The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1866-12-01
Is TREASON a Crime ?


1t has been looked upon in all ages as crime,
the most fragrant and abhorrent that could stain
human soul. 1t comprehends within itself
every other crime-arson, robbery, murder, and
all of their horrid surroundings. 1t has always
been punished with the most fearful and terrible
punishments, and none have been so bold as to
deny the justice of the stern sentence melted out
to the guilty perpetrators. 1t has been left for
our age and country to make treason honored
and respected The terrible rebellion through
which we were made to pass, with all its horrors,
desolation and bloodshed was brought about by
parricides, ingrates and political infdels, for
their own personal aggrandizement That the
Southern people ever had any cause ofcomplaint
against the government, no one will attempt to
assert that this nation heaped benefits, honors
and emoluments with the most lavish profusion
upon the people of the South, is truth patent
to all that the Southern people held most of the
high places under the Government, at home and
abroad, cannot be denied, yet, for no cause save
personal ambition, these pampered ingrates used
their official positions and the public money TO
overthrow the government and to destroy our
nation The crimes that these bold and bad
men committed, for atrocity and fagrancy, have
no parallel in the history of iniquity. For four
long years,-years of heart breaking agony, suf
fering and death-years that weighed down the
nation with sorrows unspeGkable and woes un-
utterable-this band of desperadoes carried on
this diabolcal and sanguinary war. More than
a quarter of a million of the flower of our nation
sleep the sleep that knows no waking, and hum
dreds of thousands have been MANNED and Grip
pied for life. The gray-haired father becomes
the object of charity, and the mother has been
reduced to beggary, while the wall of the home
less orphan goes up from thousands, all our
land The nation crowns beneath the weight
of mighty debt and the toll of this generation
will not suffice to liquidate this Indebtedness
Can the men who have committed all of these
atrocious deeds have any of that thing called
honor Will any one claim that these men are
possessed of any patriotism Dare any one so
stultify himself and so pervert the meaning OF
language as to say that these men are sincere
and honest Can it be urged that they did not
know the enormity of the crime they so syste-
matically planned and so deliberately executed ?
Are there any palliating circumstances which
will exculpate them in the course they have pur
sued 2 If not, why should these miscreants be
forgiven Have they ever sincerely repented,
and can they produce any evidences of their soI
row for the past Are they willing to admit
that they have been guilty even of indiscretion !!
So far from expressing sorrow and regret Tor
their henious offences, they actually attempt to
Justify what they have done. The mere fact OF
such men as Robert E. Lee and Alexander H.
Stephens showing their faces in respectable So
ciety is an evidence of their brazenness and want
of shame.
The coId-blooded Forrest, with the stain OF
the murdered victims of Fort Pillow upon his
hands and soul, goes about and passes himsel
off as q man and gentleman" The guer
rilla Moseby Aaunts his treason in the face ofloy
al men, and sports the rebel uniform the streets
of Alexandria, almost under the shadow of the
capital of the United States Clement G. Clay,
suspected of being concerned in the murder o.
President Lincoln is suffered to go at large on his
parole. Who has been branded as traitor
and suffered the punishment he so richly deserv
The wretched Wirz, the tool of JEFF. Davis and
other high officials of the defunct contederacy.
and the conspirators who slew Abraham Lincoln,
at the bidding of their masters, have been thus
far the only ones to suffer. And to-day the second
officer of the ex-Confederacy is in the city o
Washington, and is daily consulted by promi
nent copperheads, and is granted interviews
with the President and Secretary of State. And
this man Stephens has been elected as Senator
from Georgia
Is treason a crime If SO, let every leading
rebel be consigned to that infamy that his crimes
deserve. Let the power and authority of the
Government be confined to the hands of loyal
men alone, and let no man share in the honors
of the Government who cannot show clean re-
cord for loyalty, during all these years of strife
and war. Then shall treason and perfdy be con-
demned, and loyalty be fostered, encouraged and
rewarded.