Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-05-30

all DANTE1s hells IN SUCCESSFUL "ONHN
supplv no adeuuste punishment; that
| the blood of all the slain on both sides is
on the heads Of the leaders Of the North,
| n be avenged BY the pouring out upon
the entity land Of all the walls Of the just
anger of GoD. Especially the long con-
! tinued refusal to concede belligerent
rights, causing the consequent miseries
and suferings Of Union prisoners, their
wesrisome captivity and the deaths
in prison of thousands, so sacrificed by
their W Government, and Of other
thousands of C~onfederates refused TO be
exchanged. was such a crime, fruitful Of
a myriad Of atrocities, as no Nation ever
commits snd goes long unpublished. The
| Supreme Court decides that there was 2
civil war from the beginning, with allits
legal consequences; SEWARD and STAN
TON were lawyers, bound to know the
/ laws Of war which they undertook to
administer and yet they murdered
| thousands, not Of the enemy alone, but
! Of their own soldiery, by their violation
| of those laws, declared by their own
| Judges to have been in force.
The four dissenting judges in the Prize
| cases. the Chief Justice and Justices NEIL
! SON. CATRoN and CLIFFORD we're clear
! sighted enough &c see the conclusions to
which the decision Of the majority inev-
itably led and they therefore con-
! sistently held that there wss nc war, in
the plenary sense of that word, but only
a rebellion and an instruction; and
! that there could be no such war, until
the Congress should have so declared.
Upon the supposition that these judges
were in the right, could the United States
lawfully treat the Confederstes IS rebels
and traitors, after recognizing them as
belligerents, and c~onceding to them bel
ligerent rights?
When Provinces or subjects revolt
against their Sovereign, and maintain
their claim to independence by arms, a
time always come when foreign powers
are at liberty to recognize their indie
pendence. This recognition not being
wrongful, nor the exercise Of a mere ar
bitrary discretion, but Of q right, there
must 0e some mode Of determining when
the right comesinto existence and when
it does, the insurgents must have ceased
to be rebels or traitors and have become
beIligerent enemies carrying on q lawful
war.
The fourth 'NoureHe Cause Cele5re' Of
the law OF Nations, reported by the
Baron CHARLES DE MARTENS, is that
of the controversy of l77s between Great
Britain and France, in respect to the
acknowledgment by the latter Of the
independence of the Anglo-American
Colonies. In it, the suther says, was in
volved this question of high importance,
to-wit: "until what point are subjects
to be considered as rebels, and conSe-
qUently when is it permissible or forbid
den to foreign powers, at peace with the
Sovereign, to embrace their cause, with
out violating the principles of the law of
Nations? n The reader will note that
this writer OF the very highest authority
makes the right of recognition to depend
on the fact that the war has reached or
gone beyond the point at which the rev.
o|lutionists ceased to be rebels and this
must needs be so, since, so long as they
are rebels, they are traitors; and treason
is a crime punishable not only with
but infamy. The United States,
against the universal opinion of the
world, which in their egotism and stu
pid self-complacency they despise 5 if
they were independent of it, rs they |
seem to be Of all the principles
and rules Of national morality, de
cency and honour, still persist
in the rascslly injustice Of branding as
traitors the noblest Of soldiers, LEE, and
the purest of statesmen, STEPHENS ;
long ago, they were estopped, by
their own acts, by their own admissions
and concessions for their own benefit, if
they had been governed by the most
rudimentsI principles Of decency and
common honesty, TO deny to those who
them and their hired hordes Of
mereensries single-handed, the
Of belligeseEt enemies.
No nation could have the right to en-
courage and assist those guilty of the in.
crime Of treason to free them
ielves from the lawful control Of legiti-
authority. a nation abetting trea-
iOn is not less guilty than an individual
Who commits the same crime. 1t is a
proposition that needs only to be stated
o command universal assent, that no
Power can have a right TO recog-
lize the independence ola revolted State
n Province, so long as the sovereign or
nother-eountry has the right to treat
hose who have revolted, as rebels and
The principles Of international
aw are as immutsble and inflexible
IS those OF morals or the mathematics.
There is no positive Limitation OF a
after which the Sovereign cannot
reat his TevOlted subjects as rebels. An
English Review Of the highest authority,
u 1884, laid it down as law that when
'ARLos had maintained himself as a bel !
igerent, claiming the crown Of Spain,
or something like a year, with an army
n the field, holding possession Of a sim
lie province, or perhaps two, the Gov
rnment Of CHRISTINA had no right to
onsider him and his s~dherents as rebels.
Why because 1t was a crime against
be human race, to apply TO a War waged
With claim Of right, the principles Of the
riminal law that DO not extend beyond
he.limits Of the Nation or State that ac- 4
epts them "a crime-because it leads I
o, and is supposed TO justify, to the mis-
reants who always make up the bulk OF
rmies engaged in s~ubjugation, every 5
utrage that disgraces human nature. q
II oUery pO5oeT az Europe had not been [
and deeply interested to deny the {
ights Of nationality and Of the sell. q
.oUernHlent Of States competent to qoU-
m heHlselues-if England had not held $
reland by the throat; and Austria, L
'enice and Russia, Poland and Cir a
ASIA the Confederate states would a
ave been recognized by the Kings and s
.mperors, and the cotton-lords and poHt. f
gamblers and old-elothes.men Of 4
Britain, as they had a right to be. s
1853, at the h1rthest. We do not care q
live long, in these hideous and hateful C
avs, since none Of US who love the truth &
liberty have any longer anything to t
We for,-but we should like to live 10 j.
e England and France punished, as b
ley deserve to be and will be, for look q
coldly on while the hoofs Of a mer-
mary soldiery, recruited everywhere o.
the places nearest hell, stamped the a
Ie out OF on struggling nationality. 70 c.
Ie intense delight Of a press that is the n
ol Of tyranny, and a pulpit that writes CT
-e precepts Of the Gospel Of Christ in Il
cody letters, and regales itself upon "
e sufferings Of rebels, its inability TO b
whom is its only cause and oeca- tt
IN Of regret. n
The ADAMsEs, HANCOCK, HENRY. III
'AsHNGTON, and other rebels, whose ~
emOries are now honoured Of all men. -
at the beginning, rebels and trait &c
J. Wa IL elfeccgs that trapsEor,,o5