The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-12-28
THE CASE OF JEFF. DAVIS.

l
The radicals in Congress are not salts.
| fled to let the person whom they call the
Representative man of the rebellion"
pass out of sight. They protest against
that oblivion to which the good sense Of
they insist upon keeping him before the
people as culprit. And though they
do not clearly clamor for his blood, they
perhaps go as near to it as would be con-
sistent with Congressional propriety. In
this they follow closely those fierce bigOts
of the great rebellion in England who
could be satisfied with nothing less than
the death of Charles the First; and they
put themselves historically i'm the same
class with the violent elements of the
French Revolution that cOolly took the
life of Louis the Sixteenth. Was it wise
to take the life of either Charles or Louis
We can see the passions that urged to
those acts-the party hates and violence
that were to be satisfied. We can judge
the questions from safe historic dis
lance, and, so judged, the universal de-
eision of modern times has been that
those executions were not only unwise,
but cruelty foolish. They were plumbers
of the worst character, for they belittled
great national causes into vulgar strug-
giles that had revenges and thrsts for
blood to crafty. The consent of wiser
men to those acts gave the supremacyt0
the worst elements of the Parliament
and the Assembly, and so paved the way
for the ruin of the popular cause. Those
executions are the blOts and stains in the
history of the two great events. 1t is
useless to say that the cases are different.
They are identical in all essential re-
spects, and where they differ tho differ
ence is not in favor of those who urge
the execution of Davis. Charles and
Louis were men revered by large classes
Ofthe population as Observation-Disclosures;
and Davis was respected as the represent
tative of the sovereign majesty of q peO-
ple-the chosen Executive who could do
only their will, and whose personality
was sunken in his Office.
Jefferson Davis is not a criminal In
the ordinary sense. His acts are lifted
out of the category of crimes by their
national character. They are to be
judged i'm different light from that In
which we examine those common Of
fences against society for which We pre-
pare the prison and the halter. In the
celebrated debate in Parliament OH the |
American colonies, Edmund Burke re-
cognized the difficulty of framing O bill |
of indictment against whole people. |
This same difficulty embarrasses the /
case of Davis. Where can we allege
any act against the United States that
was his personally, and that was not
done by him as the representative of
people, who, according to the dogmas on
which our government is founded, had
4 full right to the exercise of sovereign
powers? Did Jefferson Davis wage war
against us at Gettysburg, on July 2,
1861? Then who was it waged war at
on the same day? II we set
,bout accusing of treason the whole
people, whose will this man carried out,
rom what stand-point shall We frame
,ur iaccusation? Shall 1t be from the
of those in the government
Who maintain that the Southern States
low are and always have been soy
'rsisn, or from the standpoint Of thope Z