Floyd and Pillow

We sincerely hope that Parson Brownlow, of Knoxville, is yet alive, and in reaching distance of Fort Donelson; and it is so, that he may find his way thither, and see those men who so fatally to themselves plotted against the Union and the noble men who are in it, among whom he is one.  What an era in his life would it be for him to find his printing press in the fort, and there to issue those powerful missiles again at those who so basely and so wantonly conspired against the liberties of their country!  The army should send for him and retain him in their service, not only in the fort but in their all conquering march to the extreme South.  Let his bulletins fly in every direction among his deluded brethren.  They would be more dreaded than our columbiads.

We trust Floyd and Pillow have not escaped, but are caught, and will be sent to Washington City and as far as Boston, that they may look into the eyes of hones men, and conscience stricken, feel the strength of that noble indignation which burns in the breast of freemen, against such betrayers and murderers of a nations honor and peace.  They would then, like Macbeth, exclaim:

“Better be with the dead

Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace,

Tan on the torture of the mind to be

In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;

After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well;

Treason has done his worst.”

The retributions of justice may be slow, but sure.  It may have the feet of velvet, but it has also the hand of steel; and with all the certainty of doom, will the rebels and their sympathizers meet the punishment due to them.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, February 20, 1862, p. 2