The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1862-05-24
nlisrcllo,lcous.
Subdue, Then Punish.


holders eliminated in rebellion, which
has assumed the proportions of civil
war; and this has brorghs upon our
Government the complicated oblg ions
and responsibilities both of quelling an
instruction by legal process, and of car
ryng on a war according 10 what the
civilized world calls the laws OF war;
The latter is most imperative, and de-
mands the first attention. Is opera ion
| is seen in the negotiations and arrange
ments with rebel generals concerning the
trea ment of prisoners, in the removal of
the men taken on board the Savannah
I from the Jail where they awaited judicial
trial as pirates, to the fortress where they
are treated as prisoners of war, and in
the actual exchange of prisoners with the
self-syl government Of the so-called
Confederate States, whereby men taken
in arms in the act of D." levying war against
the United States," are not only set al
liberty, but made free to s and again in
open hostility to the government of the
country. In these and all other par
| ticulars, our Government has scrupul-
ously observed all the requirements of
the laws of war, in all respects of honor
and humanity, to a degree never sur
passed by any other na,lon. Such will
continue to be is course, carrying on
war, as war, so long as the rebels shall
continue to exhibit the characteristics of
war. 1t is by war that we are to subIue
81 biol Io
engaged in it will be treated as public
enemies. The prisoners taken by our
troops are lodged in barracks, fed with
rations, nursed in sickness, buried when
dead, released on parole or exchanged as
soldiers captured In war, just as English
and French soldiers would be treated. -
There is no revenge on prisoners of war.
There is no vindication of civil justice
on them. They must be kept or let 20
by the rules of war. The demands of
justice upon traitors, murderers, robbers
and assassins, for having on ragged all the
obliga ions of loyalty and patrio ism,
must be held in allegiance, however trying
it may be to our natural feelings or sense
of right.
But when VIC shall have finished the
war, so that the authority of the Federal
Government, according to the Constitu-
ton is supreme over our whole territory,
when courts can be held in every dis.
trict by loyal judges, prccepts served
only by loyal marshals, cases managed
only by loyal lawyers, and tried before
.iurics of loyal men, in the midst of peace
and order, ,hen the question of punish
mcnt may come up In oldcr, and be
determined according as shall then seem
to be demanded by public justice. 1t is
not TO be supposed for a moment that
our Governments is in danger of fore
going the infection of deserved punish
ment upon the guilty authors and leaders
of the rebellion. Human nature, the
sense of justice in the civilized world,
would cry out with indignation a. seeing
the whole dabolical crew of conspirators
let off without punishment But there
is no need of hurry in the case. The
charge of treason will keep for lifetime.
The day will never come thai the leaders
of this infamy can walk abroad in inso-
lcnce, Haunting their crime in the face of
wronged people with impunity. Davis
and Stephens, Cobb, Thompson, and
Floyd, lie cher, Harris, aud Pickens,
Tatnall and the cap aims Of the navy,
Twiggs and the colonels in the army,
who resigned for the purpose of fighting
for the rebellion, and many others who
have led their fellows into crime and
ruin, must wander up and down the
earth like Cain, or expiate with their
lives the part they have taken in thus
levying war upon their country, upon
liberty, and the human race.
independent.