The Portland daily press., 1876-01-13
Mr.. Blaine and Amnesty.

MI. Bialne>S mastery speech in the debate
on the amnesty bill commands the closest
attention of the whole country, and extorts
admiration even from his opponents. Its ar
raignment of Jefferson Davis as the man
who is responsible for the savage atrocities at
Andersonville and Libby is terribly severe
but just judgment upon one of the greatest
crimes in the history of civilized rations.
Mr.. Cox characterizes il as "a red and stormy
speech" 1t was of necessity so, for the pig
ment in which that historical picture is
painted is the blood of $4,000 Union soldiers.
Mr.. Cox further characterized the speech as
an "anathema maranatha against the South"
This charge is an unjust one. Mr.. Blaine
expressly acquits the Southern people of re-
sponsibiity for the Andersonvlle horrors.
What he does do, boldly and justly, is to call
to account the author OF those horrors. The
treatment of our soldiers while prisoners in
the South is crime which we owe to man.
hood and TO vilization not to forget. Char
itY is mandatory, but it does not require that
the murderer shall go free, or that his offense
shall be condoned, swept away, utterly for
SOoeNh' ~ SOAldihiy OOCo uOb lSQuiI0 LudI we
shall open to him the way to the judges seat.
The very bo!dness of the speech commands
the unwilling admiration of Mr.. Blaine's
bitterest opponents. Its delivery was a man.
ly, just and noble act. The speaker threw
aside personal considerations altogether, for
got or ignored the timid and non-committal
policy which presidential candidates tradi-
tionally entertain, ran the risk of alternating
many warm personal friends and admirers,
and spoke with the heat and power bern of
conscientious CONVICTION and the sense of
justice. This dauntless intrepidity, this lofty
scorn of mere policy, this sacrifice of person.
al advantage to the demands of justice, is the
more praiseworthy because it was not re-
quired. The candidate for presidential hon.
ors is in a sense exposed to the same ''fierce
light which beats upon the throne;;' and pub
lie opinion and sense of fair-play permit
him to be silent when others may speak, and
tolerate and even commend wariness in the
expression of opinion and avoidance of top
les which may provoke personal hostility.
The matter of Mr.. Blaine's speech is as
worthy of commendaton as his holiness in
delivering it. The Southern rebels have been
treated with mercful consideration hitherto
unknown in the history of nations. OF the
whole number engaged in the rebellion but
seven hundred and fifty men there are who
have not been restored to the full privileges
of citizenship. Ofthese seven hundred and
fifty all save one, Mr. Blaine proposes to ad-
NIT to full amnesty on the just and easy con-
dition that they take the oath OF allegiance.
He does not propose to thrust forgiveness
unasked upon men who, like Robert Toombs,
scornfully refuse to consider themselves citi-
zens of the United States. The one excep-
tion made is Jefferson Davis, the very head
and front of the rebellion; and this man is
not excepted because of his prominence as
executive Of the Confederacy, but because of
his connivance at murder. 1t would be
reasonable and not unjust to exclude him
from amnesty for political reasons, to make
him as the representative of secession the one
example of punishment, to let him stand
forth conspicuously as the one American shut
out from the councils of the nation because
of the inyincible distrust in which he is held
by his countrymen, as in the old palace of st.
Mark at Venice the most conspicuous in the
long line of the portraits of the Doges is that
of the traitor Marino Faliero with its face
turned to the WALL Jefferson Davis stands
convicted before the tribunal of history of a
crime darker than his political offense, though
that attempt was at the life of his country.
1t is but scant justice that he is only SUBJ
jected to the inadequate punishment of ex-
clusion from the full rights of citizenship. But
while that is trifing it serves to mark for all
time the condemnation in which he and his
cause are held by the American people.
While the North are willing and anxious to
bury all causes of animosity between them
selves and the South, while they eagerly seek
restoration of friendship between the two
sections, they cannot in proper selfrespect
and in justice to their dead soldieIy condone
the horrible offence of Andersonville or re-
store to trust and confidence the man who
authorized it. This sentiment is not one
formed by political leaders from partisan
motives. 1t comes up from the people. While
they are not vndictively inclined, while they
ask that no punishment be meted out, they
can never be brought to open TO jefferson
Davis the path to places of honor and trust.
And Mr.. Blaine's manly attitude, his noble
speech so palpably free from personal motive,
so evidently dictated by the conscience and
the heart, in so marked contrast to the flip
pant reply of Mr.. Cox, will draw to him the
respect and admiration of many who have
hitherto feared that his ambition for aggran-
dizement was leading him to concede princi-
pie in order to augment his personal popu-
larity.