Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-08-30
Making Treason Odious.

Johnson Vice. President, and by the death
of Mr.. Lincoln President Of the United
States, was his celebrated saying. Urea
son must be made odious, and traitors
punished" The Union-loving people OF
this country saw safety in that speech.
They adhered, to u man, to that pro-
eramme. They felt-and feel-that il the
leading traitors are brought to punishment
for their monstrous crime, and If treason
is made odious, the country is safe, for we
may hope to gain all else by argument
and by the help Of time.
Somehow traitors have not yet been
punished. Many of the vilest and most
pernicious have been pardoned; and the
chief Of all still lies i'll prison. Neverthe-
less, treason is daily becoming more obi
Gus there is no doubt about it. 1t was
more odious on the day after the Memphis
riots than it was before it was more obi
u when the colored Unionists CT Geor-
gia were driven away from the Union
soldiers graves they wished to decorate,
than before. II became still more odious
yesterday morning, as people read the ac-
count of the New Orleans riot; and the
New York Daily News, the Richmond
Enquirer. and half a dozen journals con-
Quoted in a similar spirit, make 1t more
and more odious from day to day.
No, only is the spirit Of treason becom-
ing odious by the lawless and defiant
| course OF the men who lately were engag-
ed in an attempt TO overthrow the govern
ment and Union-and who have been 80
| freely forgiven for their crime; traitors
as well as treason are becoming odious.
The Union loving people are quietly
watching these men; they see them every
where the abettors of violence. Of upright
eousness, stirring up sedition, the INDUS
trious sewers of hatred and uncharitable-
ness; turbulent, lawless, defiant. They
draw their own conclusions from all that
has passed in the last year in the South;
and those conclusions are not favorable to
the continued rule Of the class which
boastfully pretends that it alone can and
ought TO rule in the Southern States.
II there is any man of influence and OF
common sense in those States, he would
do we'll 10 warn those who were lately en-
gagged in rebellion that they will be wise
70 act somewhat more cautiously and pru-
IDENTIFY than they are doing. They would
do well 10 remember that by about twen-
t~y-four millions Of our population treason
and rebellion are regarded as crimes de-
serving of the heaviest punishment; and
that every lswless act, every reckless de-
fance, every boas,ful assumption on the
part Of men who were rebels and traitors,
only strengthens the sentiment. which is
growing rapidly in the Northern States,
that Cancellation Of traitors g a huge
blunder, free pardon a deadly mistake.
and severity and the strict enforcement OF
the laws against treason and rebellion the
only wholesome or safe course.
Already the very name Of pardon has
become hateful to the Union loving peo-
pie, and every rebel pardoned excites new
alarm and dissatisfaction. Already peo-
pie begin to feel and to say, that the
rebel leaders ought not to be %pardoned.
that the chief movers in every State ought
to be treated as the criminals they are, or
at best as aliens, and If they are permitted
to stay in the country at all, should have
this permission only on condition that
they refrain from all part in politics, either
by speaking, writing, voting, or holding
office.
Public sentiment is more set now upon
combining office to the original Unionists
than Il was six, or three months ago; the
people more universally demand the exc
cu,ion of the laws against treason now
than they have ever done since Lees sur
render.
The lawless class in the Southern States
seem to be engaged in a deliberate attempt
to make free government impossible there.
Let them not go too far; let them remem-
Der ,hat the patience Of those who sup
ported the Union when they were in arms
to destroy 1t has q limit, and that there Is
| only one thing sure: whatever may hap
pen to rebels and traitors, whatever in
| convenience they have to be put to, or
whatever severity Of punishment may be
REQUIRED to hold them in awe, the Ameri-
can people are determined justice shall be
done, hberty-equal and impartial liberty
shall be maintained, and equal rights
shall be enforced on every foot OF our ter
ritory. Pardoned traitors like this Mon
roe, Mayor Of New Orleans, and hum
dreds Of others, are making treason so
odious here, by their outrageous miscon-
duct, that they will presently find them
selves fatally the losers by it.-N. Y. Ere-
ming Post, August Sth.