Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-03-30
IFrom The New York Tribune. March al
Pence Overtures.

The Herald, criticising our recent articles M
favoring Presidential Proclamation In the
interest of Peace, says
GAS we understand The Tribune, 1t wants
proclamation In behalf Of these leaders OF
the rebellion, giving them some greater M
ducements for submission" VI
The Herald will please understand us
better. We have not suggested any specllic
proposition to be made to rebels OF any grace
or position. If we had any such sugges-
tion to make, we should, for obvious reasons,
address it privately to the President. but
while we would have specific overtures
made from the highest quarter, our concern
Is more with their spirit than with their
letter. We greatly desire that the Southern
people should realize that the loyal millions
do not hate them, do not seek their exter-
mination, but are most anxious that they
should turn from their erring ways and
live. Such we know to be the feeling OF the
great body of our friends and neighbors;
such, we are confident, are the feelings OF
large majority of the people of the loyal
States. We do not believe that the torture
unto death by exposure to inclemency ana
starvation of so many thousands Oh our
captured brethren was authorized or desired
by the great body Of the Southern whites.
We do not believe that majority OF those
to the mad scheme of disunion. We do not
believe they have ever preferred to be vas
sails and ieudatories of some European
monarchy rather than the citizens OF this
free republic, yet we are well assured that
their chiefs have attempted to bargain them
away to whomsoever would aid In consum-
mating disunion. We have ever regarded
with good will, but without sanguine faith,
the various efforts to open negotiations with
those chiefs; for we could not but feel that
they must necessarily be the very last men in
the Confederacy to consent to a restoration OF
the Union; but that great and steadily in
creasing majority of the Southern people
would gladly accept such pacification as
our Government could honorably accord,
we have long and unwaveringly trusted.
Now, then, we ardently desire that the
President should make direct, specific ap-
peal and overture to the Southern people,
urging them to return to loyalty and peace,
and giving them substantial reasons for so
doing. Those people are now kept in the
tolls of treason mainly by positive and con-
stantly reiterated assertions that they have
nothing to gain by submission, nothing to
lose by persistence in rebellion, and may as
well fight to the last as give up and be eX-
terminated as well as stripped naked after
their surrender. (See JEFF. Davis late man
ifesto, the address of the rebel Congress,
Howell Cobb's speech, &C., &C., Now let
the President counteract these damaging
misrepresentation by simple, clear,
straightforward overture, setting forth
precisely who are to gain and what is to be
gained or saved by pacification, and we are
confident that large portion of those who
have hitherto aided, or seemed to counte-
nance, the rebellion, will insist that this
overture be accepted and the tide of whole |
sale carnage and devastation be thus ar
rested. And when those who thus feel and |
act shall have declared for peace, there will |
not be enough left in rebellion to keep each |
other in countenance. If even one-eighth |
of the insurgents were now to throw down |
their weapons, the rebellion must collapse |
forthwith.
The issue of the contest is no longer |
doubtful. We must have this day at least |
250,0 900 combatants between the Susquehan- |
ma and the Pedee, while all the rebel forces |
within those limits cannot number 150, 600. |
Our men are well fed, we'll provided and
splendidly armed; the rebels are in want of
everything, hope included. To fight long
er is to sauander blood and treasure; there
should be speedy peace, and our Govern
ment should unmistakably evince the anx-
iety it feels for an early and final pacitica-
ton. The discounted rebel leaders may
hold their lives very cheap; but we, who are
the victors, should realize that all the lives
and property sacrificed hereafter are just
so much loss to our country. We have
saved the Republic: now let US try to save
as many of its people, as much Of its prop
erty, as we possibly can.