The Shasta courier., 1865-06-24
An Appeal for Justice.

At meeting held in Philadelphia recent
ly, Mr.. Albert N. Gilbert delivered the fol-
lowing pertinent address:
. We owe debt to the leaders Of the re-
bellion. What? Thoroughly read in hsto.
ry, understanding the principles Of political
economy, familiar with the springs of nation
al action, they inaugurated this rebellion.
They were not misled They knew all the
consequences of the venture they made.
They knew that II the North were loyal and
brave, they must wade through seas OF blood,
yet they cast the die and assumed the risk.
They had no great moral end in view, no
lofty political principle to vindicate, no wor-
thy object to achieve But two things were
to be accomplished, personal aggrandlse-
ment and they hoped, the perpetuity OF
slavery. Yet they sounded the tocsin whose
first peal made the whole world tremble.
By fraud and force combined, by falsehood
most foul, and intimidation Of every degree,
they misled the m uses and organized their
forces. They lowered in the very sublimty
of all conceivable crimes, falsehood, robbery,
assassination, starvation, savage cruelty to
prisoners. sacrifice Of honor and pledged
word. all these were but departments of the
most stupendous treason the world has eger
seen.
A million of our men lie cold in death, the
result of their experiment Thousands of our
homesteads have been DESTROYED, the air is
black with the somber drapery of those who
mourn. the glare of burning cities has lit the
heavens. and the earth has become crimson
with blood, that these leaders might try their
experiment. The world has stood appalled,
at their fendish cruelty. The men, the OBJ
iect, the means, were all unholy yes, satan
ic and we are asked to take these men to
our hearts; not only to forgive, but to con-
cliate, to love, to honor.
1t is shameful-it is atr0cious ! care not
though a thousand Ward Beechers had said
it. 1t is atrocious. 1t insults the memory of
our dead heroes and the faces of our living
ones. 1t defes God and ridicules our nation
al existence. Itproclaims the satanic princi-
pie. the more heinous the crime the less
guilt. If a man in your midst commits
murder you hang him. If he has committed
a burglary YOU imprson him-if he COM
mits tens Of thousands of both, we are to
forgive and embrace him. A while ago you
hung Captain Gordon for engaging IN the
in the slave trade, and the men whose legiti-
mate ulliuldle WOulu HdNc DccH Ilo lO Ool"O-
lishment, we are to embrace.
You hung Captain Beall few weeks since,
and after him again, Kennedy, and the de-
wills in human form VITO employed them you
ask the nation to forgive and love. With the
sunken cheeks and ackluster eyes Of our
poor starved soldiers now in our midst. with
the sight of the skin of living men dried over
the extremities of bones like dried meat, to
blister our eyes-with funeral coluns teem
ing with deaths from starvation, we are ask
ed to clasp the hand of their savage destroy
ers in a fraternal pressure.
Never Neverl Never, I call not for
vengeance, but for justice: stern, inexora-
BILE justice-no more severe than that which
you administer in your courts every day
justice which proportions punishment to
crime. demand that the majesty Of the
Government shall be yindicated: that the
sneer Of Europeans at our rope of sand shall
not be justified; that these men, oblivious of
every moral restraint. shall not be turned
loose in the South to poison its springs of
life J.; to be returned again to our national
councils to pollute the air of our capital |
demand that premium shall not be put up
on treason for all time to come. | demand
that the excitable people of the South shall
not be continually tempted by the fatal facil-
ity of crime and improbabillty Of punish
ment, to renewed attempts upon the nation
al existence. We owe to the leaders of the
rebellion infexibie justice, Great ap
plause.