The Portland daily press., 1865-05-25
Defeated Rehals ana State Criminals.

rectiOn broke outin INC "oeoeiA P",' VI
svlvan,a AGAINST an attempt to execute a law
~ conoress imposing an excise duty on whis-
| ~. The excise officers were resisted by an
..,,ed mob of five hundred mon, and guard
- eleven regulars were pursued to house,
which was regularly attacked and, after the
loss of several lives, taken and burnt. A for
midable organization, embracing portions of
three states, was formed and force of volun-
teers to support the Organization against the
national government to the number OF seven
thousand armed men was assembled equipped
and furnished with officers. Committees
chosen at public meetingAundertook to exer-
else illegal civil functions. President Wash
ington, not without protest from members OF
his cabinet and the governors of some of the
states, issued his proclamation, declaring that
the execution Of the laws Of the United States
was obstructed by combinations too powerful
to be suppressed by the ordinary course. Of
Judicial proceedings, requiring the opposers
| Of the law to desist, and making requisition
on the governors Of Pennsylvania, New Jer-
sey, Maryland Virginia for $4,000 militia men.
Like the late great rebellion this little one
sprung out Of the ranks and the maxims Of
Che democratic party. Men of national repu-
tation and historic fame, leaders in that party,
had questionable connection with it. 1t
found sympathizers in Washington's Cabinet,
as the shareholders instruction did in Mr..
Buchanan's. There were the same insidions
suggestions by half-faced friends, that the ex-
ercise of coercion would bring on a general
CONFUSION, aud that the midland sections
would never permit the national troops to be
marched across the State to subjugate their
| fellow citizens of the West, which paralyzsd
the power of the late democratic administra.
ton, and gave the great rebellion timeto grow
to its disastrous and formidable proportions.
uthappily for the new Constitution there
was patriot Washington at the helm Of
State, aud not an. imbecile tool of the Slaoe
Posoer, pledged, as a condition of his .nomi.
nation to the Presidency, that, ii the South
should be compelled by the anti-slavery poll
| cyof the North to secede, he would mite
with the South. So instead of turbulent
Mexico, aud seventy years CT factious wars,
/ ny d tiLuCly pubb1Hk lOltu vi buC otOluCA pow
ers Of the Constitution, the country was as-
sured two generations of internal peace,
growth and prosperity. While the troops Of
the Union were mastering and marching. to
the disturbed quarters, the belIigerents nego-
tiGted. Commissioners of the general gov
eminent. met committee of the rebels. Con-
ditions were exacted, partial submission was
rendered. But nothing would satisfy Wash
ington but complete and unconditional sur.
render, and the army was marched into the
rebel territory, the masses were compelled Il
submit, aud the ring-leaders captured, while a
strung guard was left to assist the revenue
offices In enforcing the collection of the OBJ
noxious taxes. Most of the rebels awaited
themselves Of Washington's amnesty, but a
large number were indicted and tried in the
United States Courts as criminals, though
on account of the difficulty of getting testi
mony to overt acts, and the strong partisan
sympathy of juries, only two persons were
actually convicted. ea2
In the autumn of 1859 John Brown, with
handful offolloWers made an armed invasion
Of the town Of Harper's Ferry, seized ant
held the United States armory and arsenal
captured seventy citizens Of the town. ant
killed one or two others Ia an attempt to draw
to his standard, emancipate and run of al
large number of slaves as he might seduc'
from their masters service. /, He was over
powered, half of his party were killed in tn,
conflict; afew escaped; the rest were put t,
friai'as traitors andsmurderers under the lasc
OF Virginia, and as such were summarily ex
ecuted. Brown, though a criminal unde
Virginian law, was man OF philanthropy
impulse, Of Christian principle, and of rar
nobleness of soul, and these traits shone fort
SO conspicuously at his trial in his imprison
ment, and at his death as to command the Low
ing admiration Of the nobIest and most gifte,
men and women, of all countries, to coerc,
the respect of his judges and executioners
and to hand his name down to lasting fam,
among the martyrs and heroes of liberty 1
was terrible sarcasm upon the institutions
the laws and the civilization of Virginia, tha
the existence Of such man could not be con
sidered compatible with their permanenc,
and safety. But Brown had leuted wai
against Virginia, and he himself scorned al
bubbles and sophistries, which sought to taxi
him out ofthe legal consequences Of his avow
ed acts.
Here seems to be a precedent for Mr.. Wis
and his confederates, who are implicated in
guitier and greater treason, involving tn
| lives Of half million, at least, OF their coun
trymen, redeemed by no philanthropy, reliev
ed of its parricidal .infamy by no touches o
personal heroism, lifted into the spontaneous
respect of mankind by no instructive sympa
thies of the poor aud oppressed, but standing
out on the pages of history the maddest. the
most perfdous, the most unprovoked politi
cal turpitude and crime ever exempli6ed By
man. Gov. Wise had no moral right to hans
John Brown for being a traitor. He was {
traitor himself at heart. This fell conspiracy
was already meditated and matured in hiI
purpose; nay, he had year or two before pu
upon record an explicit declaration that Il
Fremont had been elected President in 1856
he aoould march an army to Washington tt
prevent his inauguration.
Victor Hugo, the patriot poet, representing
the extreme of liberal thought, from acros.
the ocean begged the life of John Brown
Fernando Wood, the infamous ally Of thu
Shareholders from this side, Joined in the same
prayer. Neither. prevailed. Virginian Jus
tice, merciless, implacable, cruel in its guilty
fears, Tapped up the life-blood of that daunt
less hero, then, one after another that of each
oil his captured companions; and then mad
dened rather than appeased, glared with red
and hungry eyes across the peaceful land, and
gloated over visions of the Aceldanaa Of the
next five years. Come up, o bloody and i'm.
placable Magistrate, and mingle your counsels
with ours over this terrible problem: WhaI
to do Nth traitors. What are the presidents