The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-12-22
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for injuries long dwelt on take away at
last all rest. and he sleeps but like
Reguluss who busieth his head about
them" Thus would read the Chris
tian lesson, inspired by Him who spake
as never man spake. Thus would l
commend to the gentleman from Ohio
! a rest from his labors in the politics of
hate-a sleep. rest of Christian kind
ness, aloof from the carking care of
politics.
Mr.; Lawrence-May interrupt my
4friend2 e.a4s9 ~ 80
MI. Cox-I would invite my friend
to be Christian in the best sense, to
come up to the anxious bench. Laugh.
ter
MIR. LAWRENCE would like
Mr.. Cox-If my friend will proceed
to the front, to the Clerks desk, and
kneel, we will have prayer for his con-
version from heathenism. Laughter.
And we will do more; we will have a
love-feast and class-meeting over his
conversion TO the Christian faith.
Laughter.
Bnt, Mr.. Speaker, am not hopeful
OF my friends conversion till he joins a
Christian Church or the Democratic
party.
To be generous and clement, Mr..
Speaker, is part of the nobility Of
human nature. 1t is in one sense the
highest philosophy for self preserva-
ton to be just and kind. 1t is not only
noble and selfish at once, but knightly
to the highest degree of refinement.
The paladin in the tournament who, dis
comtited, lowered his lance before the
adversary, ever received generous
hand to lift him up. When Rome was
racked by civil war, Cicero summed up
the duty of the patriot in an appeal to
a new method of conquering; fortify
the republic with kindness and liberal
ity. Montesquieu received and gave
the same spirit of the laws" when he
said the rebellion. but not the rebels,
should be destroyed All rebels ought
to return as soon as possible into the
usual track OF the Government
But the best lesson for leniency is
found in the events which followed the
great English civil war Charles II.
was restored because of his kingly word
that mo crime shall ever rise in judg-
ment to the least encouragement OF lie,
liberty and estate" He conjured them
ito perfect union" Cavalier and
Roundhead embraced, and the realm
was happy-for time. The kingly
word was broken; and the new revolu-
ton Of 1888 came in like flood.
England forgot, "a we have forgotten
this lesson. England lost America be-
cause she forgot it; and the South is
pinned even yet to the Union by bayo-
nets because We have forgotten it.
There are cases of mistaken. though
sublimated heroism, which, though &C
counted treason, it is best to look at
from apolitical and not from a criminal
stand. point, The royalist would have
saved Scott, Harrison, Clrew and 9th
ers, in 1860, had these men, with true
Puritan courage, appealed, even as our
rebels appealed, to the Great Judge
Who that has read Hume's tribute to
General Harrison will forget the great
courage and elevation Of sentiment
with which he met the court ?"
(Hume, vii. page 3l5) In wiser
spirit than that of the Stuarts in En-
gland or the Georges in Scotland, the
first Napoleon, in 1895, endeavored to
save Lafond, and did save General Me
nou, even against their own rash and
romantic obstinacy.
1t is said there are only a few excep,
tons in this bill; but they are leaders,
and the object Of such a bill is to pla-
cate their followers as well. Content
ment is the object, and not personal re-
lief or personal revenge. Let us make
the people, south and north, united and
tranquil.
Mr.. Burke summed up the philoso-
ply and practice of amnesty in his
speech on Cancellation with America.
Referring to the policy pursued towards
Wales, he said
wales within itself was in perpetual
disorder. Benefit from it to the State
there was none Parliament endeavored
to subdue the fierce spirit OF the Welsh
by all sorts OF rigorous laws. You find
no less than fifteen acts of penal regula,
ton on the subject Of Wales.
Here we rub our hands-a fine
body of precedents for the authority Of
Parliament. | admit it fully and pray
add likewise to those precedents that
all the while Wales rode this kingdom
like an incubus; that it was an unprof
liable and oppressive burden, and that
an Englishman travelling in that coun'
try could not go six yards from the high
road without being murdered.
1.-THE march Of the human mind is
slow. 1t was not until after two hun
dred wears discovered that, by an eternal
law, Providence hath decreed vexation
to tvrants and poverty to rapine. But
when different policy is inaugurated,
from that moment as by charm, the
tumult subsidized, obedience was re-
stored; peace, order, and civilization
followed. When the day star OF the
English constitution had arisen in their
hearts all was harmony within and
without.
The same effects would have followed
amnesty in 1865 in this country. A
generous plan may still have the same
benefits. But this bill OF prescription
for the political errors Of ten years ago,
and of amnesty for the criminals and
tools of reconstruction, the thieves,
murderers, perjurers, and spoilers of the
South, under the color Of the recon-
struction laws will be as Intellectual for
good effect as the proscriptive policy of
( Charles II. after the magic of his mag
unanimous word; and as efficacious for
bad results as the policy OF Lord North
toward the North American colonies.
: Il 4 II L.