Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1865-06-21
WHOLE NUMBER 167.

| common laws Of war toward each other. is
therefore absolutely indispensably binding on
both parties, and the same which the Law Of
Nature imposed on all nations in transactions
! between State and State"
Now, this is precisely our case, Is it mol?
| [Applause.l Vattel has adapted his words as
precisely to our case as he coulG have done
it he had had it, and It only, in his eye. For.
bear in mind, when the Southern half of this
nation broke off fom the Nouthern half It
became a nation de ftcto Just asclearly as our
part Of the country became a nation de f7eto,
and each had all the machinery Of National
Government. Then, had not we Just the
same rights in conducting this war as in con-
Quoting war with Mexico-no more, no
less? [Great cheering.l "But" some will
say, "Yattel lived more than a century ago"
Yes; and all the more shame to us If we, in
this age Of greater intelligence, cannot rise
up to the. greater appreciation and generous
enlargement Of the principles which he so no.
bly, advocated. Now, I hold that we ought
to be prepared for policies altogether more
liberal and humane than these. We ought
to be prepared to take the high ground that
Hallam, the unsurpassed publicist of our own
age, who takes the ground that the inst1ic-
ton Of the war in England in the middle OF
the seventeenth century. which ended in the
execution Of Charles I. should have been
conducted, from the beginnging 10 the end,
according to the law OF war, and that the
Kings life should have been spared. I viii
read what Hallam said. You must remem-
ber that he died in 1859, only six years ago.
The speaker then read from Halam as fol-
lows.
'Though Charles adherents did not form,
as think they did not, the majority of the
people, they were at least more numerous,
beyond comparison, that those who demand
ed or believed in his death. The steady, de-
liberate perseverance Of so considerable a
body, in any cause, takes way the right of
punishment from the conquerers, beyond
what their own safety required. They
are to be judged by rules Of national, not
municipal war" [Applause.l
And then see how emphaticaIly Hallann Il
iudorsed BY another of the largest minds OF
our day, Macaulay, who died IN the sam5
| year as that Hallam died-in SO Macaulay
says:
''Mr. Hallam decidedly condemns the eEe=
cution OF Charles, and, in al that he says-oh
that subject we heartily agree. We fully
concur with him in thinking that a great So
cialism such as the civil war" How faint a
resemblance that civil war bears to our civil
war, or a war between two uationsl l-"W
fully concur with him in thinking that a great
socialism such as tie civil warts not to be
confounded with a mere rebellion Of turbu-
lent elements composed ofa dimiuutive minor
/ ity Of the people. Firmness IS a great
virtue in public life; but it has its proper
sphere. Conspiracies and Instructions, in
which small rninorities are engaged, the out=
breaking of popular violence arebest
suppressed by vigor and decision;
but no wise ruler viii confound prevailing
rebellion with a slight local irritation.
The neglect of this distinction has been fatal
even to Governments"
Now my next authority is Carl WelE5T,
noble patriot and eminent Puolicist of Ger
many. Well1er was born as late as the year
1870. We will read what he says:
"As the leaders, the followers are Also the
more or less punished, as long as their party
has not grown so large that sincere belief
exists in its cause as right andjust-with the
consent Of the nation, or with division OF
the nation taken place into two hostile camps.
In the latter case, the Rebellion becomes &
civil war"
When the nation is divided into two hos
tile camps, in our country, the rebellion then
becomes a civil war. fApplansel Under
such circumstances, according to Welker, ev-
erv citizen is bound to declare himselffor the
one or the other-to go either right or left:
and then neither blame nor punishment can
reach him. Then there are only viotors and
vanouished-not loyalists and rebels; and,
though it IS difficult to state tie precise mo-
ment 4Hsn rebellion ceases and civil war
commences, nevertheless, it exists, and then
the moment Of mercy arrives, the time to ex-
tend the ariplsst clemency, and to not pun
: ish 1t all. Great applause.l
Now the last authority that viii cite is
the new American Encyclopaedia, from the
article in it entitled Treason" which is said
f IL know not with what truth--to be from
the pen of our distinguished fellow-citizen,
} DR.. Lieber. That article sums up the subject
in a few words.
The speaker here read from the article in
= question, indorsing the authorities already
/ cited, and then continued:
( And now it may be well, having read these
/ authorities, to give some reason on which
we may conceive these authorities are based.
( The first reason is this: When a nation
4 breaks into two parts. and each very con-
i siderable part the belligerents on each side
= are too numerous to bs treated as traitors
? II confess" said Edmund Burke II know
p not how to frame an indictment against &
/ whole people" They are too numerous to
: be treated as anything else but as prisoners
o ofwar, and the objection to treating them as
O anything else is BY no means relieved BY
saving: "The final victor need not punish
n he final vanquished; he can punish fewof
them and pardon the remainder" This does
n not relieve the cass with me.
If Here the appearance of Horace Greeley
IS upon the platform caused an interruption,
. tho Grove greeting him with hearty and ooni