Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-05-14

persons upon whom kindness and concil-
iation are entirely thrown away. We have
all, in our private and business relations,
found such men. They are constitutionally
vindiotive and villainous, and pay nomOre
heed to admoDitions, and care no more for
acts Of generosity than the viper who stings
his benefactor. This is not SO much due to
the orthodox doctrine Of total d~epravity as
to the influences Of adverse education or
circumstances. The savages Of the north
west furnish an example Of this. They
may originally have been "nOble red men
Of the woods" brave and " chivalrous sons
of the forest" " never forgiving an enemy
nor forgetting q friend and all that sort
Of thing, but they are certainly far enough
removed from it now. The great mass OF
those who were engaged in the inhuman
butcheries Of last year were pardoned by
the President greatly against the protests
Of the citizens of Minnesota. They claimed
that all leniency would but fan the flames
of demonism which pervaded the savage
m~urderers. The result proves that they
did not misjudge the foe. The Indian
troubles are about being renewed. The
Sioux are said to have been engaged in
more atrocious murders Of the most re-
voting character. 1t is pretty surely es-
tablished that any mercy or Kindness
shown to Indians, is certainly to be repaid
by cruelty to whites, without regard to
sex or condition.
As with the Indians, so with their
equals or superiors in savage atrocities
the Southern rebels. They were fought
gently for long months, and, when cap
tured, had the path administered and were
released, to 60 through the same formula
again. How did they reciprOcate? They
hung Union men and,wOmen; burned their
houses over their heads; hunted them
through the woods and morasses with
bloOd-hOunds; tortured them with a refine
ment Of cruelty which rivaled the Spanish
Inquisition. Their prisoners they thrust
into loathseme prisons, not fit abodes for
swine, or, if the captOrs were in a playful
mood, they pinned their victims to trees
with knives and used them as targets to
practice at. These we're acts of individual
nature, it may be said, and not ~chargable
upon the C~onfederacy as a people. Well,
then, let us see what the Confederate Gov
eminent did. It declared that all officers
captured while carrying out the Presi-
dents Emancipation Proclamation "a per-
fectly legitimate military order should be
handed over to the State Courts to be tried
for having tempered with slaves and en-
deaTored to incite insurrection-that is, to
be beaten or hung, according to the pecu-
liarity0f the statutes of the State wherein
they were taken. This was announcing
wholesale murder upon all who did their
duty by obeying orders emanating from
the Commander-in-Chi of the army.
But this was not enough. Authority
was given in the North to organize coIored
soldiers proceeding having abundant
precedent in the War Of the Revolution,
and in General Jackson's course in Lou
isiana, and one that the rebels themselves
have adopted time and again. The rebel
government, JEFF. Davis sanctioning the
act provided that all negro soldiers cap
tured from the Federal army should be sold
into slavery. This was done solely to in
timidate the Federal Government, and to
prevent this use being made of the cOlOred
element of our population. And this en-
actment now stands as one of the regula-
tons Of Southern warfare. Shall we sub
nit to it? Is it the duty of the Federal
Government to call men into its service
and submit to having them given over to
the rage of irresponsible men, the moment
they are captured by the enemy Most
certainly not. And the way to meet it is
to announce a Federal retaliatory policy.
Let it be understood and ordered that for
every negro captive put to death by the
rebels, a rebel captive in our hands shall
suffer the same penalty. Life for life is
the only argument that will properly meet
this sanguinary order by the rebel author
tiles, and it is the policy which the Gov
eminent owes it to its oOlored soldiers to
emphatically announce.
As further proof that the rebels them
selves employ the negroes as soldiers, a
soldier in an Iowa regiment writing from
General Grants army, and who fought
with General Sherman at Vicksburg, says:
"The outer works were almost wholly
manned by negroes; they dare not retreat,
for fear that their cruel masters in their
rear would shoot them electromagnetic
" many Of them fell into our hands.
Strange, isn't it, that the '~chivalric South,
which, with lofty and DESTINATIONS pride,
has always looked upon the blacks as an
inferior race, should assign to them the re-
sponsible duty of manning the outer VOrks
Of Keksburg! ,"
There is this consolation, that, if the
able-bodled negroes are conscripted into
the rebel army, they will not be engaged
in raising provisions to feed it. But what
if some OfOur Copperhesds, to be eonscript-
ed hereafter, should discover an ugly
looking weapon, in a black hand, pointed
anthem They viii probably suddenly
recover from their squeamishness over the
enlistment of black troops to aid the loyal
cause.
Death OF StonewaII jackson.
The ablest general in the Confederate
srmy, with the exception Of General Lee,
has fallen. In one respect the rebels have