The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-06-01

| them morally III oui e9oiiA
other words, when Horace Greeley
went down to put his name on Davls's
bond. he said to all the world, !, the
| most prominent representative OF North
ern feelings and opinion, who have had,
perhaps, larger share than any other
man in bringing about the struggle
which has just terminated, do hereby
declare that my opinion of you, Jeffer-
son Davis, is higher than ever it was /;
that see in you simply an unfortunate
enemy that I look on your course du-
ring the past four years, your slaughter
ings, starvings, hangings, your spolia-
ton, your ratings and threatenings, as
simply parts of the process for settling
an honest difference of opinion; that
you have done nothing and said moth
ing and sought nothing which a good
and pure and high minded man might
not do and say and seek and that the
dennnciations of you and your cause
on moral grounds with which the North
ern press, and my own paper the fore
most, have been filled during the war,
were all CANNON, the wretched, frothy
rhetoric, all sound and fury signifying
nothing which we editors make our
living by producing and selling; that
when Northern preachers prayed for
Gods blessing on our arms they prayed
for the divine interposition in game
of pitch and toss, in which the right was
on neither side; and that when North
ern young men went out to fight, as
they believed, tor something nobler and
holier still than either flag or country
or laws, they fought and died under
sentimental delusion. You and l are
too old to be humbugged in this way;
as practical men, we know that in
cases of this kind the masses have to be
kept up to the fighting by fine words,
but that war is simply means of set
Ting the construction of legal instru-
ing is more natural than that the lead
ers should embrace, as you and I do,
over the fresh graves and amid the
ruined homes"
We have, as our readers know, OPP
posed all forms of persecution of the
South. We have objected to contisca-
ton and the infiction of every other
penalty not clearly called for to secure
peace and good order. But, then, we
believe in the existence of such thing
as national dignity, national selfres-
pect, and national conscience; and we
say that a decent regard for these things
makes Mr.. Greeley's performances at
Richmond-all except his speech, which
was able and sensible simply detes-
table, and calls for a more emphatic re-
probation than they have yet received,
although we have no doubt whatever
as to the intensity of the disgust with
which the public generally regards
them. No man could in private life 60
on for years accusing another of fraud
and perjury and pursuing him with
the utmost rigor of the law, and then,
when he had got Judgment against him,
invite him to his own house and treat |
him as a valued friend, without degrad-
ing and debasing himself-and what |
we need, ofall things, is the application
to the national conduct Of the rules of
honor and decorum which regulate the !
conduct of men in private life. None |
of us dare offer as an excuse for taking
a criminal to our bosom the excuse
which Mr.. Greeley offers in effect for |
fraternizing with Davis, that there was
more money to be made or comfort to |
be enjoyed i'll this way than by marking |
in our demeanor towards him our opin-
ion of his morals. Mercy we might !
show him; assistance in rescuing him
from suffering we might offer; but
those marks of esteem and confidence
which are reserved for honorable mis-
fortune we dare not bestow on him;
mortality, justice, and decency would |
forbid it. Of the value of these feelings
in the conduct of national life, in keep
ing alive the public conscience, in cher
ishing a healthy public opinion for the
support of the law, the preservation of
high standard of public and private
morality, of a high sense of the worth
Of character Mr.. Greeley appears to
have no conception, nor, we are sorry
to say, have very large proportion of
the loudest believers amongst our re-
formers. 1t is this which accounts in
part for the worship of such heroes as
z. L. Barnum, because he happens to
be an anti-slavery or temperance man,
and for the practice of applying the
foulest epitheUs to and accusing of the
most disgraceful conduct men whom
the revilers and accusers meet the next
day and salute with as much cordiality
as if nothing had happened. Nobody
who knows how strong is the reflex
action of language and of conduct on
mind, can doubt that the prevailing
tendency to treat moral offences as mat
tiers which ought not materially to affect
our intercourse with those who commit
them, and to treat our own denuncia-
tions of them as so much rhetoric and
nothing more, helps to make our sense
ofright and wrong somewhat less acute,
and to lower our estimate of what we
owe to our own honor. 1t is not very
long since notorious embezzler of the
public funds was entertained OH his re-
turn from an exile which he had passed
as fugitive omjustice, by company
which included a high officer of police
and the chiefjustice of court OF record.
Similar examples of the same debased
and debasing indifference to the effects
of crime on character, and to the desir-
ableness supporting in our conduct
the lofty doctrines which we all spout