The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1865-06-28
English Press on the Mason Ietter.

| AAoSOd AOA NudG IL bCILlS GiiS lHuGCcLSf Va LAO
letter to the Times on the assassination:
| Far be it from Us to endorse or sanction the
| sentiment which we hear with loathing mutter-
ed inarticulately in some quarters, and openly
avowed by Mr.. Mason, the Confederate agent
here, that to shoot an unarmed man through
the head while sitting in his box at the theatre
and to gain entrance to sick mans room by
| lying, and to stab him to death in his bed, are
the necessary results of civil war" II any
thing can approach in Nervousness the acts
themselves, it is the deliberate extenuation OF
them, and the attempt to divert public execra
ton byimparting to them the dignity of politi-
cal vengeance.
Public morals are outraged whenever the
| theory OF rutiianism is gravely discussed. On
no pretence will we have it nor shall we toler
ate equivocation or evasion in the matter. The
leaders of the unsuccessful attempt at secession
owe it to themselves and their.followers to wash
their hands of president Lincoln's blood
Erring he may have been in their eyes as poll
tician; guilty he may have been in their
Judgment of great faults as a statesman. But
1t Is an lndecency we VIII not endure that these
faults or errors should be debated over his
bleeding corpse 1t is no time now to pretend
that personal influence or that of Mr.. Seward
caused the civil war, and that, had they and
their colleagues chosen otherwise, the southern
States would have been allowed to go free
"For the honor Of England we are glad that
from the highest to the lowest in the land there
has been heard only one voice of horror at the
crime, followed by the calm and unreseryed ex-
pressions of national coincidence. This is as it
should be. Great ealamfties have in them near
ly always the virtue, if we would but recognise
it, of enabling US to forget grudges and grieve
ances, mutual aitronts and miserable resent
ments. In the awful presence of death natuga
comes back and resumes her reign in our heart
bidding US to forgive and to forget, to MAKE
large allowance for the difficulties wherewith we
have not been tried, and the provocations whieh
we have been spared. International pique and
ealously and all the irritation that comes of the
license of free speech are, after all, but as clsif
on the threshing hook of afaietion. The rich
fruits of national tradition and experience re-
main. The people Of America are nearer to us
than we have sometimes remembered of late;
nearer III their fundamental laws and ideas Of
order and authority; nearer in their religious
sentiments and observations; nearer IN then
intellectual culture and the great sanctions OF
domestic life than any other great people in the
world We cannot, if we would, and assur5lg
we would not if we could, dissociate ourselves
in sympathy or interest from them. We have
interchanged national charities in days Of need
in the present hour of Americas grief our fit
ting place is that Of chief among the mourners.'
The London Daily News also speaks of l1es
Mason's letter:
His object, he states, is only to repel Cal-
umny' We shall presently see whether his
letter is of defensive or an aggressive character
One thing will strike every reader OF It, ME.
Mason has not single word Of regret for the
death of Mr.. Lincoln. In this respect his letter
is unique among the compositions of various
kinds that have been published on the subisst
during the last few days.
''Mr. Stanton, whoif he has mistakenly con
nected Mr.. Lincolns assassination with abettors
of rebellion, at least fell into the error most
natural to person in his situation, is accused
by Mr.. Mason of deliberately nventing the
statement to tina. effect in his telegram for
calculated purpose Mr.. Mason says: HE has
adopted that theory which he deemed would be
the most useful to set before the country This
is an imputation of the basest motives. But 10
is weak and pointless, compared with what i'm
mediately follows Mr.. Mason correctly ob-
serves that the assassination Of Mr. Lincoln
could not aid the rebel cause The sane,
however, was truly said of the Lake Erie pifa.
cies and the St. Albans raid, which Mr.. Davis
!
York hotels, which one of the perpetrators of
that deed confessed. Having by this reflection,
as he supposed disconnected the partisans Of
secession from the murder of Mr. Lincoln, lr.
Mason proceeds to point out that the parties who
stood in position to profit by the remoya. ol
the late president were Mr.. johnson and Ar.
Stanton, who could not carry their schemes OF
plunder and rapine into effect at the south
while Mr.. Lincoln remained at the head Of
affairs 1t is in this sinister way that Mr.. Mason
paws the only tribute to Mr. Lincoln's memory
which his letter contains. The late president
has been murdered, and the new president gains
by it. This is how Mr.. Mason states and leaves
the matter, and it would have been Difficult. 70
carry insinuation further. But how in the name
of logic does Mr. Mason arrive in the following
sentence at the conclusion that the crime is the
necessary offspring Of those scenes of blood
shed and murder which has signalized the ia
yasion OF the south by northern armies ?"
"Ef the assassination of Mr. Lincoln was O
necessary consequence of the war prosecuted
in southern States by the north, then it follows
that the real murdered is some incensed south
erner. 1t is not we who say this; we merely
point out the inevitable conclusion Of Mr. Ma
sons argument.
"Let us understand what this doctrine Of a
necessary consequence means; to atflrn OF
any act Of an intelligent, free and accouptaale
agent that it is necessary is to declare that 10 s
! i1stifable. Four years ago, IN the judgmen o.
the southern leaders, it was necessary thai, il
beaten at the ballotbox, they should tak5 ZIP
the sword Having appealed to the sword, ana
again lost their cause, We are now told tina as
sassination is necessary. Engishmen know 4ow
to honor fidelity to principle, constancyin effort