyes. And in addition to this, they inaugurated the fiendish and bloody rebellion of the past four years in order to perpetuate the evil. Justice would seem to require that they should receive a retribution proportionate to their guilt. The following sketch from a person residing in that section shows that they are drinking to the very dregs the cup of demoralization and desolation. He says: "The whole country is disorganized and demoralized. We have nothing to protect us but the omnipotent hand of a just God. Men who in other days were distinguished for their sterling qualities and moral worth, are now equally distinguished for the dreadful crimes which they daily commit. . . . It is dangerous to go abroad for a single hour; for you are liable to be robbed or murdered at any moment, and even if you should escape, your house is liable to be broken open in your absence and plundered. Families who were in affluent circumstances a few years ago, now hide themselves away in some desolate cabin, that they may not attract the notice of the world; and others who even now could live with an air of comfort around them, dare not show anything but their rags. To be suspected of having money is to be hung by the neck, or shot dead. O my God! how long, how long shall these calamities last? It is impossible for me to tell the story of our sins and sufferings. To the best of my knowledge there is not a religious organization of any kind in the whole country north and north-west of the Arkansas river, on to the Missouri State line, and even a hundred miles beyond. In all this wide-spread region there is but one man left to lift up his voice and proclaim the word of life. Here hundreds and thousands are perishing in their sins. Every degrading and demoralizing influence that wicked men can put in motion, is at work."