Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1865-04-27
RUTLAND HERALD.
TUESDAY, APRIL Is, 1865.
Leniency 10 Rebel Leaders.

rebel leaders, Jen, Davis included. III
is passing strange that we have heard
this from undoubtedly loyal and well,
meaning sources, like the New York Tri-l
bune.
1t seems clear, from the dispatches al
ready received, that the horrible work OF
Friday night In Washington, was per
petrated in pursuance of long premed-
itated and deep laid plot in which many
traitors were concerned and which wasl
doubtless known TO the rebel leaders.l
If President Lincoln displayed a FAULT
in the treatment of traitors it was al
disposition to too great leniency. Yet,
he is selected as the chief victim Of the.
diabolical plot of assassination, WlthI
that same blind and fatal madness which,
has led the rebels from the beginningl
on to their own destruction, they shout.
"Sic sempcr tyraHnis" as they STAY thel
very man who was the least disposed
to act the "tyrant," who was the most
disposed Of all loyal and patriotic men,
to exhibit every possible leniency and
kindness towards them. By the same
act, too, they have aroused II storm of
indignation at the north which thosel
who plead for pardon to the traitori
chiefs, will find it hard to breast. WEI
doubt if we shall hear much more sui
ing at present for full and free pardon toi
JEFF. Davis and his fellow conspirators.I
And yet Abraham Lincoln was but one
Of the numberless patriots that havel
been murdered with a cool and devilishi
elaboration unparalleled even by saw
ages. His death startling and shoCkingI
as it was, bears no comparison in delib-i
crate fendishness to the murder byt
starvation of tens of thousands of Ours
young and brave soldiers in rebel pris-
ons. That wholesale murder by slowI
torture was committed, that agony wasl
inflicted week after week and month af-
ter month, in pursuance of aplan coollyG
determined upon at the rebel capital byl
JEFF Davis and his co-WorkerS. 1t was!
not merely an unprovoked violation of
the rules Of civilized warfare, but it was
work unequaled in the number Of it's.
victims, unequaled in deliberate and I'M
provoked and long continued and devil
ish cruelty by any untutored heather of
the old world or painted savage of theS
new.
And this deliberate tOrturng to deathS
Of thousands Of our braves, by the slowE
process of starvation and exposure isl
but one in the long list Of appallingI
crimes with which these men havet
heaped the measure of their guilt. ToA
satisfy the cravings of their own satanics
ambition they have destroyed the livesf
of hundreds of thousands of other mem
south and north; they have spread des-t
olation and mourning through the length
and breadth of the land they have done'
their utmost to overthrow the govern
ment and destroy the Union in whose
existence were bound up the hopes of
the world for free government with ALI
its untold blessings; they have in short
committed the foulest, the blacklist, theI
most causeless and gigantic treasonl
against the mildest and most beneficentI
government on earth, and they have &C
companied its commission with an aban-'
doned, reckless and malignant cruelty,I
at which savage of the forest would
blush, and whose latest exhibition is the
cowardly and brutal midnight assassin
alton of lenient and forgiving Presi-
dent.
Said the New York Times OF last
Wednesday:
ave are going to hang the murderer
Of Harry Lazarus, week from next
Friday. Why? A young varlet born,
happy, Of o rag-picker in a back attic of
Cow Bay, his swaddling clothes rag
ged dish-clout, sucked in adulterated
gin, weaned over an apple stall, his first
lessons the choicest phraseOlogy Of bias
phemy and obscenty, knowing nothing
that he had soul and witless of all
distinction between himself and the
street ours, save that the dogs bit him
and he kicked the dogs, well grounded
for his early years in the rudiments OF
picking and stealing, pupil of Jack
Sheppard at the Bowery Theatre, and in
due course removed to the Benicia Boy
Finishing School--for aught we know
Bernard Friery was guilty of all that,
and now having brought his villainy to
a climax by getting drunk as lord,
and idiotically killing the first man he
ran against, the law has decided that il
is high time he should be put out of the
way, and this it is going to do
What mockery to hang this man
reared in crime and ignorance, because
in drunken brawl he stabs one Other
man as useless as himself to the com
munity, and at the same time to preach
pardon to others who, despite all thu
advantages of education and careful
training,-bestowed upon some of them
like JEFF. Davis himself at the govern
ment's expense,-are guilty of the muir
der of a half million Of the flower of tn,
land,-are guilty Of that greatest of al