The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.--A dramatic death has been the lot of the
actor who murdered President Lincoln. A fate too
like a soldier's has ended the career of one whose
deed has made every soldier on both sides indignant
or ashamed. The details which we receive from
several sources of the death of this man and the cap-
ture of his accomplice form one of the most interest-
ing narratives of the war. The act of assassination
was in itself full of horrible audacity, and the sequel
is in keeping with it. When the murderer leaped
from the box on to the stage, a height of nine or ten
feet, he broke his leg. He is described as having
been bent double with the shock of his fall, but he
had the energy to rise up and shout out the motto
of Virginia as the defence of his crime. Still the
leap probably proved fatal to him. With that disre-
gard of pain which is often shown in the first mo-
ments of a wound by men under the influence of
strong excitement he was able with his broken leg
to rush across the stage, overturn those who were in
his way, mount a horse, and gallop off. But in a
short time the hurt disabled him. He was obliged
to have the leg set, and for the few days that he had
to live must have been in great pain and nearly dis-
abled. All the resources of the Washington Govern-
ment were employed to find him. His refuge was at
first unknown. Whether he remained hidden in
Washington or its suburbs, or was lurking in Mary-
land, or had contrived to cross the Potomac, and
had pushed into the interior of Virginia with the in-
tention of escaping southward, could only beguessed.
Those conversant with the political state of the
country seem, however, to have formed a shrewd
judgment as to the place of his concealment.
In the low lands of Maryland which lie to the
east and south of Washington, between the
Potomac and Chesapeake Bay, exists a popula-
tion which is said to be strongly Confederate
in feeling, They are not very numerous ; they
cannot be very rich; their country is swampy and
unhealthy, but such an asylum as they had they were
suspected of being willing to offer to John Wilkes
Booth. In this region, accordingly, the United States
cavalry and police made a strict search. They were
furnished with that potent instrument of detection,
a photograph of the criminal, and for ten days they
pursued him incessantly. A little army was em-
ployed in the service, and at last success rewarded
the exertions of Colonel Baker, to whom had been
committed the task of discovering the assassin. The
details of the capture will be found in our columns
to-day. Booth, it was discovered, had really secreted
himself in the peninsula, but finding doubtless that
hot pursuit was made after him, he had crossed the
river into Virginia, at a place called Port Royal.
He was followed, and on the night of Tuesday, the
25th April, a party arrived at the house of an old
man named Garrett, who it proved had harboured
the fugitives. The old man and his son were forced
by threats to reveal their place of concealment, which
was a neighbouring barn. Then followed a singular
scene. For more than an hour did the pursuers
parley with the assassin. The correspondents of the
New York papers tell the story with little variation,
and there can be no doubt that it is in the main cor-
rect. Booth preserved his bravado to the last, and
is reported to have asked the soldiers to retire to a
distance, so that there might be a fair fight between
them. His companion was less obstinate, and soon
gave himself up. Booth in the end was shot by a
certain Sergeant Corbett, a man of English descent.
Such is the end of a man whose name will be noto-
rious in the annals of crime. There was a reckless-
ness in the deed, and a want of personal interest in
its result, which might at first lead one to suppose
that the perpetrator was mad. To shoot his victim
in a public theatre, to jump on the stage where he
might be recognised by a large part of the audience,
and then to ride off like the hero in a romance, is
hardly consistent with the sober and calculating
criminality of the present day. Yet there cannot
be a doubt that his plan had the assent of two or
three other conspirators, and it probably might
have been carried yet further if some other of the
chief persons connected with the Government had
appeared at the theatre. it is not madness, but
fierce, uncontrollable passions, the indulgence of
bitter animosities, and perhaps an uneasy and crav-
ing vanity, which prompt men to these deeds. The
accomplices of Booth bear, probably in character, a
sort of general resemblance to him. When the
scheme for murdering the members of the Washing-
ton Government was propounded, there was, no
doubt, a knot of men who it was thought might be
safely intrusted with the secret. As the planners of
the Gunpowder Treason found their men, so did
Booth, or whoever started the idea of assassinating
the President, find his. There are minds in which
every dispute suggests ideas of retaliation and re-
venge. Among the Secessionist population of Vir-
ginia there are to be found, no doubt, many men
whom the conflicts of four years have exasperated
into ungovernable ferocity. That two or three of
these should be prevailed upon to compass their ends
by murder can excite no surprise ; but the more we
examine this matter the more reason do we find for
believing that it was the act of a few desperadoes,
and that no body of men in the South were cognisant
of the intention or have approved the deed. Mr.
Stanton has asserted that the plot was known and
approved at Richmond, but this has produced Ihn
indignant disclaimer from General Edwin G. Lee,
of the Confederate service, who declares, from his
own knowledge of the Richmond Government, that
they would have rieen with abhorrence any attempt

to advance their cause by such means. A conver-
sation with General Robert Lee, the Confederate
Commander-in-Chief, is also reported, and in it
the General is made to say that the crime was de-
plorable and execrable, and that if the purpose to
commit it had been known in the South it would
have met with universal condemnation. These de-
clarations are sufficient to satisfy all reasonable men.
