CINCINNATI, May 2.
EDS GAZETTE; My attention has been called to a communication from Nashville, published in the papers of this city a week or two since, the object of which was to show that a large Union sentiment prevailed throughout the Western portion of Tennessee, and even predominated in the city of Memphis. The author of that letter went so far as to assert that recent articles in the Memphis Avalanche indicated very clearly that this pestilent sheet had come over to the side of the Government.
I beg that you will allow me to state some facts concerning this city of Memphis and its mouthpiece, that the Avalanche, which must convince all that whatever change has taken place in public sentiment there, is consequent upon the very close proximity of the Federal army to that city, and not to any real love for the Union.
In the city of Memphis, prior to the attack upon and surrender of Fort Sumter, there was a large majority in the favor of the Union. Seven hundred being the majority in that city against holding a convention to consider the propriety of seceding. While this canvass was pending, the “Avalanche” was filled with articles denouncing as traitors every man who opposed that measure and calling down upon them the most condign punishment. It was edited then as now, by Galloway and Cluskey – the former President Buchanan’s postmaster, and the latter an attaché of the rebel General Walker, I believe. This was at a period with public sentiment was to be moulded, and it was exceedingly doubtful whether Memphis could be carried for the South in any emergency. And yet these men, Galloway and Cluskey, devoted themselves day and night to the base purpose of alienating men from their allegiance and rendering the position of all those who dared maintain their integrity to the Union, dangerous in the extreme. Their efforts were successful, as the action of that people plainly show. No sooner had the news of the fall of Lexington been announced, then as once man, almost, they began enrolling themselves under the Confederate banner, and Memphis and its vicinity became one vast military camp.
Then was inaugurated that reign of terror during which tens and hundreds of men and women were outraged in person and property. Then was enacted those scenes of violence a recital of which would mantle the cheek of Sepoy with a blush of shame. All law was trampled under foot – the worst passions of men were allowed full sway – and urged on by the atrocious articles of the Avalanche, a system of whipping, head shaving and hanging was inaugurated, which has made the name of Memphis infamous throughout the world. – I speak of facts coming under my own observation for I was there and made myself conversant with the outrages that were committed and was an eye witness to many of the most horrid enormities of which the history of the world shows any people to have been guilty. – Some weeks prior to the capture of Sumter, and while it was generally conceded that Memphis was strongly Union, a body of six hundred men from Mississippi, en route for Pensacola, were received and most [hospitably] entertained by the civil and military authorities of that city, and paraded through the streets with Secession rags flying and the Stars and Stripes furled. Every devisable place was occupied by men and women, waving handkerchiefs and miniature confederate flags and so far as their approval went, urging the ragamuffins who were passing in their treasonable designs. – For writing a letter to the New York Tribune, denouncing the people of Memphis for thus entertaining a band of [rebels], I was held up by this Avalanche to public opprobrium and vengeance, and the good people were exhorted to ‘ferret the traitor out and nail him to the first lamp post.’ That I did not acknowledge the authorship of that letter, only proves that I am a modest man and shrank from the honors they would fain thrust upon me.
From the commencement of this whole Secession movement in Memphis, until the 24th of April, I was at large in the city, with opportunities for discovering and becoming acquainted with the acts of the people, and the sentiments of the editors of the Avalanche, and I repeat, without fear of successful contradictions, that any Unionism now apparent there is the result of fear, and not a change of feeling at all.
On the 25th of April 1861, I was arrested upon the allegation that I was a correspondent of the Tribune, and thrown into a dark and loathsome dungeon where the accumulated filth of years rendered existence for any length of time impossible. This arrest the Avalanche was exceedingly jubilant over, and had their counsels for summary execution been acted upon I would not now be writing this letter. While confined in that city I was compelled to witness the enormities perpetrated in obedience to the behest of those who ruled the mob. One hour in the morning from six to seven was allowed me to stand and the window grate and at such times their whippings and head shavings were indulged. Here I saw from the twenty-seventh of April to the sixth of June eighty-five men whipped because they refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy. And on the nineteenth of May last one of the must beautiful and accomplished young ladies this country can boast of was stripped to the waist, thirteen lashes laid on her back, and the right half of her head shaved simply because she had purchased a ticket for Cairo and was congratulating herself that she would soon be in a land of freedom. These crimes which make the blood curdle in our veins and arouse a vengeance blood alone can quell were regarded as small matters by the Avalanche altogether too insignificant to be noticed.
