The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-24


tion what they may to exaggerate the ills
which the war has entailed on all the sections
and interests of the Commonwealth. After the
passions to which that struggle gave birth have
died out it will still be found that large
legacy of misfortune has been left to the
nation. Il is not merely that for upwards oil
four years war on a more gigantic scale than
has ever vet been witnessed ragged within our
borders that vast extents of territory were over
run and laid waste; that some OF our DnesI
cities were levelled with the dust; that trade
in all its departments was paralyzed; that our
fourishing commerce was swept from the
ocean: that FIVE or six hundred thousand men
ON the one side and ON the other proved their
devotion or their patriotism with their hves
that the bitter anguish of bereavement
olothed the nation in mourning; that thou-
sands of manned and helpless creatures in
ali parts of the Union continually remind
MS of the severity and iniquity of
the struggle that the miseries OF poverty were
experienced by thousands and hundreds OF
thousands among whom formerly plenty
reiened; that we are groaning under some
three or four thousand millions OF debt; that
through the maddened passions which that
struggle engendered our Chief Magistrate, for
no other fault than simply performing his
duty, perished by the assassin's hand-it is
not merely for these reasons, weighty as they
are, that the Rebellion is to be deplored. 1t
is TO be deplored for other reasons than these,
and chiefly for this one-a reason which
hitherto Has been lost sight of-that it has
sown the seeds of future misery and disorder
which centuries of good government and wise
legislation will be impotent to destroy. Unless
we admit that civil war had become a neces-
sity, guilt, grievous guilt, must lie at some
door. As we cannot admit the necessity, we
have no choice but to proclaim the guilt.
1,.., Al.av, oil fhngn mis- nrin IN
be laidY On whose head is this gigantic evil
to be charged On whom is that guilt to be
mainly fastened? But one answer comes to
these questions from all parts of the mighty
North, and even from many parts, too, of the
humbled and suffering South, and that answer
shapes itself into the name OF one man, and
that man is Jefferson Davis. 1t was his hand
that lighted up the flames of civil war-a war
which has begotten such brood of miseries to
himself, to his friends, to the South, to the
entire American Union. If political offenses
are possible in republic, if the word treason
has any meaning in a self-governing commu-
nifty, and if it is treason to plot and attempt
the ruin of our country, then, from the mo-
ment the first Rebel shot was fired at Fort
Sumter, Jefferson Davis stood convicted of
the highest political offense known among
men. He played the traitors part. Sue
cessful, he would have reaped the honor.
traitors doom. He was unsuccessful. Not
only so-he fell into the hands of his enemies.
What has followed How has this arch
Rebel been treatedY Has he met the fate to
which the English Parliament was bold enough
to deliver Charles the First, and to which
the French Convention, with equal bold
ness, though perhaps with less justice,
doomed Louis the Sixteenth Nothing
of the sort. Will it be credited by future
generations of the American people that this
author of so much misery, this disturber of
peace, this destroyer of human life, this
scourge and ruin of his country, has, after
two years of imprisonment, at any time during
which trial was practicable and easy, been
permitted still untried, to resume his liberty
Yet so it is. Without having undergone even
the shadow of trial, Jefferson Davis is again
a free man. Blood has been poured forth in
actual torrents, parents have laid their chill
dren on the altar of their country, the flower
and promise of our young men have perished,
suffering untold and inconceivable has been
and still is being endured, and for what pur-
poser To put down this iniquitous Rebellion
and to bring traitors to justice.
The Rebellion had been put down. traitors
have fallen into our hands, but Justice I'VE
know not where to find her. She has aban-
doned her native seats, and where she was
wont to be seen in pride and purity and
honor, Corruption sits, with bold and un-
blushing brow. No; the chief traitor has not
been punished-has not even been tried.
Not only so; under the flimsest and most
wretched pretext by which the course of
Justice was ever averted, and by the aid of pre-
tended patriots and purists and would be
philanthropists, he has been set free. We
sufer-the entire American people, North and
South, suffer-because of this mans offenses;
but the offender himself escapes with inn
punity.
Such is the condition of things to which the
nation has been brought. The condition, GER
tainly, is pitiable enough. Who is to blame
Tor it 1t was natural that Jefferson Davis
should desire liberty. That he is free is as
little his fault as that he has not been tried.
Now, however, that we are rid of him, we have
to deal with another class of offenders. Who,
we ask, is to blame? Some say the President;
some say Chief Justice Chase; some say Con-
gress; some say Judge Underwood. The par
tisans of each Of these, we understand, are
very keen. Of one thing, at least, we are GER
tain--the blame does not rest with the people.
We do not feel disposed to go in for any one OF
the aforementioned parties. Whether the
blame rests more with the President than WIN
the Judiciary, or more with Congress than
with either, we are less certain than that ~
will be divided among them. 1t was equally
in the power of the President, the Congress,
the Judiciary, to force on the trial All nave
failed.
The people of the United States have been EEL
befooled and disgraced in the eyes OF the
woodland by whom2 By their acknow-
lodged and elected heads. Worse than that
they are being ground down by system
the most meddling and oppressive taxatloI
which any nation has ever experienced. Fol
what purpose2 To punish treason-treasoI
which has been declared impossible in the