Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-05-25
From the New York Tribune.l
BY these PesenIs, Greetimg

Dy stopping all nlgnG Win MT. GraDger.-
He won't mind it-he's used to it.
z From the New York Tribune.l
by these Pesents, Greeting!
To Messrs. Geo. W Blunt, John d. Kennedy,
John o. Stone, Stephen Hyatt, and 80 others,
members of the Union League Club:
GENTLEMEN II was favored, on the 18th
inst, by an official note from our ever +
courteous President, John Jay, notifying
me that requisition had been presented to
him for ia special meeting of the Club, at
an early day, for the purpose of taking into
consideration the conduct of Horace Gree
ley, a member of the Club, who has become
a bondsman for Jefferson Davis, late chief
officer of the Rebel Government" Mr.. Jay
continues: -e-- s7 ...-.r- r..
"As l have reason to. believe that the
signers, or some of them, disapprove of the
conduct which they propose the Club shall
consider, it is clearly due, both to the Club
and to yourself, that you should have the
opportunity of being heard on the subject;
beg, therefore, to ask on what evening it
will be convenient for you that call the
meeting" &C., &c.
In my prompt reply, 1 requested the
President to give you reasonable time for
reflection, but assured him that wanted
none; since should not attend the meet
ing, nor ask any friend to do so, and should
make no defense, nor offer aught in the
way of Standardization. am sure my
friends in the Club will not construe this
as implying disrespect; but it is not my
habit to take part in any discussions which
may arise among other gentlemen as to my
fitness to enjoy their society. That is their
affair altogether, and to them l leave it.
The single point whereon have any oc-
casion or wish to address you is your vir-
tual Implication that there is something
novel, unexpected, astounding, in my con-
duct in the matter suggested by you as the
basis of your action. l choose not to rest
under this assumption, but to prove that
you, being persons of ordinary intelligence,
must know better. On this point, 1 cite
you.to scrutiny of the record:
The surrender of General Lee was made
known in this city at IL P. M. on Sunday,
April 9th, 1865, and fifty announced in the
Tribune next morning, April 10tff. On that
uery day, 1 wrote, and next morning printed
in these columns, leader entitled "Mag-
nanimity in Triumph" wherein l said:
1--WE hear men say: les, forgive the
great mass of those who have been misled
into rebellion, but punish the leaders as
they deserve.' But who can accurately
draw the line between leaders and follow
ers in the premises? By what test shall
they be discriminated
| Where Is your touchstone of leadership?
| We know of none.
s'Nor can we agree with those who would
| punish the original plotters of secession,
yet spare their ultimate and scarcely will
| ing converts. On the contrary, while we
| would revive or infiame resentment against
none of them, we feel far less antipathy to
the original upholders of the resolutions of
| '9S'-to the disciples of Calhoun and Nc
Duffie-to the Nullifers of 1882, and the
State Rights men of 1S50-than to the
John Bells Humphrey Marshalls, and Alex.
FL. ii. Stuarts, who were schooled in the
/ National faith, and who, in becoming dis
unionists and rebels, trampled on the pro-
fessions of a lifetime, and spurned the
logic wherewith they had so often unan-
swerably demonstrated that secession was
Jefferson Davis this day a less culprit trail
4 tor than John Bell.
But we cannot believe it wise or well to
take the life of any man who shall have sub
mitted to the National authority. The eX-
ecution of even one such would be felt as
personal stigma by every one who had ever
aided the Rebel cause. Each would say to
himself, i am as culpable as he; we differ
only in that L am deemed of comparatively
little consequence A single Confederate led
out to execution would be evermore en-
shrined in million hearts as conspicuous
hero and martyr. We cannot realize that
it would be wholesome or safe-we are
sure it would not be magnanlmouS-to give
the overpowered disloyalLy of the South
such shrine. Would the throne of the
House of Hanover stand more firmly had
Charles Edward been caught and executed
after Cullodon? Is Austrian domination
in Hungary more stable to-day for the
hanging of Macy Sander and his twelve
compatriots after thesurrender of Vllagos !!
"We plead against passions certain to be
at this moment fierce and intolerant; but
on our side are the Ages and the voice OF
History. We plead for restoration of the
Union, against policy which would afford
. a momentary qualification at the cost of
years of perilous hate and bitterness.
Those who invoke Military execution
for the vanquished, or even for their lead
ers, we suspect will not generally be found
among the few who have long been ex-
posed to unjust odium as haters of the
South, because they abhorred Slavery. And
, as to the long oppressed and degraded
Blacks-so lately the slaves, destined still
to be the neighbOrs, and 1--WE trust) at no
distant day, the fellow-citizens, of the
Southern Whites-we are sure that their
voice, could it be automatically uttered,
would ring out decidedly, sonorously, on
: the side of Clemency-of Humanity"
, On the next day; 1 had some more in this
: Spirit and on the 18th an elaborate leader,
! entitled "Peace - Punishment" in the
course of which 1 said:
''The Neao York Times, doing injustice to
: its own sagacity in characteristic attempt
to sail between wind and water, says: Let
us hang JEFF. Davis and spare the rest
We do not concur in the advice
Davis did not devise nor instigate the Re-
bellion on the contrary, he was one of the
I latest and most reluctant of the notables Of
: the Cotton States to renounce definitively
the Union. His prominence is purely off,
h cial and representative; the only reason fol
hanging him is that you therein condemn
and stigmatize more persons than in hang.
> ing any one else. There is not an ex-Rebe
i in the world-no matter how penitent-
y who will not have unpleasant sensation
: about the neck on the day when the Con
tederate President is to be hung. And t.
h what good end?
u ave insist that this matter must not b.
regarded in any narrow aspect. We ar
!. most anxious to secure the assent OF TN
!, which the condemned gives to being hum
y y when he shakes hands with his iaiier an
'. thanks him for past acts of kindness; bu
!. that hearty assent which can only be wo
a by magnanimity. Perhaps the Rebels, 0
\. \ I,or rrtry