Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1865-06-16

MENIOUS ISSUE-THE CHARACTER OF
TREASON AND OF THE LATE STRUGGLE
MIR. DAVIS A TRUE REPRESENTATIvE OF
A PE0PLE-CIvILlZATI OPPOSED TO
THE IDEA OF HIS EXECUTION.
From the London Times.l
The capture of Mr. Jefferson Davis may prove
either fortunate or fatal success for the Gov
eminent of the United states. II it be viewed
merely as the browning triumph OF the war, and
a. evidence before the face OF the wetld shat the
last spark Of organized Instruction has been en-
tinsulshed on the soil OF the Republic, the event
NAV conduce. materially TO the paciicatlon Of
the cou .tr5; but If Il should lead 10 the oondem-
nation of The TX President and 10 the execution
of such sentence as his conviction might in
yolye. It may 10 q misfortune OF inoalculAble
magnitude 20 the future Prospects OF the Union.
Ne ara bound to say that there is nothing in the
national character or past acts Of the American
ueope which could justify US in even so much
as Specializing on the lailer Of the5e eont;pgen
cies' we should not il Mr.. Lincoln were still at
the head of the state treat the question as de.
batable, but The new President has publicly ex-
pressed himself in such Ominous language on
the subject, and the policy OF the Government
NAV be so directly affected o. his personal views
that we can no logger regard the case with con-
idence or unconcern.
In The DITCH ptIlOu ultu Has flhpscH slllt us
accession to power, President Johnson has lie.
Deatedly availed himself OF interviews vita his
fellow citizens to speak his mind upon the very
question before US. He has voluntarily entered
apon an eatmats Of the crime Of qsuyyecton
and the liability Incurred by insurgents. he even
uroceeded TO measure his own prerogative and
9auge his own duty, delivering his Judgment
1pon the whole matter. He said that treason
was no; only a crime, but the gre Gtest and most
heinous uf an crimes, and that The truth in this
respect, hitherto little iucucated OF perceived,
must now be impressed on the American peop.e.
He said that no assumed political rights or Ie-
served privileges could be recognized as investing
treason with any Justification since otherwise,
there never would be wanting preteXts for insur.
rection or pleas Tor IMMUNITY aud no Government
could be safe against rebellion. He said that
mercy was not more important virtue than jus.
tice nor more incumbent upon Chief Magis-
trate: and he added on one occasion, that though
the mu titudes VINO had been deluded or cOerced
might be proper objects OF clemencY the sgme
could not be held of their ringeadels or rulers.
This, we Iced scarcely remark, is almost equiva.
lent 10 an argument for enforcing against Mr..
Jefferson Davis the utmost rigor Of the law, aud
for allowing the law TO take rs course to the last
Il is indeed, precisely this cold and pltless logic,
more dangerous than innate cruelty or passion,
which induces US TO sugur 3 Ill OF President
Johnson's first impressions, We can only trust
that they may be modhed IN practlce by rehec-
ton and advice.
There is not a doubt that Mr.. Davis has been
guilty Of q hind OF conAtructive treason in con-
ducting an armed and organized secession OF
certain states from the Federation. In this way
he NAV be pronounced a traitor; but so was
Washington, and 50 was Kossuth, and so have
Deen scores Of Others, whom the Americans
have uniformly and consistently delighted to
honor IL is certainly not wonderful that peo-
d e amCng whom 1t was maintained that any
body OF citizens had q right to discard Their
actual government for any government which
they might prefer u 1t should have an imperfect
idea of the crime OF treason nor IS it, possibly,
too much to say that their notions in this re.
spect ought 10 be corrected. But, not to men.
ton that some grace is due 10 those who turned
traitors before treason was thus prescribed II is
impossible 10 deny that Mr.. Jefferson Davis and
his fellow citizens had really some OF that jus.
