War upon colors.
--The Administration of
Lincoln appears to be determined that there shall no longer be any variety of colors in the dress of the
Northern people.
The old tyranny of the Roundheads is to be revived, and the fashion of a man's apparel and the cut of his hair, to be regarded as indicative of his political principles and treated accordingly.
The despotism at
Washington, which considers is no offence at all to trample under foot the
American Constitution, and deprives its people of every vestige of freedom, seizes a man by the throat in the public streets because his neckcloth is of variegated hues, and compels him to choose instantly between surrendering that cravat or surrendering
habeas corpus.
A Government which endeavors to sustain itself by serious aggressions upon popular rights, shows plainly enough its weakness; but when it descends to such absurdities as this, it becomes simply ridiculous.
We forget the injustice of the outrage, in the ridiculous aspect such an act reflects upon the authority by which it is perpetrated.
When a Government descends to such a position that people laugh at it, it is evidently on its last legs.
Yet it is hard to realize that such a change has come over this continent in so short a time; that the
United States, which one year ago was a free constitutional Government, is now a despotism as complete as any in
Europe, and that a long, lank, vulgar
Illinois rail-splitter, who, one year ago, would not have presumed to criticise the dress of any of his rustic neighbors, in the town of
Spring field, nor dare for his life to direct his better half in her choice of colors, should be the despot of
America — a despot not only over the principles, the press, the actions of the people, but dictate the color of their clothing, and compel every man and woman of his subjects to examine each article of their wardrobe before they put it on, to see whether it conforms to the cerulean edict of that first-born offspring of the
Sun and full brother of the
Moon,
Abraham Lincoln.
We apprehend that this august potentate will enlarge the sphere of his crusade against colors till he has obliterated everything like variety from the universe, and reduced to a loyal monotony all the objects, animate and inanimate, of the heavens above and the waters beneath.
Let him begin this good work at once.
Let him commission
Commodore Stringham to hunt up the shells of the ocean with their treasonable diversity of hues, and send
Bomeastes Furioso Butler to arrest the rainbow for showing the tri-color.
The rainbow, besides its gorgeous variety of hue, is also guilty of treason as an emblem of Peace.
Every time that magnificent arch spans the azure firmament, it proclaims that the Great Monarch of the Universe has forgiven the
Rebels who provoked his displeasure, and that there is Peace between God and the earth.
Let the rail splitter at once authorize
Butler to announce that a victorious column will early in the autumn direct its march a pursuit of the rainbow, and arrest and commit it to Fort Lafayette on a charge of high treason to
Abraham Lincoln!
