, 1866-03-16
HOW the Rebel states should be Treated.

How the Rebel States should be Treateds
At time when crazy fanatics are sending up
a CRY for ''more blood, !" and demanding punish
ment for the defeated rebels instead Of restora-
alton, it is we'll to inquire what is our duty in
the premises. In the month of April 1865, the
rebels laid down their arms, and ayowed not on
" their willingness, but desire to return to the
Union. In this condition of affairs the Presi-
dent issued an amnesty proclamation, which,
with few exceptions, had the effect 9f restor-
ing to the rebels the rights which they had for
feited, Despite this obligation of the past, we
find a score or two Of men in Congress- who in
sist that the engagements of the President shall
not be carried out, and that a new agitation
looking to negro equality shall be p'ecipitated
upou the country. In settling with rebels, as
with all other offenders, certain principles have
been laid down in the laws of nations and these
principles are so general in their duplication
that 90 country can safely disregard hem. Dis
cussiug the question of civil war aud lhe course
proper TO be pursued when a rebellion hcrushed,
Vattel, standard authority, says
"When the amnesty is once pablish,d and ac-
cepted, all the past must be buried in oblivion;
nor must any one be called to accountfor what
has been done during the disturbances and, in
general, the sovereign whose word oupt ever to
be sacred, 10 bound to the faithfulabsayance of
every promise he has made, eveu>to rebels,-I
mean, TO such of his subjects as have revolted
without reason or necessity. If bis promise is
not inviolable the rebels will have no security
with him; when they have once drawn the sword,
they must throw away the .scabbard, as one of
the ancients expresses it and the prince, desti-
tute of the more gentle and sautary means of
appeasng the revolt, will have no other remain
ing expedient than tina. of utterly exterminating
the insurgents. Thesi will become formidable
through despair; compassion will beStow sue
cors on themi their panty will increase, and the
state will be in danger, What would have be-
come of France, if the eaguers had thought it
unsafe to rely on the promises of Henry the
Great7 The same reastns which should render
the faith of promises inliolable aud sacred be-
tween individual and Individual, between sove-
reign and sovereign, between enemy and enemy,
subsist in all their force between the sovereign
and his insurgent or robhlious subjects"
Who will deny that time and again Pres
dent Lincoln declared that if the rebels would
ley down their arms they should be restored to
thsirplace in the Union. Congress- too, by reso-
ution, in more than one instance, declared the
same thing and yet in thp face of these declara-
tions there is faction ii Congress that insists
there shall be no restoration until new and un-
heard of conditions are complied with. 1t is pos.
sible that under the restraints of party organiza-
alton few, a very few, may be brought to coun-
tenance this species of bad faith, but. the great
mass of the American peoph will turn from the
proposition with lOathing, and insist that good
faith be kept even with the men who conspired
against the Government