Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-05-16

as lney bnOuRnL LHo people WOuIu not nan-
ifest any marked displeasure at his release.
And now he is set free by Republican
Judge, at the instance of the leading Re-
publican editor in the country.
THE Journal of yesterday morning an
nounced: "The fools are not all dead yet"
That is to say that General Comfy and the
local editor of the Journal are yet alive.
The New York Press ON the Release
| -f., - of Jeff: Davis. ..-,,-
| .7r from the New York Herald.l
/ Nor is the temporary enlargement of
JEFF. Davis on bail a trifiing matter, look
ing to a healthy reconstruction of South
ern public opinion. Two years ago, on the
charge of being conspirator with Wilkes
Booth and others in the assassination of
President Lincoln, a reward of one hun
dred thousand dollars was offered by
President johnson for the capture OF
Davis. That charge has long since
fallen to the ground: but, from
the quibbling evasions of Chief Justice
Chase, the accused is detained in prison
i two years awaiting speedy trial." as a
murderer, traitor or a rebel. The laws
delay, through the Chief Justice, is thus
becoming public scandal, when Davis is
brought up for trial and released on bail in
the very sum Gone hundred thousand dol
lars) paid for his capture. This is a curious
fact; but it is not half so curious as the fact
7 that first on the list of his bondsmen ap-
! pears Horace Greeley ('on to Richmond''),
and second, Augustus Schell, President of
the Democratic Manhattan Club, of which
| Thurlow Weed is likewise member. Here
is a Northern rivalry for political capital
| South, which may lead to still more re-
markable manifestations of brotherly love.
| 1t matters little now whether Davis is tried
next week, next month, or next year-his
trial will end in smoke. 1t is not unlikely
| that if left to the courts his case may be post
poned again and again, till finally drop
ped. In the John Brown song it is said,
We will hang JEFF. Davis on sour apple tree,
l. As we go marchingon.
and President johnson has declared sever
al times that s.treason is crime and traitors
must be punished ;" but as matters now
stand the best thing he could do would be
to grant a free pardon to Davis and let him
go in peace. A.s.. ~'a f1
n-,s The great danger now is that,
between the ideas of confiscatlon and agra
rianism, which are getting into the heads
| of the Southern blacks from the hints
thrown out by ''Old Thad. Stevens" Senator
Wilson and others, on the one side, and from
such Southern unreconstructed white lead !
ers as Ex-Governor Perry of South Caroli- |
ma, Sharkey of Mississippi, and Governor |
jenkins of Georgia, on the other side, there |
may be organized such clashing of races
as will precipitate even in the North an |
other political revolutioE,- throwing every
thing into confusion, while yet the work |
of reconstruction is only half begun. To
arrest these tendencies of the present po-
litical agitations of our five Southern Mil
itary Districts we submit to President
Johnson the experiment of a free pardon
to Davis, in order that he, and Greeley, and
Augustus Schell, and John Minor Bolts
may stump the South together, in correct
ing the fallacies of State rights and in dis
abusing the ignorant blacks of those dan
gerous notions that, in addition to freedom,
the Freedmen's Bureau and the ballot-box,
they are to have free farms and nothing to
do but to enjoy all the African splendors of
Hayti. The Republican leaders, at all
events, must look to this, or they may soon
find themselves in the midst of Northern
political revolution.
[From the N. Y. Tribune tGreeIey's Paper)J
Jefferson Davis has been released, and
it will suggest comment upon the past ac-
tion of the Government that his release
has been effected without the slightest
trouble. Between the military and the
civil authorities there was no conflict, no
hesitation on the part of the Court in
obtaining, even from his extreme oppo-l
nents, the amount of bail required. All
that was necessary was the production of
the prisoner in Civil Court of the United
States. The rest followed as a matter of
course. Thus easily has been solved one of
the most veXatious questions which the
blunders of the Government have raised
since the close of the war; and thus at last
we are relieved of the disgrace OF keeping
in confinement man accused of great
crimes, for which we were afraid or unable
to try him. v..-
All this might have been effected months
ago, by a very little courage and good
It q 6 last ac
To advance toward some difficulties is to
overcome them, and this is signal exam
pie. The Government had absolutely no
excuse for the long Imprisonment of Jeffer-
son Davis, and its refusal to either release
or try him. We affirmed this year ago,
and that we were right was proved yester-
day, when, after the brief remarks of thel
counsel, and a few legal forms, Mr.. Davis
was discharged by the Court. He is now at
liberty to go where he pleases, and not at
the South alone, but equally at the North,
his liberation will lie hailed as victory of
common sense. E'. .i.aD
from the N. Y. Times (Republican).I
Judge Underwood has not Insisted upon
hanging JEFF. Davis without trial, or even
upon remanding him to Libby to await the
ultimate issue of the laws delay. Contrary
to many predictions and some fears, he has
pursued decorous and sensible course, and
Mr.. Davis is now at liberty, having given
bail to appear at the November Term of the
Circuit Court. The whole proceeding ap-
pears to have been as quiet and as brief as
the arraignment of petty offender in a
police office. The prisoner was transferred
from military to civil custody; the question
of bail was raised and disposed of; and the
man who has been two years in confine-
ment, awaiting trial, passed into the world
again with little more than a nominal re-
straint upon his freedom.
1.-two years have not sufficed to prepare
the case for trial, is it probable that Davis
will ever be arraigned ?-We think not. He
is bound over to appear for trial, but be-
yond the formality of bail, the prevailing
impression is that his case is even now end
ed. The idea of convicting and Furnishing
him is no longer entertained in any quar-
ter; and though a more straightforward
method of dispOsing of him might have bet
ter comported with national dignity, per-
haps the course pursued is really the only
one which circumstances have rendered
possible. The injustice of heightened inn
prisonment without trial has indeed been
perpetrated. but as set-off it mnst be re-
membered that passions which at an earlier
period might have marred the efforts of
mercy are now happily allayed, as the lib
GRAFTON of Davis etfectually proves. There
may have been tardiness in settling the
machinery of justice in motion, but there
has certainly been no vindictiveness, and
for months past no harshness.
IFrom the New York World, Dem
Mr.. Davis was brought before the Court
at Richmond by writ of ha6eas corpus.
There has been no time since the Presi-
dents proclamation revoking the suspen-
sion of that writ, when it might not have
been issued and not reason can be given
for its issue now, which was not equally
good eighteen months ago. 1t would be