The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-06-04
From the Indianapolis Herald.
Squeezing the Republicans.
T. Jopo.I: NIn,o Al NLs II.

In defending Chase, the Chicago
Tribune says: g
I'm this country no man is guilty of trea-
son for entertaining any views or opinions
whatever. Had Chief Justice Chase be-
Iieved, therefore, in the right of State
under the Federal Constitution, to secede,
which he never did, he would not have
been traitor or rebel, or guilty of any
crime. The laws relative to treason deal
with overt acts, not with private opinions.
Had JEFF. Davis believed all he ever did to
be constitutional ard lawful, but omitted
to act out his belief, he would merely have
been mistaken visionary not a GRIM
inal. But the circumstances under which
Mr.. Chase defended the doctrine of State
sovereignty were where the State had
grounds of difference and complaint which
it believed to be just, against the Federal
Government. But the Southern States at
the time of their secession had no grounds
of complaint, and claimed to have none
against the Federal Government"
The Republican leaders are older
and equally guilty traitors with JEFF.
Davis. They ought now, with him, to
be on trial for their lives. 1850 a
During the war, the Republican
Administration, knowing that many
members of that party had first
trampled the Constitution under foot,
and declared that it should not be
obeyed that others had declared that
as soon as they got power the irre-
pressible conflict should be triumph
antly carried through, on the part of
the North, and the Union not left
half free, but should be made all free:
knowing all these things, we say. the
Republican Administration, as the
Spanish Government of Cuba now
does in that island, and as Macmillan
now does in Mexico, prohibited lib
erty of speech and of the press, so
that the Republican traitors could not
be called to account But, thanks to
President johnson, that day has gone
by, and we are not only allowed now
to show up Republican traitors, but
johnson himself leads in the work.
The Tribune says the Southerners
had no ground of complaint, at the
time they fed in terror from the
Union, " against the Federal Gorern-
naent." Of course, they had not, be-
cause that Government had, till then,
been in the hands of the Democrats,
who lived up to the Constitution, and
gave all sections their rights But
they had ground to complain of the
Republican party, which as a party,
had annulled the Federal Constitu-
ton in the States where it had power,
had stolen the Southern negroes.
threatened the institutions of the
South, invaded their territory under
John Brown, etc.; and when that
party got possession of the Federal
Government, the South had just cause
of fear; indeed, no sane Southern man
could have but feared that their rights
would all be trampled under foot in
the Union by the party that then got
possession of the Federal Government,
the party organized by William
LloydI Garrison, who, in speech in
New York, used this language:
''No act of ours do we regard with more
conscientious approval or higher satisfac-
ton, nor do we submit more cordially to
the tribunal of Heaven, and the verdict of
mankind, than when, several years ago.
on the Fourth of July, in the presence Of a
great assembly, we committed to the flames
the Constitution of the United States"