The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1865-04-27

WAsHINGToN, April %
President Johnson's speech 10 the
Indiana delegation, on yesterday, wss
more important than any he has yet
delivered. After thanking Governor
Morton for his remarks, the President
said "We are living at time when the
public mind has almost become obliV-
IONS of what treason is. The time has
arrived, my countrymen, when the
American people should be educated
and taught what crime Is, and that
treason is crime, and the highest crime
known to the law and Constitution
Yes, treason against State, treason
against ell the States, treason against
the Government Of the United States,
is the highest crime that can be com
mitted, and those engaged in it should
suffer all its penalties 1t IS not pro-
mitigating anything that l have not
heretofore said, to say that traitors
must be made Odious; that treason
must he made odious; that traitors
must be punished and impoverished
| 1Applause They must not only be
punished, but their social power must
be destroyed. If not, they will still
maintain an ascendanCy, and may
again become numerous and powerful,
for. in the words of a former Senator
of the United States, "When traitors
| become numerous enough, treason be
| comes respectable and / say that,
after making treason Odjous, every
| Union man, and the Government,
/ L F,l Of tba
pockets of those who have inflicted this
great suffering upon the country APP
plause. But do not understand me
! as saving this in a spirit OF anger, for
| if Understand my own heart, the re-
verse is the case; and, while | say that
| the penalty of law, in stern and in
| flexible manner, should be executed
upon the conscious, intelligent and IN
! Auential traitors, and the leaders, who
have deceived thousands upon thous-
ands of laboring men, who have been
drawn into this rebellion, and, while J
say, as to the leaders, punishment, ]
also say, leniency, Cancellation and
amnesty to the thousands whom they
have misled and deceived My posi-,
ton has been heretofore well known,
and there is no cause to change It now
and am glad to hear its reiterauon on
the present occasion.
"Some are terrified with the idea that
the States are lost in territorial and
other divisions, and are to lose their
characters as States, but their lIte-breath
has only been suspended, and it is d
high constitutional obligation that We
have to secure each of these States il
the possession and enjoyment Of a re,
publican form OF government A State
may be in the government with pecu
liar institutions, and, by operation o
rebellion, lose that feature, but 1t was 2
State when it went into rebellion, and
when it comes out without the instItu'
ton. it is still State. Great applause
[ hold it as q solemn obligation IN an.
one of these States, where the rebel az
nv has been beaten back or expelled
. I cars not how small the number O
Union men, if enough to man the shil
of State, hold, say, high duty e
protect and secure to them republl
can form Of government This is "a
new opinion. II is expressed in con
formity with my understanding Of tn
genius and theory Of our Government
) / think the progress of this work mus
pass into the hands ofits friends Ap
? plause If State is to be nursed un
ii it again gets strength it must b
nursed by its friends, not smothered b
its enemies, App q Use. Vow perm
E me to remark that while | have o.
$ posed dissolution and disintegration 0
the one hand, on the other ! al
equally opposed to consolidation la
}, lpausel or cent a ization Of power
4 Z II 90 q, ecu %