St. Clairsville Gazette and Citizen, April 18, 1861

Thus spoke the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas in the Senate of the U. States, and all admit its truth. And notwithstanding the admonition of five members of the Lincoln cabinet—the advice of the patriot soldier General Scott, and the protestations of every Democratic and Union press, and all true lovers of their country—Lincoln, with the lie of peace upon his lips, has for weeks been inaugurating and has now plunged the country into a bloody fratricidal war, the untold miseries and horrors of which no man knows, and all for mere partizan purposes.

With the hope of getting up military excitement and a war feeling in the North, he endeavored to make Fort Sumter a slaughter house, and was willing to offer up the gallant Major Anderson and his little band of brave soldiers a sacrifice to accomplish his hellish designs; but the God of their fathers, who watched and protected their revolutionary sires through the dark perils of the Revolution, was present with and protected them; for it can not be looked upon as anything less than a miracle that that brave little garrison who stood amidst the balls and shells that fell among them like hail, with the burning buildings and the bursting of their own shells around them, could have escaped without the loss of a single life, as they did, without the interposition of Divine Providence.

This movement of Lincoln['s] means disunion. Let every true lover of his country, therefore, frown down this attempt to deluge this land in fraternal blood, by this unholy, wicked and damnable civil war. We feel rejoiced to chronicle the fact that the Democratic members of the Pennsylvania Legislature, when called upon to vote a half a million of the people's money to carry on this unholy war, promptly and to a man voted NO. And when Gov. Dennison shall, as he will, call for a similar sum for a similar purpose, we trust the Democrats of the Ohio Legislature will promptly vote no.

If Lincoln and the irrepressible wing of the Republican party are determined that nothing short of civil war will satisfy their thirst for blood, let none but such be the participants. The ways of God are wondrous, and it may be that this is the means by which he intends to rid the earth of this cursed faction, whose leaders have been for years calling for a new God and a new Bible. It may be that like the host of Pharaoh whom he swallowed up in the Red sea, he intends that the destroyers of the peace of this country shall perish by the sword.

Lincoln has also called an extra session of Congress. We hope their first act will be to impeach him, and that his reward may be that of the traitor.

The Democratic party and the Union men with Crittenden at their head, offered peaceful remedies that would have settled our national difficulties without the shedding of blood, but nothing it seems will satisfy this Administration but blood. And their hope is to make this a war of sections for upon sectionalism they live, move, and have their being. Therefore we say to all true lovers of their country touch not, handle not this accursed, this unclean thing.