The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1869-07-29
The Names Rebel
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and
From the New York Tines

ped ? Really this is becoming one
of the questions of the day. Mr.. F.
P. Blair, in his Long Branch
speech as reported by the secretary,
spoke Of a people ''who were once our
enemies, against whom we contended,
and whom we aspersed as rebels. :"
Mr.. A. II. Stevens in his late work
on the Civil War, not only carefully
avoids the use Of the word rebellion,
but takes especial pains to dispel all
such ideas concerning the war. The
Democratic party, universally, ever
since the struggle, have continued
to be very chary Of the word rebel.
It is yet almost as much tabooed by
them as it was during the very heat
Of the strife, when in high conven-
ton they simply styled the war an
irregular opposition. %
Of course all this expurgation Of
speech comes from complaisance
toward the South. Now in the in
terests of paci6cation we will always
be as scrupulous as anybody in
respecting the just sensibilities Of
the South. But we emphatically
protest against this way Of divorcing
vital things from their right names.
1t involves a sacrifice of constitutional
principle, and the Southern favor
that requires that is not worth
having. ''Words are things" said
Mirabeau, and it is absolutely true.
1t is an evil tendency everywhere
prevailing to gloss over the real
nature Of crime, by smooth designa-
tions-and to this habit is due not a
little of the prevailing laxity in
respect to all obligations. Crimes
will not be hated as they should be
hated, unless they wear their right
stigmas, and their right stigmas over
their right names-the names that
have always been associated with
disgrace. The right name for the
rebellion was CRIME. This thing
is as certain as any earthly thing
can be. It is fact which, to alter
one iota, would battle all the sophis-
try and all the audacity of Satan
himself. Every law book defines
treason to be a crime, and the Consti-
tuition of the United States declares
in unmistakable terms what consti-
tutes treason. The trainers of that
instrument, as if foreseeing fully to
what desperate equivocations desper-
ate factions might be impelled, took
the unusual care to devote an entire
separate, and distinct section to the
definition of treason, specifying the
crime in these plain words: ssTreason
against the United States shall con-
sist in levying aoar 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 therefore the treason
has been committed. All who en-
gagged in the war participated in the
treason and were traitors. That is
the plain English and the plain
truth Of it all, in spite of bubble.
If the Southern people desire miti-
cation 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 offence, and
puts in what extenuating circum-
stances he can.
The loyal men Of the Republic
who made such unheard-of sacrifices
Of blood and treasure in order to
break to pieces this rebellion, however
disposed they may be to magnanimity
and clemency, must insist upon ii
that the thing they waged war against
was no trihing peccadillo, or mere
passing weakness, but the most
atrocious and abominable of all crimes.
They cannot exculpate the rebellion
without eliminating themselves fol
having fought it. They feel that the
only way Of justifying themselves,
as well as the truest way of guarding
against its recurrence at any future
day, is to fix the impression of its
unparalleled wickedness, and to per.
petuate an undying hatred and horror
of it.
} We search history in vain for any
civil crime which can be compared
. for a moment in enornity with tha