Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-12-01

me following comments upon tue arrest VI
prisoners for political ofenses and their release
by honorable discharge" without trial. appears
in the indianapolis Journal, Of Thursday The
same print. few days previous, stated that it
was no evidence of disloyaty to the Government
to differ with those who for the time being
administered il, for. it could not indOrse or
approve all the acts of those in power We
reproduce the article of the Journal to show its
Inconsistency in condemning heretofore the
Democratic press and Democratic speakers Tor
their disapproval of the acts Of the AdministFa
ton in the arrest and treatment OF political
prisoners, which il now condemns in the severest
censure The Republican central organ says:
The telegraph says that Congress will begin, in
the early part of the session, an investigation of
the causes and modes of the political arrests that
have been so often made and retracted during
the past year. it is high time something done
10 enlighten somebody as to the Importance OF
making arrests only for offenses that deserve pun
ishmeut and then Furnishing, instead of releasing,
without trial. If man sins against his country
so grevousy that it is necessary to arrest him. it
would be sinful leniencyto SIN not to follow the
arrest with punishment Personal liberty is too
dear right to be taken away for trifling reasons,
and, if taken away FOR weghty ones, there is
something necessary more than deprivation of
/ liberty When political prisoners are releasedsas
Mahoney, of Dubuque, and some dozen or so
of the Fort McHenry prisoners were released
honorabiy," after an arrest that not only i'm
piled but inflicted degradation, the Government
announces that it either committed a great
wrong in arresting them, or is willing to commit
one still greater in withholding the penalty OF
/ Il. Oak MI
our own State, were arrested without cause, or
released without excuse. And the Government
gets nothing by its i'll timed clemency but con-
tempt for its vascillation added to hatred for its
/ ili-timed severity.
! Mahoney is welcomed with shouts and process
sions and tumutuous demonstrations of ioy, in
which the Government is remembered, not for the
release, but the arrest. The crowd sees in the
release only a confession that the arrest was an
outrage, and sets it down not to the clemency but
the fears of the Government He is hailed at
once martyr and victor. So too with Hor-
ton Those who whispered encouragement to
him in denouncing the draft and dsSuading men
from enlisting, receive him home with an ovation
rs though his own proves had secured his re-
lease, and given IT to them n warrant to do all
that heidi, and more. with safety. The Govern
ment attacked him without provOcation, and got
decently whipped. This is the way the people
| will read the case And who can say they read
it wrongi Does not the Government confess
that it is either too feeble to do what il deems
just or attempted to do what il knew to be IN.
JUST by such release? Horton and Mahoney
should never have been arrested or they should
have been tried and punished. We can't see how
an offense can be bad enough to deserve arrest,
and not bad enough to deserve trial to deter
mine whether any offense at all has been com
mitted.
We do not doubt that the motive of the Gov
eminent in releasing these prisoners was to re-
store them TO their families and relieve them
from the suffering of confinement, to do simple
act of kindness, and nothing else But if they
were Justly arrested, if they were guilty of the
crime charged upon them, the kindness that re-
leased them cruelty to the country Whether
they toere guilty just the question that the
arrest enabled the Courts to decide. and which
the Government prevented from being decided bv
the release. By the arrest it imputes crime, and
by the release deprves itself of the power to learn
whether crime had really been committed or not.
Ii stands. in any view of the matter in the atti
tude of a wrOng-dOer, wrong in arresting the
prisoners without cause, or in releasing when
there sufficient cause to retain them. Con
gress will hardly say a word amiss that censures
this Peneopean policy of undoing at the end of a
month what was done at the beginning
Low indeed must the Administration have sunk
in the estimation of its friends, when they feel
called upon thus to censure its imbecility, its in
stability and its exercise of despotic power.