Then they fancied themselves secure, and with blood hound avidity they pursued every man and woman who dared to resist their treasonable demands. Who ever recoiled from blackening his or her soul with treason, was regarded as inimical to their institutions, and the most summary punishment was visited upon them. From the pulpit long [ever] this desecrated by the ministrations of foul mouthed traitors, constant anathemas were hurled at the heads of unoffending men and [defenseless] women. While all classes seemed actuated by one common impulse – to make Memphis the synonym of all that is revolting and hideous in crime.
Now when they see their Confederacy [tottering] and shaking before the blows of our gallant and noble army. When the memory of their past enormities comes upon them, in the light of the just vengeance to be meted out. When they see the sword suspended by but a single hair. When their power to work further wrong has been taken away, and the thundering of our guns can almost be heard in their streets. Now, they pretend to be Union men. Now they [allege] that force was used to drive them into rebellion against the Government, and prate of their sufferings and sacrifices. ‘Tis a foul and infamous lie. No force was used for none was required. What amount of force was brought to bear upon the editors of the [Avalanche] that compelled them to indite [sic] the many bloodthirsty articles which filled their paper from time to time? The avenues of escape were then open. Why not leave the Godforsaken city? No, gentlemen, the sentiments of the paper and of the people of Memphis were truthfully expressed at that time, and they have undergone no change. Interest may compel a different expression, but there is no change. There are some who know this, and the day is not far distant, thank God, when the avenger will be upon the track of certain monsters whose “change of sentiment,” loudly as it may be proclaimed, will not suffice to secure their immunity from the just punishment of which their crimes demand. The blood of many slaughtered men, and the monstrous outrages perpetrated upon [defenseless] women, cry aloud for vengeance. And that cry will be heard. Let no pretended Union men in Memphis imagine that the most devoted patriotism in the future can atone for the crimes against a holier patriotism in the past. A retribution as terrible as it will be just awaits them, and when they attempt to escape it by the cry, “Lord we did this, and Lord, we did that,” His answer will be, “I know you not.”
JNO McLEAN COLLINS
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 10, 1862, p. 1
EDS GAZETTE; My attention has been called to a communication from Nashville, published in the papers of this city a week or two since, the object of which was to show that a large Union sentiment prevailed throughout the Western portion of Tennessee, and even predominated in the city of Memphis. The author of that letter went so far as to assert that recent articles in the Memphis Avalanche indicated very clearly that this pestilent sheet had come over to the side of the Government.
I beg that you will allow me to state some facts concerning this city of Memphis and its mouthpiece, that the Avalanche, which must convince all that whatever change has taken place in public sentiment there, is consequent upon the very close proximity of the Federal army to that city, and not to any real love for the Union.
In the city of Memphis, prior to the attack upon and surrender of Fort Sumter, there was a large majority in the favor of the Union. Seven hundred being the majority in that city against holding a convention to consider the propriety of seceding. While this canvass was pending, the “Avalanche” was filled with articles denouncing as traitors every man who opposed that measure and calling down upon them the most condign punishment. It was edited then as now, by Galloway and Cluskey – the former President Buchanan’s postmaster, and the latter an attaché of the rebel General Walker, I believe. This was at a period with public sentiment was to be moulded, and it was exceedingly doubtful whether Memphis could be carried for the South in any emergency. And yet these men, Galloway and Cluskey, devoted themselves day and night to the base purpose of alienating men from their allegiance and rendering the position of all those who dared maintain their integrity to the Union, dangerous in the extreme. Their efforts were successful, as the action of that people plainly show. No sooner had the news of the fall of Lexington been announced, then as once man, almost, they began enrolling themselves under the Confederate banner, and Memphis and its vicinity became one vast military camp.
