The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1866-08-14
MAKING TREASON oDI0US.

johnson Vice President, and by the death
of Mr.. Lincoln President Of the United
States was his celebrated saying, Treason
must be made odious,an traitors punished" "
The Union Loving people of this country
saw safety in that speech They adhered,
to man, to that programme. The felt.
and fcel--that if the leading traitors are
brought to punishment for their nonstrous
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 in prison. Nevertheless,
treason is daily becoming more odious;
there is no doubt about it. 1t was more
odious on the day after the Memphis riots
than it was before; it was more odiou when
the coIored Unionists of Georgia were driv
en- away from the Union soldiers graves
they wished to decorate, than before. 1t
became still more odious yesterday morning
as people read the account of the New
O~Ieans riot; and the New York Daily
-Nws, the Richmond Enquirer, and half
a dozen journals conducted in a similar
spirit. make it more and more odious from
day to day.
Not only is the spirit Of treason becoming
odious by the lawleS5 and defiant coulse of
the men who lately were engaged in an at
tempt to overthrow the Government and
Union-and who have been so freely for
given for their crime; traitors as we'll as
treason are becoming odious. The process
by which this is brought about is not pre-
csely that which was in peoples minds
when they applauded Mr.. johnson for his
famous phrase. But it is just as effectual
it may turn out to be more so.
For, the condemnation which the south
can leaders are bringing upon themselves
is more severe,and will bring with it severer
penalties, than any the courts would have
decleed. The Union loving people are
quietly watching these men; they see them
everywhere the abettors of violence, Of un-
Righteousness, stirring up sedition, the in
dustrious sewers of hatred uncharitableness
turbulent, lawless, defiant They draw
their own conclusions from all that has
passed III 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.
If there is any man of influence and of
common sense in those States, he would do
we'll to warn those who were lately en-
gagged in rebellion, that they will be wise
to act somewhat more cautiously and pru-
dent'y than they are doing. They ought
TO understand that though the twenty
millions who fought for the Union are
patient and long suffering, they are not
fools. They would do well to remember
that by about twenty-four millions of our
population treason and rebellion are re-
garded as crimes deserving of the heaviest
punishment; and that every lawiess act
every reckless defiance, every boastful as
sumption on the part of men who were
rebels and traitors, only strengthens the
sentiment, which is growing rapidly in the
Northern States, that conciliation of traitors
is huge blunder, free pardon deadly
mistake,and severity and the strict enforce
ment of the laws against treason and re-
bellion the only wholesome or safe course.
1t should be remembered that it is not
yet too late to revise and reverse all that
has been done in the way of reconstruction.
Already the very name of pardon has be-
come hateful to the Union loving people,
and every rebel pardoned excltes new alarm
anl dissatisfaction. Already people begin
to feel, and to say, that rebel leaders ought
not to be pardoned, that the chief movers
in ece~y state ought to be treated as the
criminals they are or at least 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
confning office to original Unionists, than
it was six ar three months ago; the people
more universally demand the execution of
the laws against treason now than they
la7e ever done since Lees surrender
Congress had chosen to adopt Constitu-
tional Amendment guarantyingin the name
of the nation, not only equal rights but
equal suffrage, it would need only another
New Orleans riot to gain the vote of every
northern State for such measure.
The lawess class in the Southern States
seem to be engaged in deliberate attempt
to make free government impossible there;
let them not 60 too far; let them remem-
Der that the patience ofthose who supported
the Union when they were in arms to de-
stroy it, h IS limit, and that there is only
one thing sure-whatever may happen TO
repels and traitors, whatever Inconvenience
they have to be put to.or whatever severity