The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-10-02
Admirable.


Hon. Albert Pike, of Arkansas, has
written most frank and manly letter
to the President, asking for q pardon
under the $4,000 clause. The fol-
lowing extracts are admirable, and
contain wholesome advice and admo-
milton to all in power and authority:
AS 1 am unable to prefer any other
special claim to clemency, the Presi
dents generosity may permit me
respectfully to remind him, not in
behalf of myself alone, that it was
the general amnesty proposed by the
Tribune Plotius, in favor of all who
had taken part in the civil wars, after
the death of Scylla, that did most to
cicatrize the wounds Of Rome; and
that the Emperor Napoleon speaks in
terms of commentator of ''those
practices. of civilized nations, which
teach them to honor their adversa-
ries, to spare the conquered, and not
to permit anger to survive the strife;"
and also to repeat these prophetic
words of Caesar, that eve forget the
faults of the greatest criminals, to
remember only their punishment, if
it has been too severe.
The late war was more owing to the
dead of the past, who are honored,
than to the living of the present, who
are execrated; more to Jefferson and
Madison than to Davis and Hunter;
more to the Kentucky and Virginia
resolutions than to the arguments Of
1860. Civil connections have long
roots in the past" and their true
authors have often been long beyond
the reach of human vengeance, while
those whom hatred seeks 10 immo-
late have been but the bondmen of
necessity, the blind instruments of
Fate. Why should the scaffold crave
the blood of the living, who only
obcyed the dead?
/ respectfully submit that it is not
just to regard as rebellion and trca-
son what had been claimed by States
and parties for seventy years as the
lawful exercise of q political right by
q State; and that it would be Il grave
mistake to make even one name and
memory watch-word and beacon
for all coming time. 1t would be to
create ''that impossible barrier,
which always separates, after blood
is so shed, the children of the same
country"
If conyicted and sentenced, none
now accused will feel, nor will the
people of the South believe, that they
have been guilty of treason. Neither
defeat or condemnation changes con-
victions. They will not seem to have
been criminals, but only to have
atoned with their lives for the sin of
failure in the assertion of rights
claimed, even if unreal, by many
States, and by o great political party,
since the beginning of the Govern
ment.
"Useless violences always lc. 4 to
fatal reactions" Blood shed after
victory and in the hour of triumph
will not make the victory more illus
trious or complete, nor serve to
cement the Union. 1t is not wise to
punish conquered people with mar
tyrs, more potent dead than when
alive. Living, we shall have no in
fuence; SO dying, we should become
immortal and omnipotent, eternal
inciters of future instructions, apos-
ties of faith whose vitality can only
thus be preserved. The President
has it in his power to immortalize
himself, and. secure to the country
permanent peace, by mercy; and
those who urge him to use the sword
of justice are his worst enemies, and
will, if he does so, hereafter be the
first to condemn the seventies they
now advise. It is not by the proscrip-
tions Of Scylla that the wounds
caused by civil war are to lie healed.
I cannot believe that any humilia-
ton of entreaty would so assure the
President of my future loyalty as g
manly but respectful frankness. 1t
seems to me that so only can show
myself worthy of his clemency, be-
cause worthy to live.
The "LAsr SURRENDER. THE
Asheville On. c. Neaus says that the
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