Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Bank or the proprietor thereof ever contributed funds in the formation of military companies or otherwise in aid of the rebellion, which the proprietor does now and has always condemned as uncalled for and ruinous to the whole nation, and particularly ruinous as it has subjected this community to the insult of being thus criticised by such a man.

"If A. P. Dostie has the merit of loyalty beyond what he considers likely to administer to his acknowledged appetite for gain, it must have arisen from recent and sudden conviction.

"Mr. Barker's loyalty was tested before the birth of A. P. Dostie.

JACOB BARKER.' ""

"NEW ORLEANS, July 30, 1864.

"To the Editor of the True Delta:

SIR-The New Orleans Times of this morning contains a letter over the signature of Jacob Barker, violently abusive of myself, because in my letter to MajorGeneral Banks, of July 7th, published in your paper of Thursday, I made the following observations: 'At the beginning of the war the officers of these State banks were among the first to bestow substantial aid upon the rebel cause. Although corporations, having no souls, may not be guilty of treason, yet it is most certain that the individuals owning stock were in secession regarded as genuine rebels, and it is believed that they have exhibited no evidence of substantial repentance.'

"That publication is my supposed cause of offence to Jacob Barker. In that communication, as will be seen, I did not name Jacob Barker, either directly or by necessary implication; but since he has seen fit to suppose

himself one of the class of individuals referred to as having 'no souls,' of having been regarded while secession was rampant in arms in this city as a passable rebel, and as having since exhibited no evidence of substantial repentance, I am willing to avow and admit that he is, of all men in this city, one whom I should have placed in just that category. In that communication, for which I am thus personally and scurrillously assailed by Jacob Barker, I made no attacks on the private character of any stockholder or officer of any of the banks therein named; but I made allusion to them as a class of persons derelict in the performance of the duties they owed as citizens of the United States.

"I by no means regret that Jacob Barker has seen fit to make that publication the occasion of calling public attention to the manner in which he has performed his duty to the Government of the United States, under whose protection he has become bloated with the insolence of wealth, while that Government has been engaged in a life and death struggle with this hell-born rebellion. All good citizens in these 'times that try men's souls,' owe it to their country, in this her great struggle for national existence, to give active aid, by bearing arms, if fit for service, or by loan of their money if they have amassed wealth under the protection and advantages which that just and good Government has afforded them. 'Indifference or neutrality is a crime, and faction is treason.'

"Jacob Barker, by reason of nis immense wealth, and the power of his position, owes it to his country, in these times of her national peril, to give more positive and substantial proofs of loyalty than merely to 'condemn

the rebellion as uncalled for and ruinous.' Although too old, being a nonagenarian, to bear arms in person in her behalf, yet he owed it to his country to labor actively and boldly with his pen and voice to propagate and uphold sentiments of unconditional and zealous loyalty. He owed it to his country to sustain her credit by investing a reasonable share of his immense wealth in her bonds, for without the "sinews of war' how can the loyal soldiers be armed, fed and clothed, and this diabolical rebellion be trodden under foot? And without the willing aid of loyal capitalists how can the Government effect its necessary loans to carry on wars?

"He asserts that his loyalty was tested 'before the birth of A. P. Dostie.' That may be so, and that loyalty might even then have been found, as in later times, to have consisted in selfish devotion to Mammon. Admitting that Jacob Barker's loyalty was 'tested' before my birth, and not found wanting at that remote period, I desire to know what 'test it has stood during the last eventful four years?

"It may not be known to many in this communitybut it is a fact that should be made public-that Jacob Barker, the banker and millionaire, gave, among others, such striking proofs of active, unconditional loyalty to his country as these: When General Butler ordered the citizens of this city to renew their allegiance to the Government of the United States within a certain time specified, this same Jacob Barker made his appearance before the Provost-Marshal at the City Hall, just ten minutes before the expiration of the time limited, and reluctantly took the oath, and at that same time received for two members of his family' registered enemies' papers.'

"To encourage or permit those of his own family to register themselves as enemies to their country, and to harbor them in his house, may perhaps be proof to some persons that his 'condemnation of rebellion' had always been terribly severe. When the Commanding General required a certain class of citizens to bind themselves with the 'iron-clad' oath he complied, but when and how? At the last moment, and very reluctantly. There was published in this city, for a short time, last year, a 'loyal traitor' sheet called the National Advocate, with Jacob Barker's name as ostensible and responsible. editor and proprietor. That infamous sheet, during the period of its short and villainous existence, was commonly filled with all kinds of rebel dispatches via the 'grape-vine' line, terrific bulletins of Federal defeats, croakings and lamentations over the evils and burden of this 'cruel and unnecessary war,' all sorts of extracts from rebel-sympathizing papers, and with every kind of matter calculated to give aid and comfort to other loyal traitors in this city, until the nuisance became so intolerable that the publication of the National Advocate, edited and owned by Jacob Barker, was suppressed by Major-General Banks, out of complaisance, I suppose, to 'such a man's' mode of 'condemning the rebellion."

"What public offences, or what kind of moral delinquency J. B. means to impute by styling me such a man,' I am utterly at a loss to know. He hints that I have an acknowledged appetite for gain.' Acknowledged by whom, pray? Even my worst enemies, among whom I am proud to include every man who does not love my country, will not accuse me of a sordid, money-loving spirit. What little money my labor has

earned beyond supplying the wants of a frugal living, I have cheerfully given during this war to advance the glorious cause of our country. I wish Jacob Barker had done likewise in proportion to his resources. Then he would have lived for some useful purpose. I am willing to leave it to the public to judge whether my character for honesty will bear comparison with that of 'such a man' who issued and caused to be circulated in this city, thousands of dollars of notes purporting to be bills of the 'Bank of Commerce,' payable 'six months after the ratification of peace between the United States and the Confederate States of America.' I think that I perform my duties to my fellow-citizens and my country, quite as conscientiously as 'such a man,' who has devoted his whole power of thought to the sordid pursuit of acquiring and hoarding wealth, and who has not shown patriotism enough to give a single dollar to promote the cause of the Union, and of the benignant Government under whose favor and protection he has grown rich.

"I notice that J. B. gives as his 'particular' reason for 'condemning the rebellion' as 'particularly ruinous,' is that it has subjected 'this community' to the insult of being thus criticised by 'such a man.' What a lofty minded patriot! What a worthy millionaire! What a far discerning intellect, and what pure and noble impulses move the soul of this great and venerable banker and speculator, as shown in his statement of his 'particular reason' for 'condemning the rebellion!"

“No natural love of country, no profound perception of the intrinsic meanness and wickedness of treason and rebellion against our noble government, could furnish

« AnteriorContinuar »