The Portland daily press., 1863-05-15

| itary court, and sentenced to the Dry Tortu.
gas for two years. Whether the President
will approve the sentence, remains to be seen
but if the object is TO discourage all efforts to
| put down the rebellion, and to give carte
blanche to disloyalists, Mr. Lincoln will dis.
approve the sentence and allow the vile traitor
to go 'unwhipt of justice" The people will
begin to enquire why few ignorant private
soldiers, for throwing down their arms and re-
fusing to fight when they supposed the terms
for which they were legally held had expired
should be sentenced to the Tortugas, and an
arch traitor, whose daily life has been devoted
to melting rebellion and to encouraging insub-
ordination, should escape with impunty. 1t
is question to be answered, why disloyal men
in Ohio, New York or Maine should not be
sent within the rebel lines as well as disloyal
men in other States. We are not sufficiently
clear-headed to see why their influence is any
less mischievous here than there or why open
expressions of rebel sympathy should not be
as promptly met and punished here as else
where. But to come back A meeting has
been held in New York to let off indignation
in view of vallandigham's arrest, and James
Brooks was one of the speakers. Here are a
few of his choice enunciations:
He claimed to be loyal to the Government; but was
Abraham Lincoln the Government Who created
him the Government Did blood royal flow in his
venss Had be any commission from Almighty God
TO rule over thirty millions of peopley On the con-
trary, he ever elected President Of the United
States by the peopey Was he not President in spite
Of the people, only the creation of the Constitution
ture of the Constitution trampie and overthrow and
set himself above the Constitution, and denounce
those loyal to the Government and upholders OF ity
charge the Administration in letter and in spirit
and intent and in meaning throughout. with viola
ting the Constitution of the United States in arrest
ing Naandigham for the exercise of free speech.
And invoke and impore Abraham Lincoln, exalted
as he is in Washington, to remember that hereafter
he has got TO stand before Almighty God and TO JUS
tiy himse If before the Maker OF all for that vio&
ton of the Constitution.
When the broke out, there fifteen Slave
States in the Union and Seventeen Free States; but
now there are but two Free States left-New York
and New jersey.
In my jud gment and belief it is not much the
intention of the Administration of the Government
to subjugate the South as il is to subjugate the
North. was born a free man and, by the help of
God, will die a free man.
Does any intelligent man require proof or
argument that the whole strain of the above
will be most cheering to the rebels? Will not
JEFF. Davis regard it as first rate? Need we
say, in the language of President Polk, that
"a more efiectual means could not have been
devised to encourage the enemy and protract
the war, than to advocate and to adhere to
their cause, and thus give them aid and COM
FORT?
The Mr. Brooks to whom we have referred,
is representative man. He it was who was
foremost in efforts to carry the New Hamp-
l. Al. a alx, lie
loyal sentiments as we have given above,
scattered broadcast over her granite hills. 1t
was his type of democracy of which the n. III.
democratic vote was an exponent and to aid
in securing the triumph of that Ubiquitous
m ovement would be but little short in turpi-
tude-though far short in honor-of SHOULDER
ing gun and taking position in the rebel
army. 1t was for aiding in such raid upon
the constitutional government that copper
heads complain that military officer was de-
prived of his command. The Advertiser of
yesterday pushes the following question in our
face:
Does the Press approve of the act of the Pres
dent in dsmssing Lieut. Edgerly from the service OF
the United States, because he voted the Democratic
ticket in New Hampshire
We don't know that Lieut.. Edgerly has been
dismissed at all, much less that he has been
dismissed for any such cause, but we have this
to say: If an officer wearing the uniform of the
U. S. army, and drawing pay from the general
government, so far forgets his duty as to leave
the field and go to electioneering for the sue
cess of party or Of principles that receive
the approval and encouragement of the author
of the extracts which we have copied above,
then the government must have lost all self
respect and all sense Of its duty to the loyal
people of the country, if it would not dismiss
him from its service at once. In all depart
ments of life men act upon this principle. No
man would retain in his service for single
day those whom he finds laboring to subvert
his rightful authority, or to hold him up as a
tyrant and a man devoid Of honor; nor should
the government have less regard for its honor
its authority and its selt-respect than an indi-
vidual. The Advertiser has our answer.
Prof. Morse, of New York, is one of the
confreres of Brooks, and was closely united
with him in the raid upon the loyalty of New
Hampshire, to which reference is above made.
1t is hardly needful to say that a disloyal prop
osition is seldom made except to dsloyal
man. A man will seldom propose completely
in crime to one believed to be innocent and
above suspicion. 1t is upon this principle
that we regard Prof. NJ. with distrust, for, ac
cording to the-following, cut from the Boston
Journal, he has had proposition made to him
as replete with treason as were the movements
which resulted in the capture of Fort Sumter.
What are we to think of Democracy" to
which such an appeal can be made to the
representatives Of which any man dares make
such propositions?
AN APPEAL TO THE DRMocRATs.-Mr. j. L. o.
Sullivan formerly editor OF the Democratic Review
and Minister TO Portugal, and now resident in Lon
don, has written letter to Prof Morse on what hs
conceyes TO be the immediate duty Of the Democrat
ic party II is TO take ground in favor of peace
all hazards !" of allowing the border States TO de
termine their own position; of regulating the wal
debt; of convoking northern convention Tor settling
the political relations of the States; of cutting dow
the representation of New England TO about one
sixth its present extent and of inviting the seeded
States d" to hold a simultaneous and similar conven
ton at some contiguous point, with view TO TN
interchange of negotiations directed, on the part Of
the North, toward some possibility of re-construc
ton of an improved, voluntary and new confedera
fion," failing that, land Mr.. O'Sulliyan think
| rangement possible. The formidable programme
has probably been elected by the prominent stan'
| which Prof Morse has been observed 10 take as
promoter of sound political information" in tht
| Interests of the peace Democracy.
| The Army of the Potomac.
| WASHINGTON d. c. Nav r. 1863