A few sympathisers with the South may have been
ready to screen the murderer when his crime was irre-
vocable, but it is incredible that an act which it might
be known would excite the indignation of the world,
and make the North more steadfast in determination
than ever, would have received the assent of any
portion of the authorities, high or low, at Richmond.
Nothing now remains but to bring to trial the sup-
posed accomplices who have been seized. Booth is
beyond the reach of human justice. His body, cut
in pieces according to some, sewed up in a blanket
according to others, has been disposed of so that no
part of it, and no portion of the clothes upon it,
shall be found. There will be nothing for sympathy
to cherish or speculation to make gain by. There is
an end of him, and the American public will at least
have the satisfaction that he has ceased to live, even
though he has not died the death of a traitor and
assassin. The supposed assailant of the Sewards is,
however, in custody, and the accomplice who was
taken with Booth is also to be dealt with. Their
crimes are so great that if they be found guilty they
will doubtless suffer the full penalty of the law. No
one on either side of the ocean will plead for them.
We can only hope that whatever is to be done may
be done quickly, so that the horrible event thus
avenged may as soon as possible pass away from the
conversation and thoughts of men.

HERALD.—Finis Secessis. The surrender of Gen.
' Johnston seals the confession of helpless exhaustion
virtually recorded by the capitulation of the army of
Virginia. Resistance might possibly be prolonged
for a considerable time in the vast territory beyond
the Mississippi, where there still exists a Confederate
army, and where the State of Texas, and great part
of Louisiana and Arkansas, still maintain an inde-
pendence unshaken by any efforts of the Federal
armies. But the eastern part of the Confederacy is
conquered; the enemy is at liberty to concentrate
his naval and military strength upon the western
region ; and resistance there could only exasperate
him to more cruel severities against the people of the
conquered States, and aggravate the final misery of
the Texans themselves. Guerilla warfare would be
yet more fruitless for good, and would entail still
worse sufferings on the defenceless population sib-
ject to the military despotism of the North.
The South is crushed, and all that her wisest
leaders and noblest patriots can do is to with.?
draw themselves from the rage of a vinclic--
tive conqueror ; and spare their fatherland 41*
bitter grief and crowning humiliation of seeing her 4
best and bravest citizens mount the scaffold, to atone'
with their lives for the crime of having loved her too
well and served her too loyally. General Johnston
and his officers, like those of Lee's army, are
exempted by the terms of their capitulation from
Federal vengeance ; though, remembering the fre-
quent violations of national faith which characterised
New England during the War of Independence, and
the savage menaces of Johnson and Butler, they
will do well not to trust implicity to the_ obligation
of treaties. President Davis and his Cabinet, with
the rest of the civil officers of the Southern Govern-
ment—that is to say, with every eminent
,citizen in
the South who has not actually served in the field
and been included in the military conventions—are
at the disposal of the victors should they be taken ;
and we may be assured that no mercy will be shown
to those who may fall into Andrew Johnson's bands.
We earnestly trust that the President and his ad-
visers will escape, and all who value the honour of
the North must echo our wish. To speak of the
struggle of the Southern States as a rebellion is
simply childish and petulant, but to designate the
heads of the Confederate Government as the chiefs
of a rebellion evinces a spirit of unscrupulous and
sanguinary malignity. Whatever secession might
have been—whether it were legal or illegal—the
statesmen of the Confederacy are not responsible for
it. It was the act of the people at large ; it was
formally ratified by the regular authorities of the
States, who had the power of life and death, and
every ordinary attribute of sovereign power ; and
to whom, according to the theory universally held
in the United States up to 1861, every citizen
owed allegiance. The same law which, in
England, relieves from the penalty of treason all
who obey a king de facto, and which is founded
upon the simplest principles of justice, completely
absolves the Southern leaders. Moreover, if
secession had been treason, it was consummated
before Mr. Davis, at least, had anything to do
with it. His State of Mississippi had left the
Union before he resigned his seat in the Senate at
Washington ; and the severance was completed
before he was elected President of the Confederacy.
His execution would be simply a political murder ;
and a murder more wicked, cruel, and cowardly
than that of Abraham Lincoln, inasmuch as
it would be the act not of one desperate fanatic, but
of a national Government. It would fix upon every
citizen of the Northern States, and especially on
the President and his advisers, a guilt in every re-
spect corresponding to that of John Wilkes Booth.
