New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-12-28
TWO Or THREE BLUHDERS.

| lowers of the late rebellion. Wnen, now
ever, the glove is thrown down, it is due
to the community to see that history II
not falsifed, andot to prevent, SO far al
may be, the formation Of erroneous opin
ions upon the actual facts. Therefore
though the duty be far from agreeable,
we must notice, to correct them, two o.
three blunders which appeared in the
Times Of the fifteenth inst.
That paper, of that date, speaking Of
the late Confederate General Robert E.
Lee, said:
That his course involved no act of treason
of technical treason, under the law, has
been abundantly proved by the failure OF
the United States to institute any prosecu.
tons for that high felony against the parties
engaged in the sO-called rebellion; and by
the still more distinct fact that both the
judicial and legislative branches Of the gov.
eminent have affirmed that an indictment
for treason would not lie against such par
tics-that the law Of treason did not reach
their cases.
We must dissent as well from the logic,
as from the most important allegations OF
fact Of this extract Because the United
States officials have failed to institute any
prosecutions for treason (Which in point
of fact is not true), it does not follow that,
in their judgment, no technical treason
was committed. At most, this can only
be considered as one possible, ofmapy other
possible reasons, why they have not at
tempted more prosecutions.
There is such virtue, or was, as mag
nanimity. 1t has been said, that "the
hour of victory is the hour for its exer-
else" It is not clearly impossible for
Northern and Southern Union men to pos
sess this virtue, and to be, and to have
been controlled by it. We think it has
had potent influence with many Of our
highest Federal officials. Intense, bitter,
sectional hate, and thirst'for vengeance.
if they have existed among the leaders Of
the Union party, so-called, have not, by
any means, been confined to that party,
nor to that section of the country where
that party is now, and was during the war,
in the majority. It would not be difficult
to quote from the lips of jefferson Davis,
words as bitter as ever were uttered by
Wendell Phillips. Even while war ragged
there were connected with the direction
and management of our national affairs,
men of large, tender, magnanimous hearts,
who grieved when blood flowed on either
side, who rejoiced when the carnage ended,
and who were resolved that the course of
our government should be liberal and
merciful one.
Had the tables been turned would a
similar practice have prevailed?
Suppose that during those days when
the Republican party was in small
minority the leaders of that party, find
ing themselves defeated at the polls, had
appealed from ballots to bullets and had
been defeated, as they surely would have
been would those leaders have got off
short of pulling hemp2 Would not al
most the entire country (not to confne it
to the entire South) have demanded their
blood?
Before answering these questions in the
negative let US call to mind the wagon
loads Of indictments for treason, which
were Matched out in Kansas under pro-
slavery manipulation, when the attempt
was made to fasten slavery, forever on
that young territory. Suppose the bit
terness then existing had been then in
tensified by actual war with success on
the side of the slavery propagandists,
would there have been no hangings to
commemorate the final victory? Perhaps
not. But if magnanimity then would
have spared us such horrors, why may it
not have done as much now.
Or, if the Times will insist that no man
of those,who were loyal during the war
can be magnanimous, it still remains
that policy may have seemed to dictate
that there should be no prosecutions for
treason. Or, further, the officials may
have been deferred by the probable diff.
Guilty then of getting impartial, and at
the same time intelligent iuries in the
State of Virginia, or in States further
South and probably all will agree that
such prosecutions should have been in
stituted Immediately after war ceased, or
never. Many who felt that Jefferson Davis
should have been prosecuted to convic-
ton, felt also that the proper time had
gone by before anything practical had
been done against him in court.
We have said enough to show how
illogical is this first position of the Times,
and we do not care to press the argument
further.
The other proposition is not warranted
by the facts. II is not true that both the
judicial and legislative branches of the
United States government have affirmed
that an indictment for treason would not
lie against such parties" 1t may be that
some one judge has so intimated. More
Than one may have done SO, though we
do not know that even one has: but this
does not commit that branch of the gov
to any such doctrine, nor, we
venture to predict, will such an aftirma-
ton ever emanate from the court of last
resort, so long as its judges are worthy to
be called lawyers. So, too, it may be,
that Congress has passed law which
Furnishes with something short of death
acts for which an indictment for