ledge of causes practically
available for remedy and cure.

Whether the preceding analysis of the mob be a true one or not,
therefore; whether it were a part of the great Southern rebellion,
brought about by rebel agents from abroad or living in our midst; or an
outbreak of indignation against a law supposed to be unjust; or a riot
of thieves, whose main purpose was plunder; or a politicians' bubble
merely;--whether it were any or all of these, or something different
from these or more than these; in any of these cases, we are yet at the
threshold of our inquiry concerning it. We must go back over some ground
which we have cursorily traversed, and look closer at the elements of
society, to find a fitting solution to the spirit and conduct of the
mob. Men are not given to acts of atrocious brutality, to frightful
rage, or to wanton rapine, without the existence of some cause for their
proceedings. However depraved a few individuals may be, the love of
doing outrageous things for the mere sake of doing them is not natural
to the human race. If there had not existed some deep feeling of
supposed injustice on the part of the masses engaged in the sedition,
coupled with the habitual misery of their lives, the wild frenzy of July
would have been impossible. If the multitude had been rightly informed
and judiciously cared for, neither the politicians nor the rebel
emissaries could have stirred them to insurrection, nor thieves have
gained their assistance and support.

The cause of the turbulent spirit exhibited in a large class of our
population is, principally, the sense of pecuniary insecurity in which
they live; the fear lest by an overabundance in the supply of labor, or
by the disability of the laborer, they should be unable to get the means
of living for themselves and their families. The writer of this article
was impelled, by the duties of his profession, to spend his entire time,
save the hours of sleep, during the days of the riot and the two weeks
subsequent, among the active insurgents, in the neighborhood of the
conflicts, and in other situations, which gave him peculiar advantages
for knowing the nature of the mob and the causes of its actions. The
prevailing complaint among the first active insurgents, and their
sympathizers among the poor, was that they were about to be forced away
from home to fight for the freedom of the blacks, who when free would
become their competitors for the little they now earn. In l