Those, therefore, who do not wish that history
should stigmatise the Americans as a nation of
murderers must pray for the escape of Jefferson
Davis. The action of the Federal Government will
speedily give conclusive proof that the Southern
States are not defeated rebels, but a conquered
nation. The defeat of a rebellion replaces matters,
legally, in statu quo ; nor is there in the United
States any power which could alter the status. It is
the pleasure of certain organs to affect an ignorance
of which they are hardly capable, and to say that
the Confederate States forfeited their constitutional
rights by renouncing the Union. But if they were
rebels then their secession was legally a nullity. They
have, in that case, never really been out of the
Union, and have, therefore, always retained the
rights which they refused to exercise. True, under a
Sovereign Government the Sovereign may punish
treason by confiscating the rights of the traitors ;
but the Federal Government is not, and never was,
sovereign over the States. It never had any
authority beyond the bounds of the special functions
delegated to it by the States. It has, and can have,
no power not expressly granted to it by the consti-
tution ; and the constitution contains no provision
by which a State can forfeit any privilege belong-
ing to it, or by which the Federal Government can
inflict any punishment upon a State. Nor was the
omission of such provisions accidental. The States
intended to reserve their separate sovereign charac-
ter ; and, therefore, were careful to grant no legal
power of control, coercion, or punishment, to the
Federal Government. Neither Congress nor the
President has any legal power to interfere in
the internal concerns of a State, to deprive its
citizens of their franchise, or to take away from
it an inch of territory, or an item of political
privilege. If a State could forfeit its privileges, and
subject itself to penalties, there mast be some Court
which has power to pass sentence on it ; and the
most frantic Federalist will not dare to assert that
any such Court exists. No one who has read the
constitution can conceive of the possibility of such
a Court. If, therefore, the Southerners were rebels,
the terms offered by Sherman and repudiated by
Andrew Johnson would be the only terms that could
be imposed. The State Government must resume
their place in the Union, and their powers and
functions under the constitution. It is only by mi-
litary force that they can be deprived of these
powers ; and military force cannot be applied to
subdued rebels, who are amenable only to the law
of the land. To alter one jot or one tittle of the
law, or the rights of any Southern State, the South
must be considered a conquered country ; and to
treat it as a conquered country is to admit that
secession was a valid act, that the Seceding States
passed out of the Union, and, therefore, that their
citizens, from Jefferson Davis down to the private
soldier or Treasury clerk, are not rebels, but con-
quered enemies. President Johnson is recorded to
have said, several months ago, " Show me a man
who talks of the constitution of the United States,
and I will show you a traitor." He at least under-
stood
that the South could not be conquered con-
stitutionally ; that under the constitution there
could be no confiscation, no emancipation, no
4, punishment of traitors," no reconstruction of
State Government ; that to admit the South to
submit to the constitution was to forfeit all the'
objects for which his party were contending.
He is determined, then, to deal with the Con-
federate States as a conquered country; and, as
we have shown, to do this is to entitle every
Southerner to be considered a foreign enemy,
and to make the execution of any single Southerner,
on a charge of treason, simple, absolute,
execrable murder. But he is not the man to shrink
from murder, if he may commit it under judicial
forms ; and for the purposes of national vengeance
the theory of conquest is certainly the most avail-
able. Practically, if not avowedly, the South will
meet the fate of a conquered country. She will
receive such institutions as the conqueror pleases.
He must establish a military despotism if he would
hold the country at all. And he may do this in two
ways. He may appoint military governors with
full powers, as over territories not entitled to rank
as States. Or he may veil his tyranny under re-
publican forms, excluding from the franchise every
citizen of Southern principles, and placing the go-
vernment of each State in the hands of a little band
of Southern renegades, Yankee immigrants, and
emancipated negroes. There can be little doubt
that he will choose the latter course. It is the less
flagrantly violent and despotic, though the more
impudently illegal, inasmuch as the Federal autho-
rity has no power to disfranchise or enfranchise any

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inhabitant of any State for state purposes. It gives
an immense advantage to the dominant party at
the North ; for the new " States" will be at the
service of that party, and their electoral votes and
seats in Congress will be at the disposal of the
President. Anything more miserable than the fate
of the Southerners under this rule it is impossible to
conceive. A foreign tyrant is restrained by some
sense of shame and decency—a military governor
will have some regard for soldierly honour, and
some fear of provoking vengeance by excessive
tyranny. But a colluvies of renegades and rowdies
like that which has been installed as the legal con-
stituency of Louisiana and Tennessee has no shame
and no self-respect—it is even more bitter in its
hatred and more cruel in its vengeance than the
worst of foreign despots. The appointment of
Brownlow as Governor of Tennessee, which he owes
to his famous imprecation of " Greek fire for the
masses and hell fire for the leaders" of his country-
men, indicates the policy of the Federal Govern-
ment ; and every Southern State may expect to
find a Brownlow or a Butler installed in authority
over it, its men and women subject to his pleasure,
its Legislature filled with the vilest of his creatures,
and its seats in the Federal Capitol filled by men of
whom the least hateful to Southern feeling will be
some two or three freed negroes, thrust in there to
prove the loyalty of the electors to Abolition and
New England. The only consolation of the suf-
ferers must be that by such agency as this the con-
quered South will be employed to rivet the chains
of Federal despotism upon her conquerors, and
that, in crushing out the national life and indepen-
dence of her neighbours, the North has sealed the
doom of her own liberties.