The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-01
THE NEW YORK PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS or THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPics-ooMPIhED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
:, nm. cu,It ofthe ReboIIion.'

tbat there was any moral guilt in the Rebel
lion when he volunteered to become bondsman
for Jefferson Davis The few shreds of the
doctrine which were left were carefully re-
moved ON Monday last by an article IN the
Tribune showing that the Rebellion was
0oivil war. - in all respects like the War oil the
Revolution. and that therefore the punishment
as traitors of persons engaged in 1t Woulo pe
oruel or improper. During the progress OF IL tne
struggle this view of the position OF the OOn- %
federates-we ought now in deoenoy 70 bIo
ND calling them "Rebels"-was vehemeuvly
urged both by the Southerners themselves an. anu
bv foreign orators and writer's When AMER
cans. led on by the Tribune, filed the air WIN
reproaohes against Europe for not synnPa
thizing with the North, our claims 10 enls
svmpathv were stoutly denied, on the grounu
that the war was a civil war like the heVOiu-
ton of l776, that the issue was Simply Poi'i,
cal issue. and that it was imposslDle 10 Ten Ten
which of the parties was in the rlght I'LL Ihe
contest was brought to a close; and, therefore,
t6a EnoIisb maintained that in the meantime
thew were justified by every consideration IN
giving their sympathy and countenance TO
Hthe weaker party"
To this our reply, and the reply of our
friends all over the world was that the
Southern attempt at revolution differed
widely from the revolution of l776 in this,
that the South revolted against Government
under which it had voluntarily placed itself,
and from which it had received no injury,
and that the avowed and sole object OF the
revolt was not political independence simply
but the perpetuation of human slavery over
half the American continent; not freedom for
the revolters, for that they had, but bondage
for others not, in short, the object which
had made almost all preceding rebe liens JUS
tifable and glorious, but another and most
detestable one-the creation of political sys-
tenn based upon the doctrine that God had
made the poor and weak to be the cattle of
the rich, bought and sold and bred for simple
gain The Republican press, to its honor,
never tired of dwelling on this dis
tinotion between this Rebellion and
the Rebellion of 1776. 1t was by the
aid of this distinction that we won the sup
port of the best and purest men of Euro
pean countries; it was this that supported the
Lancashire operatives under their privations;
and it was this, too that comforted hundreds
of thousands at the North when the tide of
suffering and sorrow had risen so high that
no merely political gain seemed worth the
prolongation of bloodshed and devastation.
The Tribune too, which has all along been
the great preacher of 'moral ideas" during
the war, rendered good service in upholding
it, though often exceedingly weak as to the
political value of the Union, on ''the guilt of
tho Rebellion" it never ceased dlating.
1t now appears, however, that there was no
guilt in the Rebellion whatever. There was
no legal guilt, for there can be no treason, it
appears, committed in "a civil war;" and if
Davis & Co. could make a civil war without
legal guilt, how could they incur moral guilt
If they had right to make war on the United
States at all, they had right to make it for
any object that seemed good to them. II is
none of our business to spread our social and
political theories on foreign soil at the point of
the sword. We should not be justified in de-
claring war against Great Britain in order to
rescue her agricultural laborers from degrada-
ton. The reason why we made war on the
South was because the soil in which it sought
to lay broad and deep the foundation of its
accursed system was American soil because
the men engaged in this detestable attempt
were American citizens; because the laws they
broke were American laws; because the shame
OF their doings was our shame, and because
their success would have proved to the remotest
ages a hateful monument of our dishonor.
we ask any honest man in the country to
look back to 1862 and 1868, and think if, in
those dark and trying hours, he was not sup
ported and consoled by this consideration
ii, when armies were giving way, when fleets
seemed powerless, when Copperheads were
Joyous, when the whole civilized world was
either mocking or pitying us, he did not draw
confidence and courage from the consciousness
mat there was, after all, moral element in
Inc struggle, such as no other war ever had;
that the Rebellion was not simply legal dis
pute, but crime and that the Rebels were
not simply bellcose pubGcists but unscrupu-
cotton.
The overthrow ofthis theory by the Tribune
and the assimilation by it of our position to
that OF England in l776, and the position of
the south to that of the revolted colonies, if
acquesced in by the public, will certainly be
recorded In history as the most remarkable
piece OF disqualification on record. Self
stuitlhcaton, too, is very mild term to apply
10 1t. Future generations will argue. and
argue with reason, that there could not have
been much moral sense left amongst a peopIe
who, after treating rebellion for four years as
the blacklist crime ever committed denied
when 1t was all over that it was any crime at
all. Decency requires that we should keen
up the humbug, if humbug it be. till our
wounded and cripples have died off, and the
Iies OF our blattering moral newspapers have
peen removed out of sight The world can
stand good deal of hypocrisy, because the
hypocrlte, as has often been said at least
respects virtue but knavery which impudently
avows and laughs over its own cheats, and,
more than that, claims for itself a place
amongst the virtues, the world cannot stand
RumOEed Reduction OF the French Army
Does it Mean Peaees
From The Herald.
In our issue of Thursday we duly chronicle,
the information received per the Atlanti
cable that the French Government had alread
taken steps greatly to reduce the standin
army. We have no reason to doubt the col
ractness of the information IL nsl-od L.