The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-04-06
The Peace 10 Which the Rebels are
LII IuYifed.


The practical peace to which the rebels
are invited by their unconditional sur
render is very forcibly presented through
the columns of an administration journal
as copied below:
From the New York Commercial (RepJ
~ %" ePhere is one thing, no Ne, er,
that Mr.. Lincoln can do He can and
must change the policy of harsh military
rule adopted toward the communities Of
the South, where our flag has beer restor-
ed. The scattered and paroled Union
men find with the return of the Federal
fiag domination as severe and uncOm-
promising as that which controlled them
under the Confederacy. The tine state
of the case is so well presented by the
Boston Advertiser, that we copy its IAN
guage, which has special reference to the
CITY of Savannah The 4dratiSer says:
'fHere is a city the people of which
have been summarily stripped of their
private property which was i'll many
cases their only resource for subsistence.
Men who in their distrust of the Confed-
eracy had converted their whole prop
erty into the great staple which alone
seemed to have any value, and men of
the poorer class who had been able to
secrete in this form some scanty provis-
ion for the crash when the rulers of their
CITY should have been discounted, have
lust seen the last bale depart from their
yharves, private ownership denied, the
means of Identification carefully destroy
ed, and nothing left to them but blank
despair.
"Men who in the darkest hour never
forget their allegiance-there are q fow
Of these-are levelled by the same blow
which has struck down their neighbOrs
who were defiant secessiOnists If the
Union man OF the "submiSsionist," who
is moro frequently fonnd, is asked by his
rebellious neighbor how much better he
Ia now thar when "thc Confedcracy"
held the city, or what prospect ofadvan-
tage he can see from the Reconstruction"
witch he favors. there is no reply to be
given. His condition has changed for the
,ro,ss siRce the old fdg was raised, and no
a &c !9;tk0at hope for tie tatUe.
"Whether this is Just policy, whether
it 10 necessary. whether upon the average
these people fare worse than they de-
serve after what has passed. are ques.
tions which need not lie discussed afresh.
But as to the point of present expedien-
CIV, as TO tho Influence which such an ex-
ample must now have i'll teaching to the
rebel population the lesson of desperation
and II union in THEN extremity, and as
To the effect which an opposite conrse
wouid have in showing them that their
interest lie in different direction from
those Of their leaders, and in creating Dir.
vision aud doubt among them at this
cricical mOmentrrthe question seems TO
us too plain to need argument.
ut is now three months that we have,
held Savannah under as rigid course of
discipline as was ever applied bnt il is
not too late to make that city m example
which shall satisfy all rebellion that our
severity is governed and tempered by
Justice and by remembrance of our
great object of ultimate union. UMle
BE city remains such an organisation as it is
aoW, q 70 not s,arly raiA 10 fail'o} procla-
ilaHoas aad amnesty: il is er2 certain that
Srs die keeping IA force q strong counter IN
f,ieace teatiae 10 defeat he re,y movement
dl;ong the rebel population Thih ,rt are daily
looking Jo,i ~ etery part Of those States, and
Or tho strragth Of eehich we hare sooner or
later to begin oar great cork Of reconstyuc-
= on.