Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1865-05-19
THE OFFICIAL HEAD OF THE REBELLION.

The head Of the conspiracy which
plunged the country into civil war; de-
luged our land with blood, and assassin
ated the Chief Magistrate of the United
States, was captured by Gen. Wilson, il
Georgia, on the 10th inst. Next to the
breaking down of the military power Of
the so-called Confederacy, this event will
be pleasing to the loyal people, as it will
be marked in history. Andrew jackson,
on his death-bed, declared that the mis-
take of his life was that he did not hang
Calhoun, who was the first apostle and
able advocate of the principles which
produced the rebellion. Andrew John
son, we may De sure, will not commit a
similar bIunder. He Will hang JEFF. Da-
Wis. Upon this point there need be no
doubt.
And let not the sympathizers with trea-
son and sentimental loyalists cry out
against this course as the essence of ven
gesnce, and denounce its advocates as
bloodthirsty. VIZ would hang JEFF. Da-
Wis, not in a spirit of vengeance, not be-
cause more blood is desirable, but to pun
Ish crime, and to stamp treason against
this Government as the greatest of all
crimes. The galiows, in this country, is
not the instrument of vengeance but of
justice. The life of the criminal is as
nothing compared with the life of the
State. Treason against the latter affects
the ives and happiness of the people
Therefore, this treason is monstrous, and
of all men Its authors are guilty of the
most monstrous crimes. Under such cir
cumstances their pardon would be a crime
against the State, and of this no man who
loves his country will be guilty. Andrew
Johnson will not be guilty of it-of this
we may feel sure. t-il -"el #
If the brand of infamy had been
stamped upon treason in the case of Cal
noun does anybody believe the late rebel
lion would have occurred? The sparing
of that great criminals life made treason
respectable. Hence the rebellion. His
punishment, on the other hand, would
have been security for the future. Had
been hung, Calhoun's school of seces-
slonists would have been broken up. It
would not have continued to plot treason,
in 1861, eliminated in rebellion
But as 1t was, young men imbibed trea-
son from their mothers breasts. They
grew up in the school of treason. They
learned to regard the doctrine of seces-
sion as evidence of Southern chivalry;
and in the south not to belong to this
class was to be disreputable. Hence the
men of the South rushed en- masse
into the conspiracy. Her young men fol-
and her masses were driven into
the NAV Of the rebellion. Who shall es-
the consequences of this? Who
AN bring back the lives of the men who
in defense Of the national life? Who
will claim foregivness for the men guilty
Of this great crime, and of the still more
Infamous crime of starving Union prison
srs? The blood of sixty thousand Of the
after cries out from the ground against
authors of the rebellion. The life of
Jeff. Davis, or of every rebel in the land
could not atone for the crimes that have
been committed; but execution upon the
will be the execution Of treason,
it will put upon treason the stamp
" infamy; and while it will afford all that
an be rendered to the demands of Justice.
o far as the men who may be hung are
.oncerned, it will give the State security
or the future.
Not, therefore, in a spirit of vengeance,
ut of justice-not that more blood may
% shed, but to preyenta repetition of the
ate infamous rebellion-the people de-
land the punishment of the leaders of
ne conspiracy; they require that the
lamp of the blacklist infamy shall be put
pom their crimes. So let it be.-Cin-