Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1867-06-14
Greeley and JEFF. Davis.

Mr.. Greeley in his attempt to justify
/ his second con to Richmond" has got
into a bog from which he will find it
very difficult to extricate himself. En-
ragged at the loss OF subscribers be
thousand, the Tribune asserts, to Sew
their reason, that what he did a few
weeks ago was nothing more than the
carrying out of the policy IL has advO-
Gated ever since the beginning of the
war In this Mr.. Greeley is right. He
WIS s5fsVazzs- iEaPEacticable; was always
mulish was always meddIeSOm6 and
rash and was always particularly OBJ
stinate in his rashness- No member
Of the party ever gave it so much trOu-
BILE no prOfessed Republican has given
the enemy so much aid and comfort.
For instance is there a Republican
speaker who has not been interrupted
when denouncing the Democratic doc
trine of the right of states to secede, by
some salIow-faced, pimPled son of Lib
erty, who pulling from his side coat
pocket, where he kept it for cOnven-
ience, a copy of the New York Tribune
of March I'd, 1861, would, triumphantly
read therefrom the following para
graph:
'If the slave states, the cotton states or the
Gulf states only, choose to form an indepen-
dent nation, they have moral right to
do So"
Which reading would be invariably
followed by triumphant cheers from the
secesh portion Ofthe audience for HtE1or-
zee Greeley Z" Or if not that particular
extract, another pestilent fellow of the
same variety, was certain to have q
Tribune of Nov. 18th, 1860, from which
he would read this
''The right to secede exists. Wherever a
considerable section of our Union shall de-
lberately resolve to go out, we shall resist all
cOercive measures designed to keep tt in.
We hope never to live in Republic whereof
one section is pinned to another by bayo-
And his brother was certain to be at
a Union meeting somewhere else, wait
ing an opportunity to read this, from
whenever it shall be clear that the great
o0Gg 0I Ie eg5a5q sI9i9 15 4P1g 1 nXe 475o
/ anxious to escape from it, we shall do our
/ best to forward their views"
Is it wonderful that thus indoctrina-
/ ted the Copperheads of the North oppOs-
ed the war Is it singular that thus
! instructed by one recognized as high
| priest in the Republican organization,
/ they should denounce a war Waged up
/ on a people who were only doing what
| they, according to Greeley had per-
/ feet right to dO2 Or rather. is it not
singular that a writer affirming the
/ right to secede, should urge a war upon
! a seeding people ? Greeley's incOu-
| sistency IS not in bailing JEFF Davis,
/ but in opposing him from 1861 to 1864.
! t.
/ ley in defending himself is getting into
/ a quicksand which will swallow him.
] He urged the prosecution of the war in
/ the face of his previous declarations,
! at its close demanded all that engaged
/ in 10 go free and for the sake of cOnsis-
tency, we suppose, aided directly
in the release Of the chief rebel
/ He takes the ground, in the justihca-
/ ton of the act, that rebellion when it
has assumed certain proportions is not
treason; that Davis and Breckenridge
are innocent of that crime, and he balls
/ the one and invites the other to return
to the country. He draws a parallel
/ between the secessionists Of 1861 and
the patriots Of 1776, and takes the po-
sition that jeff. Davis and his rebel as
sociates are no more to be held to ac-
cOuntabilitv for rebellion, than was
i Washington and those in rebellion
against the authority Of King George.
Had George Washington and his fell
low "rebels" failed in their effort to ac-
cOmplish the independence Of the col
onies. it is very probable that their
necks would have made the acquain-
tance of hempen ropes. Their success
:. placed them beyond the effect of Brit
ish laws, and relieved them of the con-
sequence of what otherwise would have
been treason, the penalty of which ev-
cry one of the leaders would have suf-
fered. But there is no similarity in the
cases. The patriots of '76 declared their
independence of a Government three
thousand miles away; Of IA Government
oppressive beyond endurance and of a
J form hateful to them. They embarked
upon the sea of revolution, knowing
full we'll that q failure made them trail
tors and exposed them to the penalties
of treason, but as they had the right
upon their side, they cheerfully aocep-
ted the risk. The rebels of '60 were
living under Government which they
themselves had assisted In making.
Not one of their rights had been invad
J ed no privileges had been taken from
them in fact when they coucOcted the
plot that was sprung upon the country
in 1861, they had fun possession of the
4 Governments. 1t was the effort of a few
J men, controlling the ignorance and de-
J pravity of the country, TO break down
the Government, to destroy the Consti-
} tuition to which they had scores of times
sworn allegiance, bya force of arms, and
for purposes purely and entirely selfish
f They sinned against q law plain and
: explicit; and they did it without rea-
, son or cause.