The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1862-05-15
The Fs7sci:y or the Enemy.


Northern populace and press for the putting tt
death of the LEADERS of the rebellion" ia one
Of the many etriking exhibitions which thi.
war has furnished of the hideous hardness o.
heart, and demoniac malignity of the people
with whom We were once in Union. We must
not only be subiugated aud all our rights OF
liberty and property wrested from us, bu. the
vengeance Of our enemies will only be salts.
aed when the headers and champions OF our
cause arc sent to the scaffold. Even in tie
sekno wssdged Rebellion of I776, and at a
period when rebels were handled in summs-
~ manner. Great Britain never ventured upo
such appalling barbarity towards those revo
lQtioDary leaders, who fell into her hands,
In the Irish Rebellion of 'i3, she did not seld
one of the insurgent leaders to the Foafold.-
1t was received for people vino affect to be
she most humane and civilized Of nations, and
who have been 60 saussmish in their sensibiii
ties that in come States, they have abolished
the death penalty for the greatest crimes
people who have encouraged and sppiauded
20 the echo every rebellion which has taken
place in every other part of thu world, to
taose men Of taeir own race who have COM
united the crime Of asking to be let alone, and
u resisting the tyranny which sought to de
prive them OF every right that makes exist
so<7e blessing.
The c,onstrocs Inconsistency Of this conduc,
20 equal to tie inbumanity. We need moi,
2suse to say that, even under the old Consti
tuition. the sovereignty of the States was, to
say the least of it. co-equsl with that of the
Federal Government that i. is impossible for
a man, politically o. personally, to serve two
masters, and that 1t il most unreasonable and
snJuss TO make him responsible to both Every
citizen 81 Virginia owed supreme allegiance
70 Virginia, and if he resisted her authority
was beyond all douet rebel, punishable By
death. And 60 Of every other State Aud
yet he 10 menacsd with the same penalty for
not obeying another master, who had, even
upon his own showing, up TO the time Of this
war, and Of ceurse could not have, any para
mount claims to thos of the State sovereignty.
To treat the Southern lea ders as rebels, is as
feathers weight wit the enemy. They care
not . straw for old Constitutions or new
ones, for Federal or for State organic laws
for United States sovereignty or State Sow
ereignty this 10 their demand, plain and elm
pie: "Your money and your life, too They
do not offer the bighwaymaus alternative ;
they most have both plander and blood they
muse have the bond and the pound of flesh
likewise. Their DO mbardment of towns full
of women an d children the threat of Farra-
gut 70 shell a city of l30,0OO people upon a
notice 90 short that not one tenth of the POP.
olation could by any possibility have been re-
moved within that period, the bloody and
brutal treatment of unoffending private ci,i
xens, and the wanton destruction of their pro.
psrty, all chow a ferccity of spirit uuparal.
kslsd in modern warfare, and which, if sue
cessful, can never be appessea till it has capped
the climax of its crimes by the deliberate
murder Of ourlesdsrs upon the scaffold. This
10 no empty threat of the Yankee press If
PTesiden, Davis could be taken to morrow. or
any Of our great leaders, they would be exc
euted under every circumstance of infamy
and shame q, surely ss the sun rises in heaven
And what do We propose to do in return
What do We who, in the wicked invasion of
our country, the desolation of our hearth
stones, the destruction of every species of
property, tho slaughter Of our soma and broth
srs' nave every motive for barbarity and ven.
gssncs, what DO we propose to do to these
Understandable villains, those enemies of hu-
msnity, these terocious beasts Of fury, DO
W propose to hang Lincoln, Seward, and the
other authorities and instigstors of this cruel
and inhumsn war! We have as much reason
and more, for such course than the blood.
houuds who arc seeking 70 worry and devour
as. Walter 6Avags Lander, whose political
ethics have been much in vogue 10 the North.
speaks thus. in his Last work, on the subj ect Of
capital punishment:
depIecats the puI .bment Of death for
erins Of FRINGE Who WAGES war nsain., I he
Roopse. And Wis. also. Is 70 be deprecated:
Softe must b, Ia most Cases, IL aioted with
". ms'o 70 elaboration, and extra jud icislty.
- asos','' eaAs 81 necessity, ead oasAt xsver to
THIS dangerous doctrine, FROM which fsw
Northern men would 9. ono Tine have dis.s.,ad
applies With double force to the President Of
league Of Independent, sovsreixn.ies, who
10 sndsavoripg 70 take away both the sovsr.
sSney OF the 6tsss and the liberty Of tho ei,i.
sens But Lander goes even further. n.
ssyvs
The A4sytcans have declared thsir sant,.
!Seo 1eeeIy. broadly, widely, eoaslstsatiy,
eesiess he violence and peTndy of Russis
Ana austria Thy inset do greatly more:
soev 1nse o0es - asyIs0 % W0osvsr. rIsinS
pe aeaasss evDss0tos and indisui0, sksll. q