The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1867-05-27
simple Treasea-Tho Issse Between Greeley
and the Republicans

Simple Treasea-The Issse Between Greeley
and the Republicans
Greeley justiaes the release Of JEFF Davis on
straw bail because he has been lying in Jail
for two years "unindicted for anything but
simple treason" This @simple treason" in the
eyes Of Greeley, is nothing but venial trans
gression. for which two years imprisonment
is sufficient atonement If completely in the
assassination of President Lincoln-one single
victim out OF the hundreds of thousands sacri-
feed to the rebellion-could have been estab-
lished against JEFF Davis, or If he could have
been held Fin any manner responsible for the
murder Of our captured soldiers" that would
have been altogether different affair but as
he was mot even indicted" for those offences,
and only stood charged with simple treason"
Greeley considers himself fully justified in
aiding to set him free on straw bail, and pro-
claiming to the world his innocence Of any
serious crime.
This Is precisely the point upon which the
great mass Of the loyal people Of the Union
will take issue with Greeley and his straw bail
operation. While very few persons believe
that JEFF Davis had an active share in the
assassination Of President Lincoln, everybody
Of common sense, and Greeley among the
number, knows that the crime was the natural
effect Of the rebellion and its exciting appeals
to the prejudices and passions of reckless men.
jeff Davis may not with his own hands have
snatched the food from the starving Union
soldiers at Andersonville, Salisbury and
Miilen, or shot them down when in their
despair they cast themselves beyond the
"dead line" Of their prison-pens but as The
head Of the rebel armies and the ruler of the
confederacy he had supreme power over his
subOrdinates, and was responsible for the
treatment of his prisoners. II the captured
rebels confined in the loyal States had been
left to rot and die by the ten thousand
in Northern prisons, would the copper
heads who now pat Greeley on the
shoulder and pour sixty thousand dollars
worth OF Corporation advertising into his
lap, have acquitted The republican President
of all responsibility for their murder The
people hold that the rebellion was great
crime and not sssimple" and venial offence;
and that out of it grew the heavy su1erings Of
the nation; the loss of millions of treasure; the
desolation Of hundreds Of thousands of homes;
the horrors of the Confederate prison pens; the
assassination of Lincoln, and all. They are not
willing to allow the master spirit of the rebel
lion to 60 UNPUBLISHED and the arm of the law
to be paralyzed by the special pleas and quib-
bles put forth by JEFF Davis straw ball. An in
cendiary who sets fire to dwelling does not
directly take the lives of the victims who perish
in the aames; but he is nevertheless held
responsible for their fate, and suffers the penalty
awarded to wilfal murder. 49,"
I. The cry of the republican party, and Greeley
among the rest has been sspunish the rebel
leaders and let the misled masses CO." The
principal count in their indictment against An
drew Johnson is that he has shown too much
sympathy and leniency towards leading rebels.
But now Greeley turns round and stulti6es his
party and jusiides johnson by fawning upon
the great head Of the rebellion, the arch traitor
Of all traitors, the autocrat Of the reasonable
Confederate government, and securing his re-
lease from jail and his escape from punishment
II is for this offence that the republicans Of the
West, and of the whole country, indict Horace
Greeley as black sheep in the flock; and ell
the "narrow-minded blockheads" OF the Union
League Club cannot release him from the charge
on straw bail.