The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-08
Cries from the Tombs.

And sailed through bloody seas
Cries from the TOmbs.
THE groans from the Lincoln dungeons still
sound sepulchral warnings throughout the
land. A Convention of conviots called together
years ago drags out slow existence, and
every few months publishes an address to the
people of the United States. We cannot avoid
the conclusion that, like Mr.. Toots, who wrote
letters to himself, so these jail-birds issue
manifestos solely for the pleasure of reading
of their own wrongs. We are confirmed in
this view by the fact that nothing practical is
yer suggested by this high council. They
merely bemoan the fact that tyranny has inn
prisoned them and cry aloud for liberty. As
they have all been at liberty for three or four
years, they do not arouse the mad enthusiasm
of the people, as might be expected, and sans
cuiotte do not parade the streets calling for the
liberation of Mahony, Wall, or Dean.
The last address issued is really so absurd
in its parts that we can detect no thread by
which to bind the disjointed sentences to-
gether. 1t commences
THE men who, without authority of law
have been robbed OF their liberty, subjected TO
cruelty and torture-as a means of looking to
the redress Of their grievances, aud the Dreser'
walton of the doctrines OF liberty, az taught by
our fatheTs-most respectfully present to the
people of the United States, the following state
ment of facts in that we have, without charges
preferred, without Indictment presen ted, with.
out trial had, or judgment rendered, or even
the poor privilege of knowing our accusers,
been subjected TO all the indignlties usually iu-
flicted upon the victims of arbitrary power,
despoIically exercised"
We pardon the change from third to first
person. The heat of excitement may excuse
that stab at Lindley Murray; but when, after
reading the entire address, we do not find
the least statement of the "oruelty and tor
ture," we think the promise of 'faots" is not
fulfilled. The effusion is the Joint effort of
Henry Clay Dean, a most pestilent sympa-
thizer; James w. WALL gentleman too good
for lis associates, but most deluded on all
political questions; and - Mahony, the edi-
tor of Catholic secular journal, notorious
during the war for its reasonable articles.
Now it is natural to ask what object have the
convicts for addressing the people1 1t is diff
cult to discover any, unless it be that they
suppose that the people will treat their views
with supreme Difference. We can detect some
such idea, for in one place they console them
selves with the elevating reflection that the
history of liberty is the history of imprison-
ments, executions, protests, and resistance
against arbitrary power-Hampden Sidney,
and Lafayette are but representative men who
have struggled against oppression.
Heavens What profanity For Hampden
Sidney, and Lafayette, we have come down to
M. hony, Dean, and Wall Has our nat on
thus sunk Have we left no better victims
to offer to tyranny than such a trio But the
most peculiar portion of the address is its con-
tinual declaration of the devotion of its
authors to freedom. We find in one place the
assertion that they struggled only for liberty,
when history declares them to be the most
relentless friends of ungoverned tyranny. The
following truthful statement of the causes that
led to the war and the result cannot but be
interesting:-"These men found this Govern
ment prosperous, and left it in ruins; they en-
tered upon it in order, and left it in anarchy;
they commenced the administration of the
Government when it was free from debt; they
have involved it in bankruptcy, hopeless and
complete. They found the people in the en-
joyment of liberty; they have enslaved them,
leaving them nothing of their ancient heritage.
But we cannot dwell longer on the document.
The only effect it will produce will be to con-
vince the public that in arresting its author
the Government did right, and that if it erred
at all, it was in allowing them their freedom
before their Southern friends were finally
subdued.