The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-12 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 12, 1865.

The substance of the indictment against JEFFER-
SON DAVIS is now before us, and it does not go
far to extenuate the proceedings of his enemies. To
indict the Southern President as a " yeoman" inha-
bitant of the United States is simply ridiculous, and
the offence with which he is specially charged is that
of exciting rebellion, insurrection, and war in
the State of Virginia on the Ist of June, 1864,
and further on the 15th of June, 1864, ordering
a multitude of insurgents and false traitors to march
from the State 'of Virginia to the county of Wash-
ington, the climax being the attack on Fort Stevens
on the 12th of July, so that the grand jury declare
that JEFFERSON DAVIS did most wickedly
maliciously, and traitorously ordain, prepare,
levy, and carry on war with the United States
for the subversion of the Government, contrary to
the duty of his allegiance and " against the statute
in such case made and provided." Very certainly
no statute in any constitution was ever framed in
contemplation of the organised revolt of six millions
of people; and it would have been a simple im-
possibility for the original framers of the American
political system to have recognised the right of
one part of the States to govern the other part by
force. It is absurd for the framers of the indict-
ment to speak of JEFFERSON DAVIS as if he were
the mere leader of a riotous mob, or the head of a
gang of conspirators. Neither Europe nor America
can recognise him as such, and the attempt to disgrace
the malignity with which Mr. DAVIS is being per-
secuted under cover of a regard for law and the
statutes of the constitution is miserably unsuccess-
ful. The extreme severity with which the unfortu-
nate gentleman is being treated in his prison is so
out of place when directed against a political pri-
soner that it gives room for accusations of personal
malevolence, and for ever darken suspicions of ulte-
rior motives. No rational Government would wil-
lingly lay itself open to such misconstruction of its
conduct, and it would naturally be the first wish of
a really constitutional administration to
secure itself from any appearance of injus-
tice or oppression. A fair trial is the
right of the worst of criminals, but the charge
of crime against Mr. DAVIS has been dropped by
his accusers. He stands simply charged with aiding
and inciting. the rebellion, a fact patent to all the
world. Unfortunately Mr. DAVIS'S wealth gives
reason to suppose that he, in common with all
Southern landowners, is a marked man, and the
terms of the 'amnesty, which so scrupulously ex-
cludes every man of rank or substance, unhappily
tends to confirm the growing opinion that property
in the South is a crime in the eyes of Northerners.
The indictment does not in any way serve to exo-
nerate the Federal Government from the
charge of malice prepense, as no one can
attempt to deny that he was the leader
of the secession. His defence really rests on a wider
basis—in fact, on that very principle which lies at
the root of all free Governments, on which the
liberties, the greatness, the very national life of
America herself is founded—the right of peoples to
choose their own form of government. This prin-
ciple the North, while fighting for the Union, are
really undermining, and while they .are declaiming
about their sacred rights they fail to perceive that
they are really ;
----opt,ng a suicidal policy. The
freemen of the North will really be the sufferers ; it
is their future which lies in, the balance—it is their
fate which will be affected by the verdict
against JEFFERSON DAVIS. If American states-
men once admit the right of their Government
to arbitrary and irresponsible proceedings, to the
repression of adverse opinions with the strong hand,
where will be the end ? If the Union—a conveni-
ent myth—and the Government are to be hence-
forth the great objects of American worship, and
not those theories of freedom Sand equality upon
which the constitution was originally founded, we
shall only have the worst and most dangerous, be-
cause most insidious, form of despotism. Individual
liberty has been virtually at an end under the pre-
sidency of LINCOLN, but there was at least the ex-
cuse of a time of 'public danger and the exigencies
of the war. ANDREW JOHNSON has no such plea,
but he is adopting principles, and itdming.