The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-05-22
wERIlNa GER TUESDAY MORNING WAY D.

gewonit rnallea point on that, though
don't think you have been seen much
here for several years past. ELaugh-
ter. Then he says, NWhen did lose
my constitutional right, my freemanss
right of going to the ballot box and
executing freeman's will by cast
Ing my vote ~ And the question is
asked with an air of triumph, as If it
could not be answered. My friend nu<
swer me one question, and will tell
you when was the hour that with a
willing mind and apnFposed heart yon
raised a traitors hand against the life
of your country3 81 Applause.1 Then It
was In fnat act that you disfranchised
yourself. II was mt my act it wasnot
the act of these Union neJghbors of
yours. 1t was youEoTn act, deliberate,
pre-determinedS foreseen, aud perform
ed with your eyes open to the conSe-
quenees; because you knew then Just as
well as you do now what il meant TO
commit treason against your govern
ment and not to succeed in your vile
attempt. Depriving men Of theiIrigbts,
their CONSTITUTE onal TightsP- who
solemniy declared in their published
addresses, in their formal resolutions,
in their oatIls and imprecations at the
street corners, in their private letters
and most confidential communications,
in every form indeed in which they
could ind utterauce, that they would
no longer be citizens of our govern
ment, no longer pay their allegiance TO
it spurned its protection and cast on
its authority, and then with arms In
their hands attempted for years to make
the declaration good. Now that they
find their arms stricken from their
hands, find themselves overpowered
and crushed by the government they
sought TO destroy, they come back
whining and snfvelling or Boosting and
defiant, and talking about their ''con-
stituional rights.1 among them the
right TO hold or fill offices and rule the
loyal, honest, Union-loTing people OF
this land.
Gentlemen, this rebellion is a strange
thing. It has exhibited manifestations
OF character that had they been told TO
you or me in the beginning you should
have laughed them 70 Scorn. We could
not have been made to believe them.
II is not question, believe me, whether
we will take anything away tIom these
men. They have already thrown 1t
away. II Is not a question whether we
will deprive them of any right. The
question is whether We will extend
them any rights which they have cast
of with contempt. It is not a question
Of withholding, tits a question of con-
cedfng.
well. gentlemen, as to the legal right,
the legal power and authority In this
matter there can be no doubt. 1t is a
matter so clear, SO utterly beyond ca
vii that It is hardly necessary to do
more than state 1t. sr.s5s.-
Let us look for one moment and see
how the law IS, not only is, but has
been for rolling years, as applicable to
those who engaged in war, whether
nation with nation, or part OF nation
with anotherpart, or portion attempt
ing to overthrow the government.
don everything else, When men take
up arms they engage to content them
selves with what they can get by arms,
and nothing more. The law gives them
that and gives them nothing else. Mr..
Douglas, the great Senator from Iii
nois, expressed this idea very, forcibly
in one ofthe few speeches made after
member, in one of his addresses, "Du-
ring all my public life Ihaye been at
Tempting 10 secure to the South those
peculiar rights, to which she thought
herself entitled, had she remained with
in the Constitution, had she appealed
to that as her egiS and her protection,
l would have still labored to secure her
from aggression and in the enjoyment
of all her unQuestiouable rights
which that instrument certainly
afforded her" HBut now" he says,
"these men have taken up arms,
to assert their rights by the
land, says he, ..they shall
have just what they can get by the bay
onet, and, as far as am concerned,
nothing more shall they have" Yes,
sir, when you took up arms against
your government, then by the laws as
they stand written for ages, you under
took and agreed to be satisfied with
Just what you could get by your mus
ket and with the point of your bayouet,
and undertook you would ask for no.
thing and be entitled to nothing more.
Il is true you thought by your bayonet
YOU were going 70 get a great deal
youl cot nothing at all and must be
content. Such is the law, not as writ
len by Charles Sumner, ThaddenS Ste
vens and the :. Radicals, /" in this year of
grace, 1866, but the law as it stood be-
fore you and were born. One of the
hrst and simplest propositions in'con
nection with the laws of war, land when
men make war they undertake to sub
NIT to the laws of wary is that the van
quished party, the snbjugated party,
party, or If you think these
are hard words, the party that comes
put second best, [laughteTl-tba finds
It convenient to retire in order-the
party thai did not think it worth
while 10 pursue the contest any lon
yer-the party that voluntarily lays
DOWN its arms, when it finds it
sannot hold them any longer laugh /
erl; by whatever term, whatever
phrase you designate, the party that |
8 defeated in the contest becomes subj
ect 70 do for the other two things, one
s, payment. for all costs, damages and
sharges in making the war, L4'good''l
4
lgainst the renewal of hoStilitieS and
breaking ont again in war. Mr.. Polk,
President OF the United States at the
Hose Of the Mexican war ex pressed the ]
he idea in n very well put phrase which |
mas become current In the mouths of |
1ur people when he spoke of demand
ng from Mexico afndemnity for the
past and security for the fnture.'' l
That the doctrine. 'tIndemnity for
he paste we did take, thereby we have
he teeming mines OF California the
Jphir OF the modern world-and Asecn-i
Try for the fnturen in the finest and |
Utmost the only great harbor on the
Pacific coast of the western continent. /
These gentlemen then who took mp /
rims undeFstood fhat they ensaged in |
heir Warfire under the laws OF war, /
because need not say, for our SUI
Sreme Court OF the United States has /
decided long since, that in war like I
Durs the laws Of war apply between the |
PARTIES to II, in the same manner and
o the same extent as when the COM
jatants are OF different nations as be-
ween the United States aud Mexico
md they understood very we'll what
he consequences would be. Dofnot
lou recoIiect those OF you who read I
he papers at that time how the
whole Southern press rang with what
hey were going TO do when they got
heir Southern Confederacy, and how
hey Nare going TO go through this
onntry and conliscafe all yonr lands
nd you West Virginia rebels and