Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1866-11-28
WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER rs. 1859.
RIGHTS OF CONQUERORS-TREAT-
MENT OF THE CONQUERED.

IDEAS IN regard 10 the TlgnJS Oh tCOh4uerOts
and the treatment which should be awarded
the conquered, as their knowledge of the
history of rebellions is limited. For in
stance, the Radical organ at Memphis, the
Post, holds the following as the policy
which conquering party is authorized to
adopt EE
"The truth is, that our rebel friends (?)
have never begun to appreciate the lenien-
cy which has been shown to them by the
great LOYAL power Of the country. As we
hare more then once said, it is without a
parallel in the history Of nations. In any
other country but this, and with any other
party but the great Radical party to deal
with, the leading traitors of the rebellion
would have been hung long ago, the next
class banished, and the property of all con-
6scated to pay the enormous debt incurred
by treason"
According to the Posts theory, con-
quered people have no rights, civil or po-
litical, and such as the conqueror may
grant are to be accepted as evidence Of dis
tinguished leniency. Such theory in this
age and in Republican government, is
the veriest moonshine, and is rejected by
every civilized nation. In war between
two nations, the effect of conquest is, to
merge the sovereignty of the conquered
into that of the conquering natiOn-the
conquered becomes assimilated to the con-
querors. The conquered lose no right ex-
cept the right of separate, independent gov
eminent. The right TO life-to hold prop
erty-does not depend, among civilized ma
tions, on the result of wars, because their
existence is independent of political and
governmental FORMS Indeed it is precisely
for the protection of these rights of life and
property that all governments are founded
emong men 1t is equally unfounded, that
in practice, political rights are denied to
conquered people. In the rebellions in
Europe in 1s48, the conquered lost no pO-
litical rights. Even the Gar Of Russia
makes no distinction between his Russian
and Polish subjects, notwithstanding the
latter engaged in fierce rebellion for sep
arate nationality. We hear now of no
hangings, no confscations in Poland, and
the Poles are granted equal civil and
political rights with the Russians.
There has, within a few months
been a gigantic rebellion in the dominions
of the Sublime Porte of Turkey, and the
other day intelligence of the suppression of
this rebellion was flashed across the Allan
tic cable, followed in a few days by the
gratifying announcement that a general
amnesty had been granted the Cretans,
none of whom had been deprived of civil
or political rights. Thus we see that the
uniform policy of despotic governments is
Ieniency toward their rehellious subjects.
1t would be well for republics to profit by
this example of despotism. . i
The New York Tribune, perhaps without
designing it, very fairly defines the real in
tention of the party for which it and the
Memphis Post speak, when it says;
awe find the Southern leaders and the
Northern Copperheads claiming that re-
a State to the Union, and that South Caro-
lima may fight for four years to destroy the
Union, and then, by the mere act Of throw
ing down her arms, take full part in its
government. This hypothesis, if recognized
as an element of republicanism, would be a
perpetual incentive to treason, for, if re-
bellion succeeds, it is safe, and if it fails, 1t
is safe the more. We must proclaim in
this canvass that State rights can by no
possibility mean such national wrongs as
these. The North, which is alone the ma
ton, for it alone is loyal, is TO decide the
national creed, and the South is to accept
it."
Here is the theory Of these Radicals in
a nutshell. The Southern people rebelled
and were conquered, their fields were laid
waste, their slave property cOn6scated, and
themselves reduced 10 beggary, but still, in
Radical estimation, they we're not sufi-
GENTLY punished. They must be allowed
no rights, no privileges that may endanger
the hold Of the Radicals upon power. And
TO make this sure, the Radicals themselves
assume that the war did affect the relations
Of the Southern States TO the Union in
short, that it absolutely put them
out Of the Union, a thing it
never was conceded during the
existence of the war the Rebels had ac-
oomplished. But the North is not alone
the nation, and when it, in virtue of the
right of conquerOr, assumes to govern the
whole country without any reference to
the wants and wishes of the people Of one
third of the country, we may have
Union. but we shall not have republican
form of government, nor can the Radicals
of the North deprive the people of the
south of their constitutional rights and
long maintain their own. The one will
follow the other as sure as the night the
day"
In this connection, we beg to call the at.
tentiop Of those who demand harsh mea'