The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-05-15
Vestigation and punishment of some of the
crimes which have been committed against our

|
The omission of the last Grand Jury to find in
dictments against those who may be considered
| the prlnolpai criminals and greatest offenders
| against the national sovereignty who were, in
iaset, the most prominent in position at the time
United States, and became leaders OF the rebellion.
| has been misunderstood, and the President has
| informed the Court that ho is unwilling to advise
proceedings against such subordinates as Wirz
not brought to Justice. This Court entirely agrees
with the President in his often-repeated deelara-
ton, that treason is tho greatest of crimes and
ought to bo sgnally punished. and that it is COW.
| ardy to punish the subordinate and comparative
ly insignificant, and allow tho principals to escape
We also concur in the opinion that the leaders in
the late rebellion may be treated either as traitors
or public enemies, as they were undoubtedly both
1t is due, however, to tho late Grand jury to
| say that their omission to find indictments
against the greater oriminsls, when presenting
caused by the knowledge that tho leaders had
| been previously indicted in Washington, aud the
Snry WI was M unwilling to seem vndiotive, or to do
| duty: Since that time the Attorney General has
published his opinion that Washington is not the
in Virginia, where the actual offences had been
committed. We therefore submit the matter to
your confederation.
| Much complaint has been made by our fellow
citizens Of the North OF the ardiness Of our crim
nal prosecutions. We think it better, in imitation
OF the great and good martyred Lincoln, and in
10.
| whose Judgments and retributions slow but
that we hOHd approach this great question
rebellion will all possible dehberation, dIscrmi-
nation, caution and cemency, so that no unneces-
ssry blood shall be added to the torrents that
have already soaked the soil Of our devoted State
Those at the North who assail us seem to for
get our peculiar circumstances. That education
which Is almost universal with them is here con-
or the people with us who cannot read are neces-
| sarily dependent on the educated few for their
opinions and conduct; and hence the necessity of
greater care and discrimination in ascertanng
guilt and inflicting punishment. 1t may be said
that Ignorance is not excuse for crime in free
government; but the truth is Virginia has never
had really FREQ government, nor could freedom
exist for any class where nearly half the people
were held in abject slavery.
BY an irrepealable law Of nature, whenever We
| fasten one end Of the chain upon fellow being,
| the other and heavier end is linked around our
selves, corroding our bodies, until the iron enters
| our very souls. We insist, therefore, that the
masses of our people were so profoundly igno-
rant of the condition of public affairs and so mis-
led and deceived by the intensely selfish and
BILE for their participation in the late rebellion
and that it would be adding cruelty to injustice to
hold them so. .' ,
To convince the most skeptical on this subject,
| let us look at tho condition and history of the
First Congress ,nal District in this State. That
district contains more than four times the terrific
| ry or the rich, prosperous, enlightened happy,
llber y-and-equa1ty loving State Of Rhode Island;
once the seat or learning and Of boosted Virginia
PreSldeQtS
the United States, embracing the site OF the frat
English settlement in America, the City of James
town, which, now moro fallen than Tyre or sidon,
or Sodom or Gomurrah has not enough of ruins
even left for bats to fit or owls to hoot in. .
In the nineteen counties of that district, there
is not now, as its Representative in. Congress
iished. and 80 long has tho school-master been
abroad, that probably more than threa-fourths OF.
its na,iye-gr4 men and women can neither read
nor write. Rhode leland, with its haR million
acres, has nearly double the population, ten times
the wealth, enterprise and education, and con-
tributes 81, to the national Treasury more than
more than two millions Of fertile acres lying on
both sides OF tho Chesapeake Bay, and on the
greas rivers James, York, Rappahannock, and Po-
and fishing capabilities of almost any district in
the United States. What forcible illustration of
tue, or as the Biblo says, aGodness is profitable
for the life that now is as well that which is to
come. That righteousness exalteth nation, but
SIN Is a reproich 10 any people,"
We would not object to the sentiment of the old
and eccentric member of Congress from the First
District if he only referred to those reasonable
newspapers which have advocated rebellion, for
they have indeed been curse to us all, bringing
fire and sword, desoation and death, not only upon
Richmond, but upon every extremity Of the State
If we earnestly consider the origin and inquire
into the cause Of our calamities; If We ask why
have our rivers, like ancient Nile, run blood why
have we, like the Egyptians, been overwhelmed in
oIs Red Sea, while we we're trying % prevent our
have our hrst-born been cut down by tens of
thousands until the voice of mourning and lamen-
tatlon fills the land it once did the land OF
Pharaoh? why have we suffered 80 many plaques
as once visited the proud and stubborn oppreseors
OF the old 1sraelites2 shall find the answers to
be, because, in the language Of reason and philos
ophy, we have made war upon tho rights OF human
nature. Or, in the language Of the old Hebrews
because we have oppressed the poor, and because
the God OF the poor 10 determined to write with
preston all over our land in characters legib)e
that neither We nor our ohdrens children can
ever mistake His mind and will in coming genera
tions.
To our shame and disgrace it must be admitted
that, 30 FAR as we are advised, every one of the
numerous conflicts of races which have occurred
In this State during the past years; has been the
upon poor, quiet, unoffending and, in most cases.
unarmed and unresistpg colored people, Why
should we murder, rob or interrupt them, burn
their echoolhouses and churches, insult and at
tack the teachers who, in the cause Of improve
ment and elevation and Christian charity, have
come to us from the ever-frendly North in the
same spirit that brought them in 1866 to this de-
voted city, when the scourge Of yellow fever was
here in its wrath2 Let us not forget that then,
as now, It was to the North and it's generous
assistance.
Unless stop is put to such violence and out
rago upon the freedmen, we can never expect re-
lief from the presence OF Northern bayonets, and
admission to the rights and privileges OF the Fed
eral Union, but we shall become the by-word and
scorn OF the whole civilized world. We shall be
from the sympathies OF all Christian mon. It is
your duty, gentlemen Of the jury to to It that
people who were loyal and true to the nations
flag IN tho time OF trial and danger shall be pro-
teoted against the persecution Of those who, fresh
HnT In ,NHk Kill.