Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1866-06-09
aIAkING TREAsON ODIOUs.

clear IN It's argument, and so temperate
in spirit, that we commend it to the care
ful perusal of our readers
The President has directed that Ra
phaeI Semmes, the late commander o.
the late alabama, shall not, while be
remains unpardoned, hold or exercise
the function of Probate Judge, to which
office he had Just been elected in Mobile
This is an indication of caution and pru-
deuce which will be commanded by ey-
Try good citizen.
When Mr.. johnson became President
hc made many speeches 10 many depu-
ja;iOns, and the refrain of every speech
was that treason must be made Odious.
No sentiment he ever uttered was more
approved Ii was not because he was
understood to mean that there must be
universal vengeance. No sensible man
wished that there should be a general
hanging and cOnfiscatiOn and outlawry.
No one who knew history and human
nature imagined that the peace which
had cen won could be secured by a
,indictive policy. Treason was to be
made odious 10y honoring patriotism
The Government was to favor those who
had been faithful 10 it during the long,
dark dGv of rebellion. Such a policy
was founded in common sense. 1t was
Ineligible to the duIest mind. Why,
'hen, has it been so often disregarde
We are not of those who say or be-
lieve that the President wishes 10 put
the Government into the hands of its
enemies. 1t is sheer folly to insist that
he is anxious to welcome red-handed
rebels into Congress. A man is not
proved a villain because mis- views appear
to be short sighted and perilous. Some
Of the honestest men in the world have
done the most mischief, but for all that
they were not bad men. That the Pres
ilent should wish to see the Union re-
stored TO its normal condition during his
administration is most natural and laud-
able nor is It necessary to suspect the
motives of such desire. We disagree
Indeed, with many of his views, aud the
temper IN which he often discusses pu =
lie affairs in his popular speeches is most
lameutable. His disposition to make as
sent to his theories the test of patriotic
fidelity is, of course, simply pTepOsterOus,
aud any systematic attempt upon his
part, which we do not ANTICIPATE, but
which is DANGEROUSLY urged upon him,
to prostitute the vast patronage of Office
to the promotion Of his own purposes,
however honestly those purposes may
be entertained, We trust will be Consti-
tutiOnalIy opposed to the utmost. But
we believe he heartily deplores the un-
promising state of feeling in large por-
tons Of the late rebel section, aud while
he is inclined to attribute it to the delay
of Congress to admit loval representa-
tives from that section, he probably Ell
tireiy forgets how much of the unsatis-
factory condition of the late insu,gent
States Is duo to departures from the pol
lev Of making treason odiOus.
When the Union men of those States
who have suffered every kind of outrage,
who have been fined, mObbed, imprison-
ed, and have seen their Union neighbors
hunted aud tortured and hung for their
fidelity to the government, see a man
like General Humphreys, of Mississippi,
a conspicuous, leading traitor hastily
pardoped bv the President that he may
become Governor; when we see Mr..
Monroe, of New Orleans, another chief
traitor, paTdOned that he may become
Mayor; when they see members of the
Cabinet deliberately annulling the law OF
the land in order TO appoint late rebels
to national offices, while the most noted
and iricl Union men in the insurgent
States ask in vain for such recognition of
their fidelity, how can such men help
bitterly feeling the contemptuous scorn
with which the triumphant rebels regard
them How can they help asking why
they might not as well have been rebels {?
How can they help the conviction that
the pOlicy of the Executive is concilia
ting of rebels and not recognition OF
Union men, or avoid asking with intense
= incredulity whether this is the wav in
which treason is to be made odi1usl
On the other hand, what is more ma
tural than th At the late rebels who, as the
President solemnly declared last year,
were to be made Odious. seeing exactly
what the Union men see, should dnounce
Congress precisely as they used to de
nounce 3" the North" should heap every
insulting superlative upon the most loyal
iuen IN the country, should vOciferously
teclare their % rights" and begin vehe.
rnently to expound the Constitution
which for four years they have trampled
under foot What is more natural than
that these men whose treason, tire Presi
dent taught us, was to make them obi
Gus, should prosecute with savage feroci
~ the most unfortunate and defenseles.
of all Union men in the South, the freed
men, attack their teachers and assassi
nate the officers of the Bureau, wher
they see that the Executive is plainly hos
tile to the Freedmen's Bureau, is reluc
tant to secure their civil rights, anC
ficrcely deDounecs IS traitors their espe
cial friends What is more natural thar
that these men who were to be made