Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1866-06-14
GERRIT SMITH AND MR. DAVIS.

Iuls sbrauSe Horiu VI JULIO, Uus NO uuos
confess that recent letter of GERRIT
SMITH, of N. Y, opposing the trial Of Ex.
President DAVIS for treason, goes farther in
the way of the remarkable than anything
We have seen recently. A man who five
years ago howled like a chained maniac
against the South; who cursed with a bitter
ness and hate that the fends of earth and
hell combined would blush to attempt
and who did more, perhaps, than any other
living abolitionist to iDeite the late quarrel
and its consequent wretchedness, now argues
boldly and forcibly that the South is not to
be punished for the war; that she never as
people or section committed any treason !;
and that her people should not now be
punished as traitors.
This remarkable document is addressed
to Chief Justice CHASE, as the judge be-.
fore whom Mr.. DAVIS is to be tried. He
contends that the latter should not be ar.
raigned for treason, and hopes the judge
will so decide and supports this position
by logical and legal data that cannot be
impeacbed. But strangest Of all, is the
avowal that the South was less to blame for
the recent aoar, than the North. He may
remember the abolition tracts he wrote
the seditions and conspiracies they were in.
tended to incite-the hundreds of thous-
ands of dollars he contributed to send
armed men to Kansas to murder peaceful
and if 80, he has good data
from which to make such an avowal. His
to common sense and justice is q
matter of sad congratulation-sad because
he may now revert back to his wild invee-
tives for the blood of harmless people,
and survey fully the ruins Of which he was
one of the chief instigators. A great
mind as bis unquestionably is, can do much
in any cause whether right or wrong We
are rather pleased than otherwise that the
Devil has embraced the church; but when
such characters attemptto defend us, we
are naturally led to question the integrity
of our cause.
We give in his own words, few Of the
positions now assumed: -..
And, just here, let me say that, since
there was DO treason to pardon, President
johnson had no pardoning to do. Pardons
to Southern men are no more in place than
would be pardons to Englisbmen, had we
conquered England.
x X
How great would be the sorrow of all the
oppressed nations of Christendom, at learn.
ing that the Chief Justice of the United
States holds. that in civil war, aud even
in fully developed one, there remains the
crime of treason and work for the execu-
toner! They would feel fresh alarm,
whilst every despot would feel himself more
firmly seated than ever. Surely, America,
with all her boasted love of freedom and
human rights and with all her Difference for
numbers, should not be guilty of subject
ing the vanquished party in civil war to
the law of treason. There will probably be
many more civil wars. The great majority
of them will originate in the interests ol
Freedom. Some of them-perhaps many
of them-will result adversely to her,
When they do, shall the conquering tyrants
be able to plead the example of America
of Republican America-of Freedom. loving
America-for hanging the vanished Wash
ingtous and Franklins God forbid But
it will be claimed that the Washingtons
and FrankliDs, having just cause, should
not be hung and that the Davises and Lees
should be, because their cause is unjust
Unavailing distinction! For the conqueror
would have but to hold (and for this bis
own bare word would be his sufficient au-
thority,) that his own cause is just and the
enemy's unjust-and then his way would
be clear to go straight to hanging the Wash.
ingtoDs and Franklins.
X X
How sad that the North should in this,
the great trialhour of her wisdom and in.
tegrity, be found so mistaken in regard to
her needs and duties! She denouuces the
South for bringing on the war But her
own responsibility for it is no less than that
of the South. Nay, in the light of the fact
that her temptations to betray freedom and
justice were so much weaker than those
which assailed the South, her share for the
common responsibility for the war is far
greater. She olamors for the punishment
of the South under the Constitution. But
she should feel that the South has been
punished very severely already. She com.
plains that the South has still hard heart.
But it is not harder than her own. The
heart that can refuse gratitude to the
brave, forgiving and magnanimous black
saviors of our country, and that, by deny.
ing them suffrage, can throw them again
under the feet of their old oppressors, is a
heart that need not look abroad for worse
one. The North calls ON tha Snnth To re-.