Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1866-02-02
poIttitaI.
For the Journal
ANOTHER AND A FINAL WORD FROM
Mr.. HUBBARD

Mr.. HUBBARD.
Mn. WArcHMAN-Your remarks on the
duty OF Congress to see that the freedmen
have fair play, are protected against those
who in their wantonness have murdered thou
sands Of them, who have habitually carried
arms TO kill them on the slis htest provocation,
are worthy OF perpetual remembrance. Let
me quote some remarks on the confscation
act. " Its front brstles with penalties against
the rebellous. One hand held the sword Of
justice (rather loosely as we thought at the
ume,) while the other rendered the olive
branch in the section empowering the Presi-
dent to grant amnesty and pardon to the re-
pentant." Yes sir, the sword was held very
loosely, which IL fact was nothing but mere
mockery Of justice. This arose from three
causes. LIST. The United States wanted to
be and to appear the opposite Of the Confed-
crate States in claiming forbearanoe and every
milder virtue. ID They wish, to show to
England, stained all over with the blood Of
the victims Of her vengeance, how far crimi-
nails could be spared consistently with nation
al integrity. 80. There is sickly sentimen-
tality in favor of the criminal in our land, as
far from the dictates Of p'ety as it is of COM
mon sense, which, with Horace Greeley
as its most reputable advocate, is continually
crying out, Spare the guilty, don't punish
the criminal, let Ketchum be pardoned, Wirz
suffered enough in his conscience without the
halter, let Forrest and Wade, Hampton and
JEFF. Davis go free /" Into the current of
feeling from these causes our government fell
from the beginning. Sherman never took
efficient means to arrest Hampton alter his
murder Of Union Soldiers Grant never ex-
erted himself very much TO arrest Forrest,
and Lincoln never would permit retaliation
to be begun or threatened upon the rebels for
starving and maltreating in thousand ways
our prisoners all through the war 80 that at
east 10000 10 $4,000 more Of our prisoners
died in rebel prisons than need to have died,
if the rebels had been told, "the treatment
our soldiers received AZ their hands would be
the treatment theirs would receive at ours"
Therefore the rebels came out Of the war con-
fimed in their old opinions and usages, that
10 kill Yankee or q negro is a pleasant past
time and very agreeable sport. Hence the
amnesty which is so construed and applied
that nobody fotfeIts any thing by rebellion.
Lee though traitor Of the darkest dye WIS
promised immunity and all his forces with
him as the condition Of surrender. In fact il
has been proclaimed by the course Of the gov
eminent that treason is no crime. When
those who have been particularly active are
caught, let them say, " ali, made mistake,
you are the stronger, will return to your
allegiance" every charge against them lie
rubbed out, their lands are restored they are
even taken away from the poor loyalist TO
whom they were promised by the highest
officer Of the government in that quarter, and
npepfhIa IaofIffp rrfv ID, a. d
rebel to present in after years his claim to
the government for remuneration for his lib
Grated slaves. You speak of the pardoned as
presenting fruits meet for repentance but
the above are those fruits. Away from the
troops, which Congress now wisely says shall
not be Withdrawn, no Northern MANS life IL
secure. Negroes are MANNED, hung up by
the thumbs, whipped, sold kidnapped, run
off to Cuba, shot and killed, and ] have yet
to hear Of the first white man in the South
ern States that has been punished for one Of
these crimes Think you the day fingers
when God will make inquisition for blood,
and when the earth shall no more cover her
slain All such clemency to impairment and
disloyal rebels, is cruelty to every loyalist-
Every favor showed to them is 80 much in
i US tice towRtds those who rescued the nation
in the hour OF its peril every blow aveTted
from the guilty, before the majesty Of the law
is vindicated, is only redoubled upon the
head Of sparing power. When Ahab spared
Benhadad, it was at the expense Of his own
life and that of his own people, Kings, 30:
~. When David failed to vindicate justice
against Saul's house for the slaughter Of the
Gibeonites, the land was smitten with famine
three years in succession. When David
asked the remnant Of that wronged people
what should be done, they said " J be man
that consumed us and that devised against us
that we should be destroyed = = Let seven
men Of his sons be delivered unto us end we
will hang three up unto the Lord in Gibeah
Of Saul y y y" 2 Sam. 2lst Chap. God Id
the same to-day. He will vindicate the gov
eminent he has established here, and though
il were at the expense Of the lives of twenty
presidents aud their cabinets, yet it will be
done if tue fault is with them, and their PEG
pie will perish if they acquiesee in any scheme
Of injustice towards any class Of the people
Of our land
But it is not strange that the President did
not say what the whole United States expec
ted viz that in organizing the rebellous
States every loyal male citizen must be equal
before the law. He knew the rebels had no
reason to expect favor, and they might have
anticipated dislranchisemen rather than that
the colored loyalist should be ignored; but
be seems TO think colored men have no rights
and need no advantages. AS rule, in his
theory, he is under no obligation to recognize
their merit and their claim to full citizenship,
and therefore he dwells on the duty Of the
States to give them the right to testify in the
courts and to be protected from the rspacity
Of their old oppressors by Freedman's Blu
reau. But all these conditions imply and
sanction INFERIoRITY simply on account Of
color. Why not say let white men testify
in your courts ?" Why in defiance Of the
Declaration of Independence say all unite men
are born FREQ and equal and all eolored men
inferior The President was one Of the poor
whites himself, springing from that class least
likely to favor the blacks and most likely to
be warped by money, hope Of political gain,
grandeur of place and such motives, and does
not his course show that he has beeni His
amnesty proclamation excepted rebels that
were worth twenty thousand dollars and over !;
but this very class is the one which with
brokers at $500 each, has received the great
est number Of pardons. | do not say the
President has sold pardons, bu, testimony is
overwhelming that very much money is used
in procuring them. The excepted classes in
fact are the ones which have shared largely