The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-20
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL Opinions of the Lending Journals
Upon Current TOpics-COmpiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.

From the NJ y. Times.
Shall these appellations be dropped? Real
ly this is becoming one OF the questions of
tbe dav. Mr. f. Z. Blair in his Long Branch
sneech, as reported by the secretary, spoke
of q people .''who were once our enemies
oooinst whom we contended, and whom we
aSsrorsed as Rebels" Mr.. A. II. Stephens. in
bil late work on the CjUG Var, not only care
fullv avoids the use of the word Rebellion, but
takes special pains to dispel all such ideas
concerning the war. The Democratic party,
,,niversally ever since the struggle, have
c,ortinned to be very chary of the term Rebel.
II is vet almost as much tabooed by them as
- v,se durinp the very heat of the strife,
,yben in high convention they simply styled
tbo war an irregular opposition.
OF course all this expurgation of speech
comes from complaisance towards the South.
Now. in the interests of paciticatlon we Will
always be as scrupulous as anybody in respect
mo tbe inst sensibilities of the South. But
we empGatically protest against this way of
divorcinp vital things from their right
names IL involves a sacrifice of constitu-
tional principle, and the Southern favor that
requires that is not worth having. Words
are things" said Mirabeau, and 1t is abso-
Iutely true. 1t is an evil tendency every
where prevails to gloss over the real nature
of every crime by the use OF smooth deslgna-
tions. and to this habit is due not little of
the
tions. Crimes will not be hated as they
should be hated unless they wear their right
stipmas, and their right stigmas over their
,igbt names-the names that have always
been associated with djsgrdce. The right
name for the late Rebellion was a Crjne
That thing is as certain as any earthly thing
can be. 1t is fact which, to alter one iota,
would battle all the sophistry and all the au-
dacity of Satan himself, Every law book de-
L oY,lt t1,a
tion of the United States declares in unmis-
taxable terms what constitutes treason. The
trainers of that instrument, as if foreseeing
fully to what desperate equivoCations des-
perate faction might be impelled, took the
Unusual care to devote an entire, separate,
and distinct section to the definition of trea-
son, specifying the crime in these plain
words Treason against the United States
shall consist in leCyjHg 5CdT against them, or
in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid
and comfort The levying war makes the
treason. The war has been levied, and there
fore the. treason has been committed All
who engaged in the war participated in the
treason, and were traitors. That is the plain
English and plain truth Of it all, in spite of
bubble.
If the Southern people desire mitigation of
Judgment let them not begin by denying their
crime. Even the most brazen felon in our
docks don't venture to proceed in that fashion.
He admits the otfense, and puts in what eX-
tenuating circumstances he can.
The loyal men of the republic who made
such unheard-of sacrifices of blood and trea-
sure in order to break topieces this Rebellion,
however disposed they may be towards mag
nanimity and clemency, must insist upon it
that the thing which they waged war against
was no trifing peccadillo, or mere passing
weakness, but the most atrocious and abomi-
nable of all crimes. They cannot exculpate
the Rebellion without eliminating themselves
for having fought it, They feel that the
only way of justifying themselves, as well as
the truest way of guarding against its recur-
renee at any future day, is to fix the impress
sion of its unparalleled wickedness and to
perpetuate an undying hatred and horror
of it.
We search history in vain for any civil
crime which can be compared for a moment
in enormity with that which was directed
against our nationality. There have indeed
been just rebellions-great popular uprisings
which have upheaved old Governments and
established new. But history fails to show a
single instance of that kind which was not
caused by some forms of grievous oppression,
and these rebellions have uniformly been
made in the real or supposed interest of hu-
man liberty and progress. But this Southern
Rebellion did not come from any genuine pop.
ular movement at all. 1t was Matched in con-
spiracy. and developed in satantic misrepre-
sentation and fraud. The sole end of its
creation was the behoof of an institution
which all lovers of humanity and freedom
have abhorred. The treason was perpetrated
not as all other treasons of the age have been
against superannuated monarchy in the last
stages of decay, but against a free republic
filed with lusty vigor of youth, already the
envy and admiration of the world, and yet
but at the very start, as it were, of caree
grand beyondall example or conception. From
whatever point of view this treason is regarded
it stands out clearly and Enthusiastically unpar
alleled in human history. We are as yet to-
near to it fully to apprehend its real measure
ment. AS the traveller, when before tn
Pyramid of Ghizeh, finds it impossible t.
adapt his senses to its immensity, is half in
clined to count it no great affair after all
and only gets just notions of it when h
Withdraws to the distance and surveys it a
outlined against the sky, so we near observer
of this pre-eminent iniquity fail to estimat
its real proportions, and it will not be full
comprehended until viewed in the perspectiv
of history. 1t will be for the future Macau
lays and Hallams to gauge it and depict it i
all it's internal monstrosity But while W
wait for another generation to pass its eXaC
Judgment, don't ask this one to soften
down or to take it for anything else tina
what our everyday senses show it to be.
Nothing could be worse calculated to hel
on the cause of pacifcation. So far frol
winning the generous feelings of the heart
Iashes them all to an honest indignation. Ar
extent of charity and forgiveness, we say, fC
our brethren who were blinded and misle
with whom we hope to walk hereafter
oeace. but when we are asked to belle 8
truth and Justice, to call good that which