The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-08-27
The Punishment of Treason.

The Punishment of Treason.
From the WOrId.
The wild, decIamatory invective by which the
radical orators and organs nurse the hostility
of their party 10 the Union, consists OF endless
reservations of yhe hideousness of treason, and
the necessity OF pursuing 1t with vengeance.
The following extract from an article In the
Chicago Tribune exhibits the essence OF what is
spouted on every stump, embodied, in every set
Of resolves, ana fired Off in squbs and para
graphs in every newspaper under radical con-
troll
1he JOhnsOntes and their lies, thus ignoring the
past shutting ouJ OF view everything thaJ can sug-
gest ,he treason of their own leaders seek 10 RAISE
new issues unon ia Sc premises. Had there been no
Rebellion, had there been no treason. had there
been no such terrible sacrifice of life to preserve
that Union, had there been no torcIble disruption
OF every tie that bound the hearts OF these meu to
their country there would not only have been
question as to the representation of their States IN
Congress, but the States themselves would never
have been unrepresented. the attempt to present
the question OF representation, present and here
after, something wholly disconnected with the
Rebellion and with its consequences, is dishonesty
which cannot be made successful by any deXterlty
displayed in declarations of principles, in ada esses
10 the people Oy executive oratlons, or the displays
and tomtooleries OF conventions, civil military,
loyal, Q1slOyai, or mixed.
The great fact OF treason with its sequence four
years of bloody and terrible war, eliminating
| the assassination OF Abraham Lincoln, and the
other great fact that it is with the people who trail
uphe this Rebellion from its first inception to the
latest act in the bloody tragedy, that the country
now dealing-these two facts, which give character
ana object and force to the difficulty, cannot
be etfaced from the memory OF the American people.
| With these two facts constantly present, the public
mind acting upon the questions TO be now settled,
| will necessarily demand that the treason OF the
past shall at least be punished TO the extent that no
| one who deserted official post to engage in it
shall again be an officer OIL the United States, ana
before these people readmtted to political prvI
leges the Union shall be secured by ample constltu
nOnal guarantees against the recurrence Of the Re-
| benlOn and against a repetition of the treason.
The JohDsonies OF every variety may resort to all
| the cap-trap that ingenuity may devise; they may
| hold conventions and issue addresses, and declare
| principles; their leader may make pllPrlmages to
| the tombs of those who when living he prosecuted
unto dea th and on his route may scatter offices and
| public hOnors, after the manner III which other
| soveregns scatter largesses to the poor; he may
weep at absul tarces and laugh at massacres COM
| mitted by hs followers; but they cannot make the
| people forget treason, nor take traitors to their
| bosom without first disarmng them They cannot
induce the people to forget that treason is an odous
every battle field, and that there is scarcely
| hearthslGe which has not witnessed
the tears of those made widows orphans, or
childless by tleason Let them resolve and address
and declare as they may upon sacred principles
| the great principle of national preservation, the
great principe that the national hfe shall not ever
be placed IN possible jeopardy by treason and trail
tors, Will continue to override all other considera
abandoned until the Constitution shall upon its face
declare IN words OF unmistakabe import, treason is
and ever must be made odious; treason is and ever
| must be remembered; traitors shall never govern
the people, ana there shall be no more treason, no
| more rebellion because the Government OF the
| Union and of the States shall hereafter be in the
hands OF the whole people, and not IN the hands OF
| the aristocIatc teW."
Our readers have thousand times witnessed
such infammatory attempts to keep alive de-
| caying hatred, and to infuse into the public
| mind passionate spirit OF vengeance, and they
| will see and hear them daily repeated during
| the exciting political campaign which is now
| opening. We propose TO furnish reply which
ought to silence this everlasting harping on the
objectionable guilt of rebellion, II ITS authors
| were accessible to reason.
| We must look upon treason precisely as we
would on murder, theft, piracy or other
crime known to the laws. 1t i, indeed,
crimes whose moral guilt is generally less
than its legal; but the nature of our argu-
ment does not require us TO dwell on its miti-
cations. It is essential to remark that trea-
son resembles other crimes in this, that it
is punishable only by laws enacted previous
to its commission. 1t is subject 10 no penal
| ties which cannot be found in the statute
| book. Newspapers might with rs much pro-
| priety ill their columns with trenzed
| articles in favor of cutting out the tongue of a
| basphemer, or cutting off the hand OF thief,
| or the offending member OF man guilty oil
incest, and support the appeal by declaiming
| against the enormity Of those crimes and the
| necessity OF disabling their perpetrators from
| repeating them, as to pursue similar
| course IN relation to treason. NO matter how
| revolving the CRIME, nor how intrinsically fit
the proposed punishment, all argument ON the
unless the advocates of its inAction could pro
duce statute, passed before the crime was
committed, ordaining that particular penalty
| No law for the punishment OF treason, any more
than foI the punishment of other crimes, can
go baclkw ard and operate retospectively, What
| ever penalties for treason can be found IN acIS
of Congress passed before the treason was com
mitted must be'inficted; but no others.
In the light of this incontestable truth, We
may lay out OF the controversy, as irreyelant
all The proiuse defamation of the radicals as tC
how treason Ought to be dealt with, and narrow
the ground TO a simple examination of the ex
lsting laws. Congress may pass whatever con
stitutional laws 1t pleases for the punishment o
future treason; but it has parted with its power
over participants in the late Rebellion by neg
lecting 10 pass different laws from those now OF
the statute book before the Rebellion was at al
end. In 1862 Congress dld pass alaw, deemed
: tain punishments against traitors and Rebels.
President Lincoln, it is well known, prepared
a veto message after the law was submitted tC
| him, in which he criticized it in detail. Blu
: Congress having, meanwhile, passed join