The Portland daily press., 1865-04-15
Not Weakness nor Vengeance, but Justice

Not Weakness nor Vengeance, but Justice.
Rebellion is great crime against civil law
and the public peace, and by no means should
go unpublished. Treason is a crime against
the State for which Congress has affixed the
penalty Of death. When John Brown invaded
the peace ana rtgnIs or virginia, no plea of
humanity, or that he was influenced by an in
tense love of liberty, saved him from the PEN
atty of Virginias broken law. When the
New York rioters and negro baby-kiilers were
arrested they were dealt with according to
law. Because the burglar fails, after break
ing your house, to entirely despOil you of your
goods and to enrich himself at your expense,
we do not argue that he should go unpunish-
ed. Because the incendiary's fire is promptly
extinguished by the brave fremen and the ed
lice is saved from utter destruction, it does
not follow that the villain who applied the
torch shall be let off without proper chastise-
ment. Because the wretch who places an OBJ
structioaWnpon the track fails to throw the
train from the rails and to destroy scores of
lives, 1t does not follow that he should escape
the penitentiary. To reason differently would
be to blot out the great distinct lines between
virtue and vice; to confound well-doing with
the grossest crimes.
Why should we reason differently in rela-
ton to the authors of the terrible rebellion
which for four years has deluged the land with
fraternal blood? Why should John Brown
die and JEFF. Davis escape punishment Why
should small criminals-those who fire soil
tary building, murder solitary traveller, get
up street riot, or plumber farm house, be Sc
verely punished, while Davis, and Hunter,
and Wigfall, and Toombs, and Cobb, ct i'd &C.
nus ousne, be- allowed to walk the streets of
our cities, as though they had done nothing to
I'll the land with mourning? We hope no
such weakness is to be exhibited. The au-
thors of the rebellion were intelligent men,
They knew the magnitude of the crime they
were committing. When conquered they
should be dealt with in a way that shall be a
warning to all future generations, SO that
their crime may not be repeated by their pos
terity. This is not vengeance but simple JUS
tice. We ask not that, like rebels under old
English law, they should be quartered and ex-
hiblted on the gate posts of our principal cit
les; we would not demand large flow of
blood. If the law is now too severe we would
have it modified, SO when enforced, and rebel
leaders under its operation shall stand con-
victed and sentenced to suffer its penalties,
that those penalties need not, except in special
cases, be set aside by executive clemency.-
We agree fully with the following, which we
clip from the Eoening Post:
The rebel army of Gen. Lee has surrender
ed upon terms proposed by General Grant
terms which we think wise and admirable.-
They are dismissed to their homes upon pa
role not to take up arms unless regularly ex
changed. Tney have become, therefore, nom
combatants-and they are assured that so long
as they remain thus, and obey the laws of the
land, they will not be molested. But in these
terms are not included the original fomenters
of the rebellion, the conspirators, most OF
whom, with Davis at their head, are now flying
through the southern states. To these cruel
wretcnes nothing has been promised; and
nothing can be promised except a fair trial,
and rigid administration OF the punishment
which court and jury may decree. 10 suffer
them to walk the streets of any town where
our flag flies, u deal with them In any re-
spect except as criminals of the deepest dye,
to be arrested, tried, and, if convicted, punish
ed, Is gross wrong. ~
The blood of the South as well as of the
North cries out against these men. Justice is
Injustice and law contemplate while they are |
at large and within the reach of the United |
States government. The President may par
don them, if he chooses to do so, after they
have been convicted; but to let them run at |
large in the country, not to apprehend them
and consign them to durance wherever he |
can, this is not law, but contempt for law, and |
while we do not for a moment suppose that |
the President means to act unlawiuily, we do |
not know how far his kind heart and merciful |
deposition may carry him,
Would you hang Davis, and Campbell, and
Hunter, and Benjamin, and Breckenridge, and
the score or hundred other leaders and origi-
majors of the rebellion, then? some reader |
will ask. Well, if you ask the question of the
poor fellows who have just come, wasted skele-
tons, starved, frozen, and in every way inhu-
namely used. from the prisons in which three |
score or a hundred traitors confined them,
they will probably reply, Certainly, hanging
is too good for them. Ii you ask the south
ern loyalist, who have been, by the order of
these rebel leaders, hunted with bloodhouuds,
shot like wild beasts, robbed and imprisoned
in loathsome dungeons, they too will say
"Yes." If you ask the poor of Redmond
who were made homeless by the supereroga-
tory barbarism of Beckinridge, in setting fire
to tt e city before he and his master ran away
from it, they too will say. Yes, hang them"
But this is the voice Of passion Then
what says the great heart of the country? 1t
says, Try them If they fall into our hands; let
them get away, out of the country, if they
can, and we will, with simple Dogberry, thank
God we are rid OF SO many knaves; but let
them understand plainly, and at once, that
If they stay here they must be tried, and pun-
ished, unles the President takes the RESPONSE.
bIlity to pardon them, conditional upon their
leaving the country forever. This is not only
the lust but the judicious course in respect to
these persons. 1t is absolutely necessary to
the pacincation of the country that they shall
ia some way be got rid of. Bring but one of
them to the bar OF justice, and the others will
quickly take warning; but every day that
Campbell, Hunter and their followers walk the
streets of Richmond gives Davis and his run
away crew new courage for fresh enterprises
and infamies.
A T. n q r III