Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-05-10
THE PUNISHMENT OF TREASON,


unconstitutional projects, whether they relate 10
emancipation by proclamation, conquering states
and holding them as territories, coniscation with
out trial. or any other measures not warranted by
the constitution the sooner it will begin to provide
for its own salvation.
Very truly yours,
Cambridge May 5, 1862. JOEL PARKER
The eT oatIedra opinion of Judge Parker,
implying that the republican party was about
to commit some great crime against the con-
stitution, and stood in need of judicial warm
ing, appeared in the Boston journal, Thursday
evening, and was re-publshed with great sat
isfaction by all the democratic journals the
next morning. On what supposed facts the I'M
pIcation rests ofhaving become bound to ''un-
constitutional projects" from which it was
necessary to cut loose, the candid disn-
genuous republican will have to ask himself
in vain. Conscious that whenever his party
has made formal and authoritative EXPOSE
ton of its views of public policy, it has taken
the constitution for its text and guide-con-
scious, too, that of all the parties or fragments
of parties now existing in the country, his is
the only one which has from the beginning
maintained its historical identity unspottcd
with trcason-he will be at loss to know
what will-o'- the-wisp has thrown its glamour
over the eyes of the Cambridge professor,
and made him see so great danger in that or
ganization, which is the main defence of the
country and the repository of its best hopes.
The experiment of rebellion, which stands
before the world confessed failure. has pre-
cipitated many questions upon congress and
the country, about which the purest patriots
may reasonably differ, but which may be
rightly settled through free and toler-
ant discussion, having for its end only
a more perfect union, the establishment Of
justice, the general welfare, and the blessings
of liberty under the constitution according to
its clearest and most generally received
meaning. The most difficult of these ques-
tions relates to the punishment of treason
which Judge Story pronounces ''thc highest
crime that can be committed in civil society,""
but which has assumed so extraordinary mag
nitude that to punish it according to precc-
dent would be, if not impossible, at least alb
horrent to the humane civilization which it
has been our pride to share and to cultivate.
None of the measures to this end, which have
been proposed in congress, upon which Judge
Parker doubtless grounds his curt arraign-
ment Of the republican party, recognize the
extreme penalties which public enemies have
in all former times been compelled with hard
justice to suffer. Nearly all of them provide
for a general amnesty to all domestic enemies
who within reasonable time lay down their
arms and return to their loyalty. No scheme Of
confscation has been pressed which would
confound the innocent with the guilty. Mr..
Summers proposition for territoriaizing the
dislOyal states is not now before congress, and
whether expedient or not, has at no time been
agitated in such manner as to justify the
current ISLANDERS upon his patriotism and the
purity Of his public life. No scheme of gen
eral or special emancipation has yet been ma
tured, and anti-slavery men themselves differ
as to the most practicable method by which it
can be reached-agreeing, however, fully and |
cordially, that the freeing of the slaves of |
rebels is at once the most lenient of punish
ments to the master and an imperative act of |
justice to the slave.
So far, therefore, as the republican party
stands pledged upon the record on all these
questions, it is not obnoxious to the charge Of
disregarding the constitution-but on the con-
trary it recognizes that instrument as the pill
lar of public safety, erected by architects of its
own pattern, full of wisdom and order, whose
authority it expects to see acknowledged over
the whole country-all loyal, and if possible
all free
"Gathering all the fruits of peace and crowned
with all her flowers"
1t is the less difficult to bear the criticisms
of its opponents, when we remember that
scarcely fourteen months ago their represent
tive men went on their knees to leading public
enemies, with offers to corrupt the constltu-
ton to their satisfaction, if they would submit
to constitutional authority; and that at an ear
lier day they devoted their ill-spent energies
to fasten fugitive slave laws and bred Scott
decisions upon the constitution, against the
intelligent and conscientious protest of multi
tudes Of people who foresaw the deadly peril
of yielding to the pretensions of the slave aris-
tocracy Have we not now had enough
much of the fabric as has fallen, build
not so much for privileged class who
will smite the mild government that protects
Them but for the people who may desire to
establish there institutions Of which their pos
terity will not be ashamed. Like prudent ar
chitects, let our statesmen when they build,
think that they build forever. Let it be ''such
work as their children will thank them for:
and as they lay stone on stone that time will
come when those stones will be held sacred
because lheir hands have tonched them and
that men will say as they look at the labor
and wrought substance of them; "See this
our fathers did for us!'
THoREAU's FUNERAL-The funeral services
of Henry ID. Thoreau were held in the meet
ing house in Concord, yesterday, and Ralph
Waldo Emerson delivered fine address. Men
of note nthc literary world, from Boston and
elsewhere, were present and Worcester was