Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-08-29
THE APPEAL TO HISTORY.

A2S uOu0 anu IOTOOfn6 10 10, anu Hndt
is proposed to d. and forbear towards th'
most stupendous crime and criminals o
human history; and in the name of tha
reverend chronicler of the grave" and
holding up to your gaze his awful scrolls,
entTeat you to tell me what nation evel
before In the long line of that history
submitted to receive the traitors knife in
to the heart of three hundred thousand
of her bravest and best children, slain IL
defense of their Government against a re
bellion-striving for the nations death
and yet the nation not try or execute one
single traitor for his treason? No nation
ever did but yours. What nation evel
endured such an injury from its subjects
that did not annihilate with perpetual
civil death and banishment of the leader:
of such treason whom it may have omit
ted to put to death. No nation ever did
but yours. What nation ever before eV.
er omitted to visit upon the authors ot
such treason, confscation and forfeiture
of estates2 No nation but yours What
nation ever saw those whom she had ed
ucated to be commanders of her armies
and navies, or whom she had chosen and
sworn to be her ministers of State and her
Legislators, contriVe and execute against
the nations life such a conspiracy as this,
and yet the conspirators be suffered to
live? No nation but yours. What nation
in history has been found strong enough
to endure the crime against its life of hav-
ing its rulers so far elevate treason to-
wards the excellence of loyalty as to suf-
fer the leading traitors to even exist? No
nation, alasl not even yours. Why, Amer
b,k, g. H., -
was never seen before in the world. To
permit the Lees, the Semmes, the Dick
Taylors, the Alex. II. Stehphens-these
chief architects of their country's ruin
to live at all in the country, is spectacle
of folly absolutely new in the history of
the nations. To permit these and their
allies in the rebellion to wander at large
in the porches and halls of this temple
of your freedom, mingling as honored
ones among the unsuspicious children of
the Republic, with no other instruments
of mischief in their hands than the torch,
the pistol and knife, which they use to-
day in numbering the surviving loyalty of
the South, as at Memphis and New Or
leans, is a crime against your country of
which history furnishes no example. But
20 add in their hands to these instruments
of mischief, the power of electing and becom-
ing the President, Senators and Representa-
tives, to q degree only equal to that in
which it is held by the soldiers of the
Republic, is an example of folly and wicked
ness unknown in the past. But when to
this folly and wiekedness you add, what,
with shameless presumption is demanded of
you-that these pirates, assassins traitors and
murderers should have, man for man, twice
the political power of those soldiers whe saved
the RePublie-that Lees vote should have
double the elective power of fGrant's-Semme's
double that of Farragut' ooth's-did he
live-double that of Lincoln's his victim
then the audacity of the demand becomes un-
utterable, and all honest men turn away
from it with loathing and disgust.
And yet it is impossible for the candid and
truthful to deny all this folly and wickedness
is precisely what we are now demanded to
submit to, without DELAY or conditions, by
those who waged the rebellion or stood by it
IN sympathy and support during all its he'll
llsh progress.
The folly of yielding to such a demand
would be all which 1 have described il to be,
if you had no other evidence than the men
who make the demand are still the enemies
Of the Government, than is furnished by the
---~S Wea5O0 II tuC WI NA4ACA
Is juste nded. It must be borne in mind
that 1t was war wholly causeless in its
origin, unless the prineiple-the right to de-
stroy the Government by secession-for
which it was wsged be Just cause 1t was a
war waged through four long, dark years,
and whose beginning, progress and end were
made hideous by more of the piFacies, assas-
sinations, and murders, which the interna-
tonaf law stamps as infamous, than ever be-
fore disgraced the military practice oftyrants
or barbarians. But above all, must be remem-
bered that war ended in no surrender or
or laying down, Of either the
principle for which, or the arms by which it
was prosecuted. But on the contrary it was
only ended by wrestling their arms from
them In universal and crushing de-
Ieat. And besides these consider that such
\ war so waged, so ended, IS only just ended.
The grass has not yet grown over the graves
where sleep the victims of this gigantic muir
der. The hearts of the widows and orphans
whom it made, yet weep their crimson on
new graves. The inky vestments of universal
sorrow are nowhere taken off, and the pill
ars of your Department of State wear to day
The same funeral drape in which they were
1raped for the muder of this treason's most
lllustrious victor Americans, are not these
recent sad evidences Of stupendOus, and yet
continuing guilt, enough to make you pause
in yielding to the demand now made upon
you by the authors and abettors of this the
crime Of history to surrender to them, with
out delay, conditions, guarantees, the con-
troll of your rescued government? If they
are not enough, then entreat you to open
your eyes to the evidences which stand man
ifest and ghastly before you. There they
are, plain, undeniable Confessed not only
do the entire press and people Of the late re-
beHion admit their 'flost cause" but they
aYow that love with ostentatious defiance
without disguise or concealment
they bestow their honors and confidence up
On the chief traitors living and dead. Al
ready they have begun the war of actual ex-
by systematic and universal mur-
der of the Union men of the South Of this
Memphis and New Orleans are but two out
of thousands of bloody witnesses. The fight
Of loyalty from the South is to-day not uni
versal only because the victims of this sys-
tenn of murder are generally too impover-
ished by oppression and war to be able to es-
cape.
To these men, so engaged in extermina-
ting the loyalty ofthe South, and their North
srn allies, we are demanded to surrender
The Government without conditions Inc
Vice President of the rebellion is put for
ward 10 demand of you, Americans, your
sword and your Government; and he is in
structed to say to you, georgia will accept
no conditions In your surrender"
VietOrs at Donelson, at Corinth, at New
Orleans, at VIcksburg, at Antietam, at Get
.ysburg, on Lookout Mountain and Rich
nond, are you ready for the unconditional
surrender" Grant, who went through con
that line to the conquest of the continent
and to the fame of the ages, are you ready
5or the surrender Sherman, who marched
iown to the sea, are yoa2
Shades of Lyon and Mcpherson, and of
FOUR three hundred thousand slain comrades,
will you come, in the bloody cerements in
which fame has wrapped you, and be pres
ant at The inexpressible shame of this sban-
nent of the Government you deemed you
had rescued, into the control Of the same
treason you thought you had vanquished?
This, verify, is a folly-nay, an unuttera-
bic madness-compared to which to unchain
md put at the helm, in the midst of the
torn and rock, the convicted pirate and
nutineer, is prudence itself; and to put into