Des Arc citizen., 1866-05-26

l more, have taught d0ctflncS oi thc tilcol of our Government, whereof Mir. Davis has but furnished practical and logical ex emplifcation What shall be done with the men of Massachusetts, of Pennsylya- mia, of Illinois, and other States who, in the past legislation of those States, have fouted the Federal Government with i'm punity, passing their action upon that same dogma of absolute State Sovereignty, the practical exercise of which, on larger scale, is Mir Davis whole ofense?
 We apprehend no such result of this trial We do not believe there issa Court under the canopy of heaven, that will, in view of all the facts, award sentence ot treason, punishable with death, upon Mir Davis. To do so, would be to transport us back into the dark ages, when the con queror was the absolute arbiter, for life or death, of the vanquished; and be a judi cial promulgation to the world that this Republic is not national confederation of free rcpublicansStates, but consolida- ted despotism-th the constitution of the United States is a sham and snare, mean ing just the opposite of what 1t says-that 1t furnishes no guarantees of organic or statutory law against the will off majority, and that the Judiciary Department of the 1 Government Is but the executioner of the passions of the multitude.
 No-this has been a great public, Civil War, not petty rebellion; and the Laws of Nations, the Spirit of Modern Civiliza- ton, not the local statutes of this country, not the passions and resentments of the victorious party, must and will determine the status of this illustrious actor in one of the greatest political dramas enacted in the worlds history Thank God. the Ju- dicial Department of the United States, like that of the Executive in the hands of trust reposed in it by the Fathers and Founders of the Republic.
 Why, then, is Mir Davis kept incareer- ated as if he were a common malefactor? Other actors in the great events of the Civil War, not less guilty than he, are at. large upon their paroles, to appear and an swer any investigation which may be or dered upon their participation in it. Why not, in like manner and upon the same terms enlarge Mr. Davis, and thus afford him the opportunity of preparing for the great argument which will determine alike his fate and the character of our po- litical institutions? In and of himself, now, since the enterprise of which he was made the leader has utterly failed, Mir. Davis is nothing. In not many years, at most, he will be beyond human power to exat or humiliate him. His political ca reer on earth has closed. It is only.as the representative of a defeated, conquered and bereaved people that he is, or can be of political importance. If he be guilty, they are equally so. They feel his humili-. ation as if it were their own; and the Government of the United States could not so win the affections which were alien ated from it, by any action so much as by magnanmity of condu duct to him, their fall on chief There may be, and there are, differences of judgment among them as to the influences he exerted upon the fortunes of their gallant and selfsacrifcing strug- gle for independence; but these are left to Time In this his hour of humiliation and peril, they remember only that this humil-
 ation, this peril came upon him in their service; and millions of true hearts send up prayers to heaven that he may have a | happy issue out of his thraldom The South throbs as with one bosom in his be- half as the hour of determining his fate approaches Surely, great and powerful Government must desire to afford him all possible lenity, consistent with its own dig nity. His enlargement, and such free in- tercourse with counsel as will afford every possible legal means of defense, would i'm m4,,s,l tend to restore the old affection of the people towara, the Government, while we can imagine no possible way in which such magnanimity could be abused to its detriment = Memphis Appeal