The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1866-05-17
Is Treason Possible in q Republic.

we nave mad rebellion OF four years du-
ration, and it has been year since that re-
belion was suppressed by force of arms, and
yet the question is still an open one whether
treason can be committed under the Govern
nlent Of the United States. chi
We have had vast expenditure of gascon-
ade and defamation upon the subject. We
have been lifted off of our feet by what Car
lyle calls eloquent wind" many times as
we have listened to orators pouring them
selves forth in delineation of that crime which
''included all crimes" and in description of
the fate that should be visited upon those
who had the audacity to commit that incom-
parable otfense. Throughout the war the
people were repeatedly, studiously, eaborat-
ly, vehemently reminded of the fact that this
Government would show itself the peer of
any Government on earth, not only in it's
ability to subjugate internal foes, but to
throttle technical traitors. 1t was the Gd
captandum keynote of all our war eloquence.
that in nothing should Repubicanism prove
itself SO formidable at home and command
ng abroad, as in its resolution to lay the
axe of the law at the root of rebellion.
1t was not enough that the phalanx of
slavery was overthrown, its councils dis
persed and its corner stone removed, The
fortunes OF war are the caprices of fate. The
physical contest Is not always to the strong
or the physical race to the swift. Error as
we'll as truth has its victories on the field of
Mars. Oppression as well as Liberty has
won its laurels in the carnal combat. The
Shareholders, fighting with their feet upon
their chattels, held the hosts of liberty at
bay. For four long, weary, bloody and disas-
tIousyears he who is now in momentary ex-
pectation of a parole. if not pardon,at Fort
| ress Monroe, the last of his rank In durance
vile for treason @ sat a President Of a
dozen States, and COMMANDMENTS Chief Of
three hundred thousand men, in capital
of his own, within three hundred miles of
ours. He laughed at our calamity and
Knocked when our fear came. But he was
nevertheless ''whelp of sin" in the esti-
nation of our orators who filled the North
ern and border States with the iaveIns of
invective which they hurled at the arch
conspirators head
So the North was educated to believe
that while the fortunes of the day on the
bloody field may very, and often settle to
the side of the insurgents, our cause of ma
ticnality and freedom bore a charmed life
was the cause of heaven, and that He who
holds in His hand the destinies of nations
had no attribute that could take sides with
those who were furiously bent upon the
Acknowledgement of the Republic and the
promotion of oppression.
We should win, triumph, conquer. A
underneath the strife of arms, we were in
formed and we believed, there lay the
Law. human, it is true, but fashioned upon
the divine, which affirlns the divine ordina.
ton of the powers that be, provided, of
course, that they be benignant and just, and
declares that he who resists such powers
raises his hand against the ordinance of
God. Not an official document went abroad,
or was disseminated at home, that was not
worded in dialect and surcharged with a
spirit which left no room for doubt as to
the legal position in the premises of the
National Government. 1t was clearly,
openly, kbravely, staunchlv lat of A Gov
eminent putting downA ellion, and as
an indisputable consequent t is now A
Government disposing of A Traitor But
is it?
Is it now Will it ever be These are
the questions of the hour. The answers to
them are listened for with an apprehension
at the North which is omniously set off by
the hope which animates the expectation of
them at the South
1t still remains for republican Govern
ment to prove that treason is to be found
upon its calendar of crime, and that it has
the courage to carry into practice what it
has the power to establish as "a theory
And it remains to be seen whether we have
the wisdom to deprive rebellion of the spe-
cious garb which gives it the attractive ap.
pearance of revolution; since few are
ashamed of being known as revoIutionists,
while all that man has will he give to be
relieved of the name of traitor.-Chicago
Journal