LITIGATION which President Johnson was 30
eager to deprive them OF beforehand. They be-
lieyed. wit or without reason, in a right Of Sc.
cessioa reserved 10 tie sever.l States of the
Union in virtue of their u innate sovereignty.
They looked at the Union rs a voluntary
Federation of independent States from which
any State, if so minded, might lawfully retire,
and the general principle OF state rights, though
not pushed TO this extent, has been regarded
with extraordinary veneration in ali parts of the
Union. Wa hingtOn had no such pre!eXt for in.
the Americans OF his day had no title whatever
10 political independece beyond such as could be
discovered in the inherent and inaenable rights
of man. But the seeding States OF the South
appealed not 10 any such rights, but TO written
laws and constitutional ordinances, and they as
serted their claims with perfect p lticAl formal
ity Their "treasOn' was consummated in the
grayest and most constitutional manner Their
authorities assembled in their several Legisla.
lures, declared their secession from the old
Union, formed new COnfederdcy, aud then pre-
pared to resist what they designated THE inva.
sion" of their late brethren. This may have been
an excess OF their political rights but is is im.
possible TO gainsay the belief in those rights or
10 exclude il from consideration in measuring
the culpaciity of those who acted upon 1t. The
question has been settled by the sword but
Il was really deb stable before.
Nor will President JOhnsOn's distinction be-
tween designing rngeadels and their misg aided
followers bear any more successful apple ItiOn
Probably no example has ever occurred in which
such a disc limitation had less place. The Ameri.
cans are not people to be led like sheep least of
all in the South. There was no benighted class
there to b. delnded or che ted into rebellion
The backs who would correspond to such
class, were out Of the affair altogether, and the
Tar was conducted and maintained exclusively
by classes above the common. Ii has also been
ascertainPd by the surest OF all tests that of nc.
tual trial that no portion whatever Of the South.
eth people was cOerced into this rebellion. Alb
solute unanimity, of course, is thing impOssi-
BILE, and doubtless as the war proceeded the
hearts Of many men failed them; but IL was
proved over and over again that the idea OF a
considerable Union party, overborne and over.
powered by a willful aud tyrannOus ma jOrlty, was
a mere dslusion. The whole South, it cannot be
questioned, had its heart in the cause, and the
Confederate Government expressed rather than
formed the feelings OF the population. Jefferson
- oh rula .af hfnfF1 NOT
the ring leader Of a mob lie was as truly, If not
as cOnsttntionally, the representative of six mil.
lions Of Americans as Abraham Lincoln Was OF
twenty millions. He had their unfinching sup
port through four years of war, and he has their
sympa'h HES and affections now. His punishment
would be their punishment, and his late may de-
termine the disposition Of the South for genera
tons 70 come.
Practically, however and viewed rather by high
policy than by abstract logic, the case is removed
from thu category OF such criminal questions
Who is this Jefferson Davis For the last four
years he has been at the head OF state COM
pact, and powerful enough TO be regarded az
nation, though not powerful enough TO resist the
attack Of another nation thrice as populous.-
lie has only not been recognized by European
Governments because it was thought the time
for such recognition was not quite come he
was actually recognized IN very pracucal way
by President JohnsOn's own predecessor. Three
months ago Abraham Lincoln was treating on
terms OF something like equality with the repre-
sentatves of this very man. Twelve months ago.
or at any time during the war, the President OF
the COnfederacy might have made lis own terms
on the single condition OF bringing his constit-
uents back into the Union. Step by step the
Federals relinquished the language OF soVeregns
against rebels, and conducted tho struggle in
terms Of regular war. Yet the treason OF the
COnfederates was as much treason then as it is
now, and Jefferson Davis is no worse at this
minute than he was when President Lincoln and
Secretary Seward repaired with 50 much alacrity
to meet his ambassadors in Hampton waters. In
short, whereas it is now q leading principle OF
all civilized governments to abstain from the In
Fiction of death for political crimes, the crime
Of Mr.. Jefferson Davis is more than usually enti'