Providence Daily Journal, November 19, 1860

Lies have tended as much as the most unpalatable facts to cause whatever unpleasant feeling the south now cherishes towards the north. Many of the northern papers have exhausted their ingenuity in misrepresenting the sentiments of the Republicans, and their misrepresentations form the grounds upon which some of the secessionists are now proceeding to extreme measures. We have taken occasion to express our opinion of the patriotism, morality and decency of those writers who gain notoriety and perhaps a livelihood by calumniating their neighbors and stirring up the passions of the south.

Now we find some of the papers, which have been most busy in circulating in the south false reports about the north, publishing false dispatches, purporting to come from various points in the south. We make every allowance for the mistakes which are inevitable in collecting news at such a time as this. Many absurd and exaggerated rumors are always afloat in periods of excitement. But it is very evident that some of the "sensation special dispatches," which have so amazed the public, have been manufactured to order. The authentic letters which have been coming from the south during the last few days have been mainly devoted to denying the stories which had preceded them. Some of these fictitious inventions were so entirely destitute of foundation that the author of them must be almost as remarkable for imagination as for mendacity. They would be utterly ridiculous if they did not, in the present sensitive state of the public mind, have some influence in increasing the general excitement. It would seem that they could be put in circulation only to make a sensation, or for the purpose of aggravating the troubles which unfortunately exist. One can scarcely be too cautious in receiving the news from the south at this time, though we should hardly recommend our readers to carry caution quite so far as one of our friends, who has been poring over the contradictory dispatches until he expresses doubts whether there are or have been any southern States.