Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-05-15
TrIaI OF Davis.

10ef6 Seems 10 DC 6C-AO
Jefferson Davis being brought to trial
as one of the principal confederate con-
~spirators, who in taking up arms against
this government involved the nation in
a long and bloody Doubtless Da-
Wis should haYe a trial, and if found
guilty of having violsted the laws OF
his country, he should be punished as
other criminals are, who are guilty of
serious and fragrant tresspasses against
the peace, order and rights of society.
Davis ranks in the popular mind as the
great arch-conspirator of the rebellion,
and is generally esteemed the chief
OF rebel sinners. This distinction is &C
corded to him mainly because of the fact
that he was chosen President of the
Confederacy, and not because he was
SO much more wicked and cruel than
thousands of other traitors. He was
not, probably, personally directly gull
ty of acts of vulgar cruelty such as
made his poor agent, Wiz, SO infa-
nous; but be is no less a murderer, In
the eyes of thousands, than was his
heartless and cruel subordinate who
was hanged for doing his masters cru
ell work. If Henry Wlrz was justly
executed, Jefferson Davis can not just
" be permitted to escape a similar fate.
We have no desire to see him executed
in a spirit of retaliation for crimes that
he may have committed. Taking his
life will not remedy the evils he wa
so largely instrumental in bringing up
on the American people; it viii no re-
store the slain, make whole the MAIN
ed and crippled, restore q farthing Of
the treasure squandered or a drop OF
the precious blood spilled. The peo-
pie do not demand his life as a sscri-
fee to appease their vengeance. This
is nots nation of ssvages impatient to
torture q poor victim at the stake
The punishment the popular mind
has indicated to be due Davis, as 8
traitor, is doubtless nor in the light
of an exemplary inHiction than retail
tory. While capital punishmentin his
case could not afford indemnify for the
past, it might be a gGaranty of safety
in the future, by Indicating the fact
that treason and rebellion against the
American government involve their
prime movers in 8 doom fatal and in
svitable.
There are parties industriously en-
gagged in an effort to save Davis from
the dark fate that seems impending
over him. Among this class Mr.. HeR-
ACE GREEIEY stands prominent. He
prof6ers his aid as a voluntary surety
for the good. behavior. &C.. of DAyIs.-
These men were agreed OF a very vital
question just before the breaking out
of the war, to wit: That the Union had
better be peacefully dissolved. Both
gave statistical reasons showing the
advantages that would result from a
separation. If Greeley had had his
way there would have been a division
of the national estate, and the war
possibly postponed for q few years.
But the people were not resdy for the
base compromise, and that which Mr..
could not obtain by bold assump-
ton, ne aTowed himself ready tofght
for. Mr.. i Greeley protested, but
the war came, and he was swept
into the current, and even got so tar
ahead of it as to run aground at Bull
Run. Now that the long fight is oyer,
and Davis has been compelled to sue
cumb to the law, to right and justice,
and is in danger o fpaying the penalty
of his otlaWry, his old friend rushes
compassionately to his side once more.
The public need not be surprised if
such efforts and influences do not cause
the stern hand of justice to relax its
hold, and Davis soon
have regaiDed his liberty. Had the
of the rebellion been commenced
by Northern men, to destroy the IN
ion and establish an Independent gov
eminent, while the General Govern
ment was under Southern control, and
had their efforts failed a did those of
the South, who does not believe that
the leading men of the Norm, had they
been even Lincoln and Grant, would
long since have met the fate that Vir-
ginia, backed by Federal power, visited
upon immortal old John Brown. He
and his few followers were hanged for
merely attempting a rebellion in the
State of Virginis, but Davis and his
colleagues could plunge the whole ma
ton In the most dreadful of wars, and
there seems lobe no arm strong enough
to mete out to them condign punish
If there are no laws to reach
the unsxampled crimes of these men,
then will they escape by the very enor-
nifty of their offence. That may be law,
but it is not morality nor strict justice.