Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-02-14

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whether or not treason is q crime and
ought to be punished. Applause.
have not spoken yet of another and
greater-no, another different-criminal.
l am now speaking of man who think
can be, within the spirit of your resolu-
ton, tried by a military commission, and
to which all the people will say amen. l
put it to you, fellow-soldiers, as military
men, whether deserting the flag of our
nation and taking service within two
days afterwards in the ranks of the enc
my is not a military crime, for which a
man is amenable to a military tribunal?
L think there can be no doubt upon that
question. l would like to see him tried
for that military offence. I do not think
that any subsequent parole, got out of too
much credulity that the time had not
come to surrender the Northern army of
Virginia, would be a good plea. 1 de-
sire to see that man tried so that it may
be understood hereafter that it is death
kupon the gallows for any man to desert
his flag and take service with the enemies
of his country. Great applause.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
Turn we to another man, for whom
there are other considerations of excuse
to Jefferson Davis, educated in the
like school, unfortunate perhaps for the
school that it should have two such pu-
pils,) who went into the military service
of his country, where he behaved honor
ably and well. I do not know but that 1
might have to apply to him the saying of
the Revolution. Arnold asked him what
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by the Americans. "Why," said the
whig, 81 think we should bury the leg
that was wounded at Quebec with all the
honors of war, and hang the rest of you
on gibbet." So with JEFF. Davis. We
might have to bury, with the honors of
war, one arm that was wounded in Mex
leo, and hang the rest of him. ILaguh-
ter and applause. he had the plea,
however, which the soldier had not
that his State had seeded. ,.-.
Waiting until Mississippi went out, JEFF
Davis quit the halls of Congress to take
the office Of Provisional President in the
Confederate States-an office created and
made ready for him as soon as he should
be ready to take it. He, all-powerful in
the Confederacy, with a will of iron, with
paryers and proclamations to the Divine
mercy on his lips, stands by and sees our
comrades starved and murdered day by
day. think it is of no great consequence
whether it can be proved or not that he
directly ordered it. Certain it is that it
could not have been done if he had not
wished it. He sees the horrors of Ander-
sonville and does nothing to prevent
| them. Whether or not he had any com
plicity in the last great act of infamous
guilt, the murder of the President, no
man may yet know. But whether he
had or not, / desire to see him tried by
military commission, as the tribunal
which arose out of the power that he
evoked for the purpose of serving the Un-
ion. l should like TO see the crime of
the magistrate who deserts his post and
levies war against his country, not only
made odious but punished on the galloWs,
so that no Representative or Senator shall
hereafter in these halls plot treason and
execute it outside. After that will be a
time to pause and see what is to be done
next.
LOYAL SoUTHERNERS.
Mr.. President, L believe I have spoken
to every portion of your resolutions that
struck my ear, and given you thus curso-
rily and discursively my views upon it
But there is one topic upon which think
they do not treat, and which yet deserves
mention. 1t is the question of what shall
be done for that class of our fellow-sol-
diers who live in the Confederate States.
do not refer now to the colored men,
but to those noble and true men
who, against every inducement and in
timidation, stood up nobly for the old
flag. Do you not think that such noble
and stern men are entitled to your con-
sideration? And would you not, if they
were here in numbers, give them a spe-
cial resolution?
What would you say to the North Car
Gilman, the Tennesseean, the Kentuck-
ian, the Missourian, the Alabamian,
aye, and the Louisianian who stood up by
the old flag? They got no bounties for
Joining the army of the United States
on the contrary there was everything to
deter them from doing so. They joined
the army on the certainty that they stood
on par with him who addresses you
that we were all to be hung at sight if
caught. Laughter. Many of them
saw their comrades executed.
Let me state here what actually took
place in the Department of North Carroll
ma. A regiment of North Carolinians en-
listed, and portion of the regiment was
captured at Plymouth. Twenty-Five men
of the regiment were tried and hanged
by order of Gen. Pickett, former officer
of the United States army, simply because
they were loyal to the flag and to the
country which gave them birth. And
what do you think was the answer of
Gen. Pickett to the general officer who
demanded an explanation, aud wrote
to him that retaliation might be taken
on officers of the Confederacy? The an
sWer was: 'If the officers to whom you
retaliate are those who have deserted
from the United States and enlisted in
the Confederate States service 1 think
you would do right to hang them" We
happened to have in our hands no such
officers at that moment, but / thought
their suggestion an exceedingly good one,
coming from Mr.. Pickett, who had him
self deserted the service of the United
States, aud gone into the service of the
Confederacy. | think that letter of Gen.
Pickett is eminently suggestive of what
is our duty.
As to those true men of the South, 1
think they are worthy of a separate res
olution. Even if some of you do not
agree with me in the idea of distributing
some Southern land among Northern sol
diers, surely no person can stand up and
argue against the proposition to distribute
a few acres of the lands Of the South
among those loyal friends who fought for
them and for US. If you would take in
few black men in the same way, it would
not hurt the argument any in my opin-
ion. But l am now speaking for my
white brethren of the South, men for
whom 1 have the highest respect, who
were faithful among the faithless found,
and with whom 1 have perhaps some
thing of fellow-feeling-caused by cir
cumstance to which have just now al
luded. -0..
1 pray you excuse me fellow-soldiers, if
1 show a little of this fellow-feeling for
them in suggesting that the lands of
their rebel neighbors who ooverawed them,
hunted them down, shot their comrades
and hung all of them that they could
catch, should be at last divided among
them as a compensation for the losses
they suffered in standing by the Union,
so that hereafter every man in the coun-
-, y,,oxv l-ror- L.