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. Let it,
however, be written plainly and graven deeply, that the tribes of
savages--the hordes of ruffians--found ready to do their loathsome
bidding, were not of native growth, nor American born.

While it is true that there were some glib-tongued fellows who spoke the
language without foreign accent, all of them of the lowest order of
Democratic ward-politicians, of creatures skulking from the outstretched
arm of avenging law; while the most degraded of the German population
were represented; while it is also true that there were Irish, and
Catholic Irish too,--industrious, sober, intelligent people,--who
indignantly refused participation in these outrages, and mourned over
the barbarities which were disgracing their national name; it is
pre-eminently true,--proven by thousands of witnesses, and testified to
by numberless tongues,--that the masses, the rank and file, the almost
entire body of rioters, were the worst classes of Irish emigrants,
infuriated by artful appeals, and maddened by the atrocious whiskey of
thousands of grog-shops.

By far the most infamous part of these cruelties was that which wreaked
every species of torture and lingering death upon the colored people of
the city,--men, women, and children, old and young, strong and feeble
alike. Hundreds of these fell victims to the prejudice fostered by
public opinion, incorporated in our statute-books, sanctioned by our
laws, which here and thus found legitimate outgrowth and action. The
horro