Then was inaugurated that reign of terror during which tens and hundreds of men and women were outraged in person and property. Then was enacted those scenes of violence a recital of which would mantle the cheek of Sepoy with a blush of shame. All law was trampled under foot – the worst passions of men were allowed full sway – and urged on by the atrocious articles of the Avalanche, a system of whipping, head shaving and hanging was inaugurated, which has made the name of Memphis infamous throughout the world. – I speak of facts coming under my own observation for I was there and made myself conversant with the outrages that were committed and was an eye witness to many of the most horrid enormities of which the history of the world shows any people to have been guilty. – Some weeks prior to the capture of Sumter, and while it was generally conceded that Memphis was strongly Union, a body of six hundred men from Mississippi, en route for Pensacola, were received and most [hospitably] entertained by the civil and military authorities of that city, and paraded through the streets with Secession rags flying and the Stars and Stripes furled. Every devisable place was occupied by men and women, waving handkerchiefs and miniature confederate flags and so far as their approval went, urging the ragamuffins who were passing in their treasonable designs. – For writing a letter to the New York Tribune, denouncing the people of Memphis for thus entertaining a band of [rebels], I was held up by this Avalanche to public opprobrium and vengeance, and the good people were exhorted to ‘ferret the traitor out and nail him to the first lamp post.’ That I did not acknowledge the authorship of that letter, only proves that I am a modest man and shrank from the honors they would fain thrust upon me.
From the commencement of this whole Secession movement in Memphis, until the 24th of April, I was at large in the city, with opportunities for discovering and becoming acquainted with the acts of the people, and the sentiments of the editors of the Avalanche, and I repeat, without fear of successful contradictions, that any Unionism now apparent there is the result of fear, and not a change of feeling at all.
On the 25th of April 1861, I was arrested upon the allegation that I was a correspondent of the Tribune, and thrown into a dark and loathsome dungeon where the accumulated filth of years rendered existence for any length of time impossible. This arrest the Avalanche was exceedingly jubilant over, and had their counsels for summary execution been acted upon I would not now be writing this letter. While confined in that city I was compelled to witness the enormities perpetrated in obedience to the behest of those who ruled the mob. One hour in the morning from six to seven was allowed me to stand and the window grate and at such times their whippings and head shavings were indulged. Here I saw from the twenty-seventh of April to the sixth of June eighty-five men whipped because they refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy. And on the nineteenth of May last one of the must beautiful and accomplished young ladies this country can boast of was stripped to the waist, thirteen lashes laid on her back, and the right half of her head shaved simply because she had purchased a ticket for Cairo and was congratulating herself that she would soon be in a land of freedom. These crimes which make the blood curdle in our veins and arouse a vengeance blood alone can quell were regarded as small matters by the Avalanche altogether too insignificant to be noticed.
Then they fancied themselves secure, and with blood hound avidity they pursued every man and woman who dared to resist their treasonable demands. Who ever recoiled from blackening his or her soul with treason, was regarded as inimical to their institutions, and the most summary punishment was visited upon them. From the pulpit long [ever] this desecrated by the ministrations of foul mouthed traitors, constant anathemas were hurled at the heads of unoffending men and [defenseless] women. While all classes seemed actuated by one common impulse – to make Memphis the synonym of all that is revolting and hideous in crime.
Now when they see their Confederacy [tottering] and shaking before the blows of our gallant and noble army. When the memory of their past enormities comes upon them, in the light of the just vengeance to be meted out. When they see the sword suspended by but a single hair. When their power to work further wrong has been taken away, and the thundering of our guns can almost be heard in their streets. Now, they pretend to be Union men. Now they [allege] that force was used to drive them into rebellion against the Government, and prate of their sufferings and sacrifices. ‘Tis a foul and infamous lie. No force was used for none was required. What amount of force was brought to bear upon the editors of the [Avalanche] that compelled them to indite [sic] the many bloodthirsty articles which filled their paper from time to time? The avenues of escape were then open. Why not leave the Godforsaken city? No, gentlemen, the sentiments of the paper and of the people of Memphis were truthfully expressed at that time, and they have undergone no change. Interest may compel a different expression, but there is no change. There are some who know this, and the day is not far distant, thank God, when the avenger will be upon the track of certain monsters whose “change of sentiment,” loudly as it may be proclaimed, will not suffice to secure their immunity from the just punishment of which their crimes demand. The blood of many slaughtered men, and the monstrous outrages perpetrated upon [defenseless] women, cry aloud for vengeance. And that cry will be heard. Let no pretended Union men in Memphis imagine that the most devoted patriotism in the future can atone for the crimes against a holier patriotism in the past. A retribution as terrible as it will be just awaits them, and when they attempt to escape it by the cry, “Lord we did this, and Lord, we did that,” His answer will be, “I know you not.”
JNO McLEAN COLLINS
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 10, 1862, p. 1
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