The Portland daily press., 1865-03-30
Two Kinds of Peace5makers.

The rumors of pending peace negotiations.
with which we are periodically favored by
certain Washington guild nuncs, would seem
to have failed this time to produce the desired
amount OF sensation. The buzz of the Chron
ScLe, the Blairs, ana Jne -IrJ0uHe'S cUrr-sP~--
dents is drowned in the roar OF Grants and
Sherman's cannon. Those cannon are the on
ly negotiators that can secure us a peace
worth having. The plans and projects with
which these offieious busy bodies are occupi-
ed, are not only impotent for the object aimed
at, but directly mischievous in their tendency.
They have all the same tenor. They hold up
the idea ola compromise and arrangement
between the government and the rebel lead
ers; their realization would be virtual rec
ignition Of some rightful authority on the
part of set of men holding their power only
by dint of the most lawless. arbitrary and in
excusable usurpation, and would have theef-
feet TO fix in their hands too much of the pow
er which they have used only for evil. These
double-dyed and remorseless scoundrels, who
for their own ambitious ends have for four
years deluged the land with the best blood of
the nation, are to-day the only obstacle to an
Immediate peace. They know. that their cause
Is lost. They know that every life which NAV
hereafter be sacrificed to sustain it ia onlv
murder, that the sentiment of their people has
deserted them, and that the masses are ready
and eager for peace, yet they hold out in the
hope that some turn of the wheel may enable
them to make better terms for themselves
The only way to deal with them is to crush
them. -rss.--...
The Northern people are anxious for peace !;
but the kind of peace which these negotiators
have in view shocks their moral sense. They
reel 1t would be not only an outrage against
eternal justice, but fraught with danger for
the future. They do not want these men
whose crimes have cost the country such in
estimable woe, to find such Immunity from
punishment as shall hereafter make rebellion
cheap Divlnes preach to US of the "exeeed-
Ing sinfulness of SIM" 1t, would be well If
there were some one to preach to these men
OF the enormous treGchery of treason. Even
now, with all the horrors we have seen and
felt, there are many who do not conceive anv
greater difference between treason and loval-
ty than merely difference Of opinionl The
attempts by certain public prints to white
wash into respectability prominent rebels and
rebel sympathizers are sufficient evidence of
tne truth OF this. Men stained with every
mean and atrocious crime are held up as mod
els OF manliness, honor, humanity and courte-
by. They may possibly be mistaken in their
political sentiments, but in everything else
tney are all right The sacredness of mans
oOhgations to the government which protects
MIN is point wholly ignored.
70 nave no patience with this kind of talk.
= uen cannot perceive any absolute differ
ence between right and WRONG t,n,l, and
isisenood, treason aud loyalty: if tbav connot
70 Taught such dlstlnctions through the ono
nue. oil conscience, they shoulolearn g. - -
tnat Oh prudence, through bite exnor;
tnat the way OF the transgressor is h,,d go go
iorpiu mat great and magnanimous ..t;on
snouio stain itself by any act of mere W.
geance' out ior the sake of generations vet 70
come' It cannot afford, even while torg;vino
to leave power In the hands of those ,vho
have shown that no oath, no obligat;on =
sacred enough to bind them for men,.
For the rank and file, for the three mills
more or less, of half-involuntary, half-deluded
followers, all kindness, all clemency, all for
glVeness. A bene6eeat leniency will soon
snow Them how false were the statements of
snose VINO taught them to see in the govern
nen' tyrant. Even for their leaders, the
mlscreants who lured them to ruin. we do
not care to see one scaffold smoke. Let them
i've II only to repent OF their crimes, but COM
mon prudence would at least dictate that
suey should retain no power to do further
% .ass Before you trust the rattle-snake
take out his fangs. s1AA'