Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1865-05-18
THE CAPTURE OF JEFF. DAVIS.

THE CAPTURE OF JEFF. DAVIS.
Although we have an abiding confidence
in the Divine justice yet we had no idea that
we should so soon be under the necessity of re-
moving half the title We last week bestowed
on jeff. Davis. We have now to annoucc
the fact that he has been captured by the 18th
Michigan Cavalry under the command of Gen.
J. II. Wilson and is now on his way to WASH
ington. Whether he will capture Washing
ton or it capture him, we shall doubtless learn
after his arrival there, which may now bo
speedily expected. Although he is no longer
entitled to the cognomon Of '.Jngiire," the
circumstances attending his capture so far as
they have been communicated, prove him to
be greater g ragtJond" than he has received
credit for being. This most chivalric and
Christian gentleman when surrounded in the
swamps of Georgia thought the government
too magnanimous to hunt down " ,rOR,cH and
chii}rcn." When the ovcrgrown and monster
baby DOTTED his chivalry and donned his wife's
crinolinc he should have laid aside his boots
and thus Invested himself of all semblancc Of
that manhood which he has SO long disgraccd
by his monstrous inhumanity.
This mighty chief is captured in the act of
sncahiHg away from his wife, children, cabi-
net, and staff, in the habiliments of wo-
man and though armed with "Bowie-knfc
of elegant pattern the short garments had so
entirely submerged his manhood that woman
like he bctook himself to his tonguc--a wo-
mans wcapon--and gracefully knocked under
to the first Colt presented at him.
a question all absorbing is propounded by
every one and answered by the interrogation
without change of breath or sentence. Hang
him Such is the sentence which the law
would meet out to him for great variety of
the manifold offences he has committed -
Treason is in all lands capital offence of
which he stands prcconvictcd; murder he has
ordered and connived at by scores in variety
of ways. lie has refnod on the inhuman art
of starvation and has sacrificed hundreds of
lives by the most tedious and painful as well
as horrible processes of slow starvation. He
stands charged with conniyancc at and appro-
val of the assassination of President Lincoln
and is no doubt guilty of the charge. For
any of these high crimes, Death by tho halter
is the universal penalty. Why shall he be
exempted from the penalty.
The only plea possible is that it is wholly
inadequate to the cnormity and multitude of
his crimes.
The fact that he has held high and impor-
tant positions in this country, has been one of
its leaders, a gentleman of wealth, of cduca-
ton, of influence, instead of being palliation
of his crimes, plea in his favor, is only an
aggravation of his offence, a greater reason
why he should receive and suffer the penalty
attached to his crimes. 1t has been too much
the practice to punish small rascals and let
the the large ones go unwhippcd of justice.
This rebellion has produced revolution on
that subject too and the people now demand u
more Christian mode of practice in such cases.
Those who transgrcss knowingly "shall be
beaten with many stripes" His education,
his rank, wealth and position only cry the
more loudly for his certain, con iign and igno-
minious punishment He had all the means
of knowing better and he has from his high
social and political position not hesitated to
plunge himself into the deep damnaton of
treason and shown himself relentless prof.
cient in all the attendant crimes and horrors
of murder, assassination, arson, wholesale
and retail theft, &C., it only demonstrates the
more absolute necessity that he should be
made to expiate his crimes, so far as one neck
can do it, on the gibbet We have but one
not his miserable carcass pollute ono inch of
Americas soil