Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1871-01-13
uN1vERsAL AMNESTY.


IN a paper contributed to the bsae
1beszaeasf discussing the celebrated Hart
ford Convention, Prof. TAYLOR LEWIS
gives his views of the indiscriminate and
unconditional amnesty of all who were
responsible for the late rebellion. Prof
Lewis shows that the Democratic party
has always been clamorous for the pun
ishment of the participants in the Hart
ford Convention as guilty of treason,
and has uniformly assumed that to
have taken a part in that affair was
national crime. for which no am
nesty was allowable. He compares this
position with the attitude now assumed
by the Democracy toward the late reb-
els and proceeds to say:
Hanging hanging under the articles
of war-such was the sentence pro-
nOunced IN the one case, where the trea-
son was almost invisible. So swore the
democratic chieftain, and so applauded
Democratic leaders, who are now de-
manding for rebellion the remission of
all forfeiture, moral and social, as well
as penal. 1t IS not simply the sparing
of life and property-that the nation has
already done with a magnanimity to
which history shows no parallel; II IS not
simply pardon that is claimed; but am
sesty (a0zHeSfeia), forgetfulness, oblivion
of all demerit, full restoration to all the
high places of the land. They are to be
congressman again, and judges, It may
/ be, for the presidential chair. They are
to Iegislate for the nation they did their
best to destroy; they are to decide on
| the claims of widows and orphans whom
their own hands have made; they are
to be trusted in providing ways for the
payment or the reputation of the heavy
debt their own most causeleSS and
bloody treason has rendered necessary
/ We would not moralize upon it. The
| bare statement of the case is sufficient
The act would be 7UvOng, unjust; and
no seeming expediency could ever make
it right, or truly expedient. 1t would be
demoralizing to the national conscience
/ It would sink at once that high mora
ground which gave support and strength
] to the almost superhuman exertions re
quired for the suppression of this dire
rebellion. There is no moral fallacy
more mischievous than this attempt tt
throw a mantle over the atrociou!
crimes, by giving them the name of ''po
litical offenses." We may well ask, II
the words of Scripture WHO slew al
these Who filed our land with grave:
and our houses with mourning There
has been a great crime committed some
where, and it cannot be condoned By
any empty formulas of speech. Th'
moral sense in respect to all crime mus
fall with such impunity, and no create
calamity than this can happen to a peo
pie. No damage that falls within th'
statistics of political economy can be
compared with it. On the score of ex
pediency, too, there is an imperative de
mand that the treatment of this cas'
should be such as to make it a higl
warning example in the very beginning
of our national history, lest treason
should become too cheap. and the afro
ciousness of seeking the life of such !
government as ours should dwindll
down, as it seems to be now dwindling
to the idea of a mere party strife.
has been called a civil war; but ever
that name, bad as it sounds, falls shor
of its atrocity. A civil war is a violen
contest for supremacy III a nation. leav
ing the nationality untouched. This wa
an attempt to destroy its very existence
! 1 1t was not mere COnSuluIOH-DICdklI
but national murder. Let our politi
clans look to it. Acute as they ma,
deem themselves. they have read his
tory in vain if they do not see that Of
the true idea entertained of this opening
case depends the question whether
shall stand alone, or be the introduc
ton to a long series of such "civi
! wars, or political differences, if the,
choose to call them so. Five year
since half million lives were requires
to save US from national destruction
, and it is proposed to throw the mantl
of amnesty, of oblivion, over the who'll
of ito act as though it had never been
This cannot be done. 1t will appea
again in its direfuI Consequences. Mos
falIacious is the idea that our ciYiliza
ton, our railroads, ourpolitica1 economy
our newspapers, or even our nomina
Christianity, have made US an exceptioi
to the course of human history, or rer
dered useless to US the solemn warnin
that comes from other republics. A civ
il war permitted to pass with impunit
never stands alone. Still more certai
is it to generate others, if its actors ar
not only unpunished, but restored to
participation, and, as happens in almos
every case. to a supremacy in nations