New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-01-26
LOYILTY.

confusion.
Since the surrender of tho Rebel Armies, but
more es1ecially within the last year, there
bave been many murders and other outrageS
nerpetrated at the South. Most Of these have
been murders of Unionists by those who, while
the struggle lasted glOred in being known as
Secessionists or Confederates. Some of the
victims were Union soldiers; Others Southern
rIn;oni,ts: many of them were White, but
more we're Black and we lack proof that the
spirit which impelled to these hOmcides is yet
extinct.
"Weu, what of it2" asks a Copperhead
"Uave there not been murders mt the North
"as wellP murders by men in blue oycrcoats
Gas well as in tmeadbare grayY murders by
"those you call loyal as well as by ex-Rebelsf
murders of Whites by Blacks "a well ms OF
"Blacks by Whites1 and Is it not notorious
"that. right here in NewYoIk, there are several
! "murders committed to every one that Oakley
"Hall manages to have punishedY Then what
care You trying to make out''
Just this. Strand we beg your Southern
friends to take careful heed of it-that, while
murders and other OutTages are dcploraby
common in all parts of our country, and the
perpetrators too frequently escape arrest con-
victiou, and punishment, public sentiment al the
North fdrors and demands the execution Of the
lao againsf criminals irhle IL seems not to do
so at the South, ,chen The pcrpetrGtor wdS q
Rebel and his riotim is Unionst, especially a
Black one.
Can we be mistaken as TO the fact If so,
some one can easily point us to score oil re-
cent instanccs-or, at least, half dozen-whereln
the Rebel slayer of Black, or other conspicu'
GUS Uniopist has been promptly pursued ar
rested indicted. tried, convicted, and punished
by the State or local authorities as reconstructed
by President Johnson. And we shall be very
much obliged to any one who will favor ia
with even one wci authenticated case wherein
the White SOuthencr who has ielOniously Killed
negro has been treated Ivy the local or state
authorities precisely as his victim would have
been had the slayer and the slain changed places
Now if killing negro Is practically regarded
and treated as no crime, OF very venial one,
hy the cx-Rebcl authorities of the South, how
can the South expect tho present or the
next Congress TO recognize those authorities
as legitimate and admit men of like spirit and
purposes to seats in either Housed How can
any one expect i'll
had any part whatever, and which has passed
through several stages OF adjudication.
An agent of the Federal Government seized
a lot of Cotton in South Carolina, near Augusta,
Georgia. as having been subscribed or contrib
uted by the planter who grew 1t, TO the service
and support of the Rebel COnfcderacy; there
fore forfeited to our Government 10y the I'M
doubted LAWS Of war Certain United states
soldiers were set to guarding that seized Cotton.
One night two sons of the planter, with two
or three acc0mpiccs, crept up to those soldiers
under cover of the darkness, shot them dead,
and ran off the Cotton beyond recovery. But
the cuIprits were discovered by Cen Sicklcs,
arrested, tried by military commission, con
yicted OF murder and sentenced to death.
President johnson committed that sentence
! into perpetual imprisonment in Fort Del
aware, whittier they were duly conveyed.
| But u. S. District Judge Hall of Delaware soon
! took them out of the Fort on habeds corpus
and set them at liberty, on the assumption that
| their trial and conviction by a military court
was illegal and invalid position which We
understand to have since been fully sustained
by a majority of the Supreme Court in the
Milligan case.
/ W.
| who believes that these midnight assassins Of
Federal soldiers for simply doing their duty are,
or ever were, in danger of being arrested, tried,
convicted and punished, by the present local
authorities of South Carolina or of Georgia! And,
if not. what is the action of the Supreme and
District Courts iri their case but proclamation
of impunity to Rebel assassins? And is it within
the compass of human Imagination to fancy John
Marshall pronOuncing a decision whereof this
would be the natural RESULT And if more
soldiers, or other loyal persons, shall be muir
dercd under like circumstances and their assas-
sins shall laugh to scOrn the suggestion of punish
ment, will not the blood Of the slain lie heavily
on the souls of David Davis Stephen j. Field
| Samuel Nelson, Nathan Clifford, and Robert G..
| GrierP
| We are not attempting to sean the legal as
poets of the grave questions involved We
consider the cases in their direct, practical
bearings, and we deplore the impunity they
seem to give to crimes impelled by Rebel NAL
ice as a very serious obstacle to the restoration
| of the Union.
| We do not favor the requirement by Congress
of retrospective, pluperfect loyalty. In view
of all the facts, this seems illiberal and unwisc
| Albert Gallatin was said to have taken part i'm
the Pennsylvania Whisky Rebellion; yet he
afterward became one of our most honOrcd and
trusted statesmen. We believe many who were
jealous COnfederates are now hearty Unionists,
and we must regret the denial to such OF any
opportunity to earn bread or serve the country.
Let us have a Bankrupt Law for the hopeless
ly indebted, and something corresponding to it
for those who, having been Rebels, are Rebels
no more. But every act, decision, or movement,
which tends to foster present disloyalty at the