The National tribune., 1877-11-01
PENSION ALL OR PENSION NONE,

gusta (Georgia) Chronicle md Sentinel speaks the
voice of the great mass Of the South when it
says 1--WE are tired Of all buzzard and no tur-
key There must in future be a fair distribution
or else the thing must stop altogether, and we will
soon have if we have it not now. the power to
put on the brakes
1t has become fashionable among certain poll
tlcans In high places to diminish or wholly disre-
gard the vast difference in law and in conscience
between standing by the Union and standing in
arms against it Yet there was wrong and
right side in that quarrel There was patriotism
to save and rebellion to destroy, and they were
not equal in the sight of God or man Treason
remains a crime in the Constitution and the law
The levying of war against the United States was
and is treason
The motives that led masses of men into this
great crime were various, and differed in degree,
but the crime was the same
Some may have believed, in all honesty, that
it was their duty SO to do but the crime in the
act done is still the same Most of the great
crimes of the world have been perpetrated under
just such delusions. Men have burned others at
the stake for the glory of God, but history calls
them criminals Men may honestly believe in
Mormonism, but polygamy remains crime. The
Thugs of India consider murder as the highest
style of sacrifice to their accursed deity, but
British justice lawfully hangs them for the crime
The Communist believes that it is his mission to
equalize property, and his duty to destroy wealth.
but when he burns a house, we punish him for
arson.
The Rebels of the South sought to overthrow
the nation, they were conquered and forgiven,
but they must bear their part as they have means
and property in paying the salvage, and should
be grateful that such grace is allowed them
They are not they are restive; they threaten
what they will do In the near future; they gather
strength from the timeserving utterances of weak
kneed politicians, and do not know the solid
convictions of the vast mass of men who COM
pose the brain and hands of the country AS
| the hour approaches, which they believe will re-
cord the triumph of the South by securing the
| Legislative and executive branches of the Gov
ernment the mask occasionally drops, and they
venture to state publicly what they have always
said privately, as in this extract from the Mercuy
of Meridian, Mississippi
| The Confederates could and would not ask any
beneicences from the Government which manned and
destroyed them and devastated and laid their lands
and razed their homes because in daring TO try the
cusons of war, they dared TO abide its results. They
have nothing to ask OF the Government which despoed
them in fragrant war except that 1t shai not unjusty
despo them OF their substance in bestow upon
their soldiers of spoliaton In war; resisted and
sented the spoaton by all means authorized by laws OF
war; in peace as freemen and the equals and the peers
of any and all of the who opposed us in
to ourselves, to honor and pride of citizenship
oppose the poliaton by all lawful means that belong
in state of peace. Ii Mr. Merrimon HAD shaped his
repeating bill to abolish all the sections of the law which
pensions the soldiers who fought I'm the Federal army in
the civil he would have done what pride demands Of