Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-06-08
Two Glasses Of Traitors - Status Of
Each Class,


and signed the parole agreed upon, are
equitably exempt from the pains and PEN
Alties of treason so far as the United States
is concerned. They are exempt by the
following language Of the agreement Of
fered BY Grant and afterward accepted by
Lee and the rest:
"This done, each officer and man will be
allowed to return to their homes, not to be
disturbed by the United States authority 80
long as they observe their parole and the laws
in force where they may reside
The presence of Mr.. Lincoln with
Grants army, and the continued silence
ever since of the heads of the Government,
imply that these terms, if not dictated by
the President of the United States, are at
least tacitly accepted, and therefore ought
to be considered as affirmed. To object
now, or to abrogate Grants terms would
be a violation of faith which no mere
technical arguments, or arguments OF pol
icyt could excuse or justify. But that
does not bar the Goyernmentfrom strict
construction of the terms of Grants
agreement. For example: the officers
taken in the eight days fighting before the
surrender of Lee, not being covered by
the terms of that capitulation, are not ex-
empt from future prosecutions for treason;
nor are those-as Wade Hampton and
Moseby-who refused to sign the parole
rendered. They are in justice and equity
as liable to be held for treason as any OF
the prisoners taken last year, and still held
in confinement at Rock Island or Fort
Delaware. The distinction between those
who surrendered under Lee and those
who were previously captured in the fight
is very plain. The former were offered
liberal terms on consideration that they
lay down their arms. and fight no more.
The agreement was a wise one, for it saved
thousands of valuable loyal lives. The
price we agreed to pay for those lives was
virtual pardon of the combatants who
chose to surrender but in the case of
those captured before, and whilst fighting,
there was no such agreement. no reason
for it. The Government holds them I'M
trammeled by any promise, and they are
liable to be punished for treason against
the United States. Another point is worth
observing: that the terms proposed by
Grant, accepted by Lee, and tacitly af-
frmed by the Government of the United
States. do not and cannot conclude the
right of the States to punish any Of the
officers surrendered for treason against
their States. Breckenridge is a traitor
against Kentucky, Lee against Virginia,
Cobb against Georgia, Beauregard against
Louisiana, Forrest against Tennessee, and
each liable to arrest and punishment &C.
cordiug to the laws Of those States respec-
lively, any terms of surrender to the mill
tary agent of the United States to the con-
trary Notwithstanding.
The class of political traitors as contra
distinguished from the military, is not
affected by Grants convention with Lee
and his subordinates. This class includes
Davis, his Vice President, Cabinet, the
rebel Congress, the Governors of seeded
States and others. Against these it can
not be pretended that the course Of justice
has been in the least hampered; and so
We find the United States taking prompt
measures for their arrest as rapidly as they
can be found.
Greedy and the radical original abo-
litionists, who seem to be satisfied that
slavery is apparently at an end, and who
regard treason otherwise than as against
the liberty of the negro, as no crime worth
mentioning, are pleading for the full par
don of this class Of traitors. AS we I'M
derstand the Tribune, the argument Of
these radicals are grounded on the opinion
| that severe punishmenIs for treason are
impolitic, and condemned by the teachings
of history. The same may be said of any
other crime. Punishment ought always
to be regulated by the grade of the oAense.
1t is illogical to hang man for stealing
loaf of bread when it is not possible to
punish him more for murder. In France,
where the Bourbons have as good right
TO reign as the Bonapartes, it is evidently
against good sense and sound public
policy for either party to resort to the
hanging of traitors against each other;
and so France has virtually ignored capt.
tai punishment for treason. No one can
pretend that the crime of treason by
Bourbon against a Bonaparte, or by a
Stuart against Guelph, is Of equal he'll
nousness with the crime committed by
Davis and his political associates against
the United States. The European exam
Piles are factions warning against each
other, and mutually trampling the law
under foot. Neither has right in strict
justice to punish the other for treason.
Both have been usurpers Of the law and
the ancient rights Of the people. The same
NAV be said of the wars of the Plantage-
nets and of the factions who desolated the
Roman Republic in its last days. But
not of the civil war in this country. Here
the law, the Constitution, everything was
on the side of the Government. No right
had been violated; no wrong called for
redress. Of twenty-eight millions of peo-
pie, all equal under the law, not more than
one million objected to the Government,
and of this one million not more than ten
thousand cared to take an active part in
its overthrow. We say, then, that the
leaders are more culpable than any Of the
traitors of history; and as the law clearly
defines their punishment, their most promi-
nent leaders ought to Be so punished.
When Catiline conspired for the over.
throw of the Senate of Rome, it is remark
able that he found but one advocate not
in his conspiracy, and that one Caesar,
who afterward consummated the very de-
blSuS Vi SHLlllHe. ouI "IliC oPOAO-
gists for Davis plead for magnanimity,
Cesar did not dare to 90 that far; he only
plead for strict observance Of the law.
Cicero, Cato and the pstricians as body,
demanded capital execution against the
conspirators, and that without the proper
forms of law. That was their error, and
it told against them afterward to the de-
struction of the ancient order of things
and the ruin of the Senate. Treason in
Rome had become as in France and Eng
land, merely constructive crime, because
of the sudden rise and fall Of factions, each
in its turn passing the severest DEGREES
against their beaten adversaries, until at
last, the Republic, disguised with the feast
of blood, had passed solemn law-rati-
fed by the patricians and the tribunes-
restricting the punishment Of treason to
Punishment. This law the Senate ignored
in the case of Catiline and it was on this |
ground, and this only, that Cesar became
the advocate of the conspirators. He
warned the Senate that by trampling on |
tho In w fhav S1,aakened their authority and |