The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-01-05
rh- Terrible snake Bite,

A late number of the Philadeiphis
nouirpr, au intemperate Radical organ
says:
He president JohnSon) mas ioilowet .et
nm biS advocacy eli tho eX-rebels by th'
;Isr;ng oC a proclamation extending
nnivrTsal amnesty and pardon 10 al
thot host of traitor leaders when th'
onrr,Ied sentiments and indignan
voice of the country had proscrlDeu
Rnt he takes nobody by surprise. 70
n long time, at varions ihterNaIs' III, H.,
nations have reached throughout Ih'
land that such was his purpose lGlo
graphic news this morning sno" tra rS,
Iisintention has merged loto 1ae1' ln'
last bite of the serpent mas Oeeb tn'
most severe. All now escape, ana thS
hundreds of thousands ot slaughtered
heroes who gave their lives for natleD
have no vengeance. Davis, Slidell,
Thompson, Breckinridge, Mason, all are
free. The man who has rendered them
SO ia contrayention of loyalty and Jns-
tice, is Andrew Johnson.
The Louisville Courier Journal thus
comments:
The IHgairer calls President JOHNSON
serpent" 1t no doubt thinks him q
lineal descendant of the snake that
coiled himself around the forbidden tree
in the Garden of Eden, and talked with
his fOrked tongue so winningly to our
good, though rather frail, mother EVE,
inducing her, by his devilish cunning,
to play the devil generally.
But it seems that The big snake,
coiled around the tree OF Power at
Washington, hot only talks but "bites."
And the Philadelphia paper says that
''his last bite has been most severe"
And this last bite is his proclama-
tiOn Of amnesty Oh the day Of our Lords
nativity. We should like to know who
we've the poor victims into whom the
yeDomuus snake struck his crooked
faugs. Did they die, or did they recover
by the free use of whisky, that estah-
lishcd antidote TO snake poisonsH
What d happy thought it was on the
part of the Philadelphia paper to call
a proclamation of amnesty and elem
ency the bite of viper, rattlesnake,
or a cobra. And, mark you, the Radical
editor thinks this bite of the snake the
most dreadful of all his bites. The
Radicals claim that President JOHNSON
I'VE drop the snake) has for. more than
tbreQ Years, by withstanding recon
struct.0u, resisting Congress, and by
other means, piled upOn the country
hills and mountains of evils and lnIur-
les from which it cannot for very long
time. if ever, Tecoger: but all these
things are irines in Radical estimation
IN comparison with the deadly act OF
nprmitting \ few eXiled ex-rebeIs to re-
turn, four years after the war, to their
own country in which hundred thou
sand other ex.rebels rs guilty rs they
Gf there is any guilt in the case) have
had the privilege of remaining ever
since the close of the war.
Ali now escape" groans the shocked
and afflicted Philadelphian, and the
hundreds of thousands of slaughtered
heroes, who gave their lives for ma
tion, have no vengeance Well, this is
certainly the worst of the whole affair.
II is perfectly awful. a few cN-rebels
being pardoncd, our buried WARRIORS
alas, are utterly without vengeance
The Radical idea is that they have been
for nearly four years peering mp through
the sods of their graves, or gazing down
from the blessed heavens, and feeding
fat their vengeance upOn the sight OF
DAVIS. SLIDELL, BEECKINRID~E, Mason
and THOMPSON in cXil', bat that, as
,hrsc gentlemen bave at last received
amnesty, the poor spirits, horribly
WIongcd 10y the clemency, must go on
mourning through all eternity without
Vengeance and without consolation.
Alas poor ghosts"
The Philadelphian is guilty OF an
atrocious slander upOn the fallen brave.
Ne have no doubt that the whole OF
them, if conscious of what passes upon
The earth, and able TO speak to living
ears. would have raised their awtHl
voices for universal amnesty years ago.