The New York Times
June 3, 1861
June 3, 1861
The everyday literature of a people is said to be an index to its civilization. “Show me the leading newspapers of a nation,” said Daniel Webster, “and I Will tell you its status, without referring to its history.” Judged by this standard, the civilization of some of the Southern States is certainly peculiar; a strange mixture of grossness and self-sufficiency—vituperative and egotistical to a ridiculous excess. Take the Memphis Avalanche as an example. The Avalanche, a leading paper of Tennessee, thus discourses of the Government at Washington.
“But what contemptible, spavined, broken-winded Rump of a Government is this that undertakes to beard the British Lion. There was a time when it might talk thus—when it had Southern men to fight its battles—but that day is past.”
A curious civilization looks out from every word and line of this short paragraph, and this is in keeping with that evinced by the Press throughout the South. Brave men are generally calm, always courteous in speech and modest in demeanor. It is your coward who is vituperative and egotistical. Brave men never deal in vulgar epithets. It is your coward who scolds, and blusters of his own prowess.