The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-06-21

satisfied that they had God and the right on
their side This has been true OF every revo.
luton or attempt at revolution that has, ever
occurred in Europe. Men in civilized coun-
tries are not SO fond OF disorder and turbulence,
do not reck so little of the horrors of civil war,
as to take arms in mere wantonness, and
imperil their lives and fortunes for the sake of
a little excitement. And when our Constitu
tion made treason crime il undoubtedly con-
templated the possibility of large bodies OF
men becoming dissatisfied with the Government
and attempting TO overthrow it for some reason
that might seem TO them good
Nobody doubts that Jefferson Davis believed
honestly in the right of secession. There was
no law against his doing There is no law
against any mans doing so. Nobody but an
Eastern tyTant would seek to prevent mans
holding any theory of the nature OF the Govern
ment ne pleases You may, even in ST. Peters
burg, hold the Emperor to be either despot a
constitutional monarch, pope, or usurper;
you pay your taxes and choose your own view
of the character Of those who receive them.
ANY Hungarian in Austria may consider Francis
Joseph merits dethronement aud any legitimist
in Paris may be as satisfied as he pleases that
Louis Napoleon ls a robber, and that Henry V
ought to be on the throne. But in none OF these
cases would ybOdy be allowed TO enforce his
opinions with the sword. 1t is in this resort TO
arms that treason consists. There is no moral
or legal guilt in holding the Calhoun doctrine
OF State rights; but there is moral and legal
guilt in attempting to put 1t into practice by
iorCe.
What Mr.. Davis and his fellows ask us to do is
70 treat everybody who chooses to get up
rebel on, aUd gives some plausible reason for it,
as an honest fellow, only little mistaken.
What would he have said to this plea it put
forward on behalf of John Brown? Was he not
honest? Was not his difference OF opinion with
| the Charlatan who was then Governor OF Vir-
| gInla, and who now launts his treason in our
faces with perfect impunity, as to the constitu-
| ton OF Southern society, Just as sincere as Mr..
| Davis on the right of secession? But was that
| held by Southern lawyers to be any justification
OF his rising? No society could hold together for
ten years, which tolerated doctrine so mon
! strous. No government is worthy of he name
| which is compelled to inquire into the motives
OF those who seek to destroy it before furnishing
them; and to suppose that the trainers Of the
| Constitution, while defining treason, left it to
each citizen to decide when his commission OF il
| was iustihable, is to accuse them OF having
| inserted sorry Joke in the most solemn and
| important state paper in history.
| If Jefferson Davis is punish ed-and we trust
| he Will bet will be not TO crafty any personal
| hatred Tor him, but 10 prevent others like hum
| from ever again trying to put theories of gov
| eminent into practice by force of arms, as long
| as the press is free and tine ballot-noX open. Ii
| Is in having done this that his crime consists.
| We care nothing about his theories. All we
| know is that he killed two hundred thousand
a men, and covered the land with desoiation, In
q trying to put an end to the Union. He may
have been directed to do this in q vision, or may
4 have come to it by reading his Bible; but it is
4 enough Tor us to know thai 70 admit sincerity
4 as an excuse for 1t, would place the lives and
| fortunes of the community at the mercy of its
l knayes and fools.
! There is one other reason which is, in our
! minds, hardly less cogent. We have filed the
| whole earth Tor the last four years with denun
Citations OF the moral guilt OF the Rebellion. We
have dinned into everybody's ears without
ceasing that the secessionlst leaders were design
ing knaves, that their CRIME was the greatest
crime and our cause the holiest cause in history
We owe it to our own character, therefore, anC
to the moral sense of our own people not TO lei
these men 90 unwhpped of Justice. Either the
war as conducted by us was great outrage Oh
human rights, or those who began it deserve
soma worse fate than defeat-deserve from u
some solemn, emphatic, and judicial indication
OF our estimate of their guilt
| We know of nothing that tends more to blum
peoples sense OF right and wrong, and foster
that growing Indifference to the moral aspect O.
ohenses against the law, which we dignity will
the name OF good nature than to hunt men do WI
for tour years with PRAYERS, and tears, and exc
crations, shedding our best blood in our efforts
to catch them for having committed the foues
OF otlenses and having caught them, TO laugl
with them over the chase and send them back
TO their homes. There are people who SEE
something sublime in our horror of crime ant
in our growing disposition to let criminals 90 OF
Tree. We see IN It nothing but an excessive re
action from the blind severity OF past age, tn
growth Of an etieminacy which makes man
good men doubt whether a Christian common
wealth be possible.