Semi-Weekly Dispatch
The date of the issue is wrong; the date printed is May 17, 1861, but the proper date should have read May 14. Advertisements, column 1; poem, column 2; "a valuable table," column 3; article about the properties of light, column 5
War Items
The Attempted Poisoning
Instructions from the Treasury Department
Fugitive Negroes Passing Through the City
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One disastrous effect of the rebellion will be the loss of property to slaveholders. The stampede of slaves from the South has not been confined to a particular locality, and the fugitives have not taken any special route. A great number have been passing through this city during the last few weeks. Of course, no citizen or official will interest himself to send fugitives back to enemies of the Government. Last night, the number that reached the city was said to be twenty. A number of these lodged in the station-houses, and were assisted to go further. The story that they tell of the condition of things at the south should be sufficient to intimidate the rebels, for they exhibit a consummate knowledge of the questions at issue, and state that the blacks are ready to make use of any exigency that may arrive. It is fair to compute that two hundred negroes have passed through this city alone, since Fort Sumter was captured.
Phila. Press, May 10th.
Articles on a local disturbance at St. Louis, the reinforcement of Fort McHenry, an expected attack on Relay House, column 3; articles on a minor skirmish at Perryville, a report from Baltimore, a presidential proclamation concerning Florida, column 4
The Right Doctrine
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Honorable Warfare
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The was upon which we have just entered, it appears, is to be characterized by every species of fiendishness. Incendiarism and secret poisoning are to be weapons used by our enemies against us. Notwithstanding these things were threatened months ago, should our Government attempt to retain its authority upon Southern soil, yet our hearts repelled the idea, not supposing that even Secessionists had become incarnate fiends. As our experience with them progresses, however, we are becoming more and more convinced, that, with all their boast of Chivalry, and First Families, our foe is entirely unscrupulous respecting the means employed for gaining their end. The attempt to poison the troops at New York and at Anapolis, was scarcely credited by any of our people not cognizant of the facts; but the firing of Willard's Hotel, and the officially certified fact of the attempt upon the lives of the troops stationed at the Relay House, by means of strychnine placed in refreshments offered for sale, put their lack of honor, and entire Vandalism and inhumanity, beyond a doubt. If these are the means of their warfare upon us, terrible will be the retribution. A few such examples and the worst passions of our people, and especially of our soldiery, will be aroused, and then woe to the South!
In the name of Religion, Humanity and Patriotism, we hope it may not be so; that whatever excesses may be attempted by the Rebels, our own soldiers may ever remember that in becoming soldiers they have not ceased to be men. Let all undue excesses be upon the part of the rebellion; while we, knowing our strength and the rectitude of our cause, proceed calmly and deliberately to destroy the treason, and bring the revolted States to their rightful allegiance. Let us ever remember that many loyal hearts still beat beneath Southern bosoms, and, remembering it, let our warfare upon the Rebellion in their midst be characterized by humanity and magnanimity as our cause is by justice and fidelity.
Let Us Finish It
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From the New York Tribune.
For more than thirty years, Nullification and Disunion have afflicted the land. For nearly the same period, Slavery agitation has disturbed the general repose. To appease the former, and silence the latter, all conceivable expedients have been tried. Presidents have issued anti-Nulification [sic] proclamations. Senators have sung paeans to the Union. Tariffs have been repealed and gag resolutions adopted. Mobs have howled through the streets, and compromise measures of varied hues have dragged their slow lengths through everglades of Florida, and chased runaway negroes clear up to the Canada line. We have acquired Texas, and fought about it, and backed down from 54' 40', lest we should have to fight about that. We have sacrificed great statesmen and elevated paltry politicians. We have dissolved old parties and formed new ones; discarded ancient doctrines, and set up novel tests of orthodoxy. But all has been in vain.
We will not stop to inquire how, nor whence, nor why Nullification, Disunion, and Slavery Agitation, were originally precipitated upon the country, nor by what means, nor from what motives, their lurid fires have been kept burning till now. We shall not try to apportion the blame nor the praise which belongs to this party or that faction. All this belongs to the past. History will pass its unerring judgment upon it. Our present purpose is simply to say, that we are very sure that all parties at the North have had enough of these disturbing questions, and most heartily desire to see them brought to an end. The disease has reached a crisis. It must be eradicated, or a speedy dissolution of the body politic is at hand. Threats of disunion have ripened into acts of open rebellion. Nullification, covert and cautious, within the Federal Government, has given place to armed resistance to its authority and defiant secession from it.
Men of all shades of opinion this side the Potomac long to put a final finish to the causes which have engendered these interminable, distracting, and now most portentous controversies. Even those who are moved by no higher motive than a desire to be relieved from an agitation which, for a whole generation, has absorbed so much of the time, talents, and temper of the country, eagerly hail the present exigency as the Heaven-ordained opportunity for striking an exterminating blow at the root of the evil. Others who regard the existence [sic] of our free institutions as staked upon the issue, demand that the tree which has borne such noxious fruits be now levelled [sic] to the earth. Cut it down, say they; why cumbereth it the ground?
It can be done! Peaceful expedients have failed. War is the only remedy. Let timidity stand aside, and leave event to flow on in an uninterrupted channel. Let us listen to no compromises. Let us stop at no halfway measures. In his recent speech, Daniel S. Dickinson has given voice to the Northern sentiment: "Let us," said that veteran National Democrat, "settle this thing speedily and surely. It may ruin this generation; but we owe it to the next that they should have no such troubles as we have had. Let us strike now in our might, and, if necessary, wipe the rebels from the face of the earth.--Let us finish things while we are about it, and leave nothing behind us."
Reported Negro Insurrection
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Frankfort, Ky., Friday, May 10.
Messengers arrived here this morning, from Owen county, saying that three or four hundred negroes had armed themselves and formed into a company, and were committing depredations; that the whites undertook to disarm them, and that several were killed. The Governor has sent Gen. Buchner to ascertain the truth of the matter. He has not yet returned. The military are in readiness.
Article on what other newspapers have printed about the new Semi-Weekly Dispatch, column 1; current prices, column 2; advertisements, columns 3-5
Distinguished Visitor
The Crops
On Furlough
The Troops
Serious Affray
Correspondence between the Governors of Maryland and Virginia
Marriages
Deaths
Deaths
Poem, recipe for whitewash, article on mixing soils, column 1; article on rifles, anecdotes, column 2; advertisements, columns 2-5
"A writer in the N. Y. Tribune, who has been spending some time traveling in the South, speaking of the enthusiasm, both North and South, says:"