Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-02-16
Southern Swagy~.
The Charleston Is. C.) Nee, saws.

HE Charleston g. c. Nens saws:
The sooner the people Of the United states come
70 the understanding that Sontherner Is an
united " "'''
1t detracts from the virtue Of magma.
nimity to boast of it, and it is unpleasant
TO be forced to remind people OF the graft
tude they owe; but the constant rei,eration
OF the above sentiment by the Southern
press and by Southern orators necesstates
the declaration that such utterances are
childish, puerile, and unworthy even of a
very low order of intelligence. There are
upward of sixty members of the House OF
Representatives who are not American
citizens by their owr right, within the
scope and meaning of the Ne,cs article.
They are citizens by the grace of the men
they are abusing and the people they
SANDER. This fact is so plain as to hard
ly require demonstration. As we'll might
a convict, pardoned from the penitentiary,
assert that he is q complete citizen "by
his own right" and mot by anybody's
grace" as for the editor Of the Neics to do
so. Putting the mildest construction upon
the acts of the Southern people, they re-
rebellion, and there is one law for
rebels throughout the world Their
lives and their property become for.
felt They can retain neither except by
the grace of theconqueror. Does the Ne,cs
pretend that the Government could not
have legally tried and executed Jefferson
DavisY And if it could have tried and
executed him, why not million of his
followers. who are pronounced by the
law equally guilty? We do not speak of
what would have been policy, or what
would have been humane, but of what
would have been legal, and in the eye Of
of the law, Just. Radicals" did not
make the Constitution, which defines
treason, nor the laws regulating It's pun
ishment. They were made by the North
and South, acting together. One OF the
parties violated the provisions therein
contained, and by their own declarations
were liable to the punishment prescribed.
They were not punished; they were re-
stored, pardoned; and yet the Ne,os lmpu-
IDENTIFY asserts that they are occupying
their present position by their own
right" and mot by anybody's grace"
Take the present case Of jeff Davis. He
is now disqualified from holding places of
honor or profit under the Government be.
cause of the part he took in the rebellion.
If it is true that his fellow conspirators
are American citizens "by their own
right" what prevents him from exercis-
ing all those privileges of a citizen which
are permitted to so may of his brethren in
in guilty. Now, suppose a general Am
nesty bill should pass, and that the dis
abilities resting upon Davis should be
thereby removed? Should we have ii
thrown in our faces by such papers as the
Ne,os that Mr. Davis had the right to sit in
Congress or the Presidential chair, and no
thanks to anybody. Surely, there is little
inducemcnt to exercise clemency, II this
is the spirit in which it is to be
received. The Ners cannot escape by
alleging that it uses the word " citizen" in
its limited sense, merely. What 1t plainly
means is, that the South is entitled to all
the privileges which it now enjoys by its
own right, and "not by the grace of any.
body" Indeed, this is the way it puts Il
in another part of the article. As we said
in the beginning, we dislike to be con
stantly reminding these people OF the obli-
cations they are under; but what other
course is left when they so plainly forget
such obligations, and continually declare
that they are under none whatever The
trouble with the South Is, that it forgets
that ii did not succeed in the late war. II
demands to be treated as if it were the
conqucror, and not the conquered; and,
strange enough, the demand has been
largely complied with! Says the Nsos
again:
All the leeks that southcrners intend to swallow
were swallowed before last November. The sup
ply is exhausted; the vegetable does not flourish
in this latitude. Sontherner IL as much an
American citizen rs a Northener Ia. The South
is in the Union. and intends to stay in. and ne
South mans 10 MAKE IL sound Whoiesome, consti-
tai0nni Union. instead Of The CENTRALIZED despot-
ism that Mr.. 1haddens Stevens desired.
Even if all this Is true it is pretty big
talk for people 10 indulge in who were
whipped into submission. 1t is not only
big talk, but it is unbecomng, and smacks
of the Bardolph and Pistol swagger, which
grew threatening and terrible in proper
ton as The danger diminished. We dare
say that the warlike Pistol could have
been induced to swallow another leek
quite easily If the same persuasion" had
been used the second time, ana the Neps
should remember this.
We sincerely deprecate all this recrimi-
nation, but the South seems determined to
ignore the past in toto. 1t has the bad
taste to get up, through its representatives
in Congress, and reassert the same oil
hcresics which it took four years OF war to
settle. 1t comes back clarifying the lead
ers Of the rebellion, celebrating its vic
tories, defending its outrages, and prac-
ticing the same old system Of ostracism
toward Northern residents which pre-
vailed before the war. We tell its repre-
sen.atives now, that, although this spirit
ana their acts may be tolerated for awhile,
spirit will yet be awakened that will
sweep them and their doctrines into
irrecoverable disgrace. This nation will
never become the eulogist of treason. Dis
Loyalty will never become the peer of pa