Year: 1868




When Gen. JEFF. Thompson, the
swamp fox, surrendered at jackson
port, he harsngued his disbanded men
and advised them to go to their
homes, keep out of politics, and obey
the laws as good citizens. He re-
minded them that when, the year be
fore, they went into Missouri, it was
threatened to make "every Union
man climb tree" and that it would
have been done had they been success
full in arms. And now, said JEFF,
"do you think that those Union men,
whom you threatened with the hal
ter, are going to permit you to come
and live among them and have all the
privileges they enjOy7 Not much"
But JEFF. has lived to see them return
to their homes unmolested, and the
privileges which he was certain would
be denied, extended to them in fuller
manner than they cOnld have then an
ticipated. But JEFF. went on to tell
them some very plain truths, and to
give some very good advice, Said
he:


"Do rot complain If yOu are not per-
n1itted to hare a UOice IN elections and
eiUiI affairs. You haze forfeited all
such rights, and 1t nom becomes yOU to
submit to such latos and regulations as
the Federal authorities may deem prop
er to enact I believe, and know that
they will do the best they can for you,
especially if you show hencefOrth that
you desire to merit their confidence
by a strict obedience to the laws
where you may reside. We are con-
|Yuered, su5jugGted; a0e hare no rights,
but must accept such priUiLeges and fa-
-VOrs as the GoUernn1e'at may see proper
to 6estOl0 upon as"


There was not one active participant
in the rebellion who did not, at the
Eclose of the war, take Thompson's
view of their situation. They knew
they had forfeited all political rights
had no rights, in point of fact-and
were in no condition to make demands
upon the Government of the United
States.


It is wholesome in these days when
rebels wax wroth and abuse the Gov
eminent as an outrageous tyranny
because it does not Immediately put
them in the way of ruling the country
and filling its offices, to remind them
in the language of one of their own
number, Of the situation they were in
when forced to surrender their arms
and conclude the war. What mag
unanimous government has done to
relieve them of the pains and penal
ties of their own acts is in the nature
Of grace, not concession; and if they
had any conception Of its true charac-
ter, they would see the broad distinc-
tiOn which exists between a favor be-
slowed and a right recognized. Had
it been determined by the victor that
they should have no voice in political
and civil affairs during the remainder
Of their lives, they would have no
just cause of complaint. The whole
machinery of the seeded States might
have been set up and put in position
without reference to them or their
wishes, and not a single conquered
rebel would have had any occasion to !
murmur.


We are sometimes doubtful wheth-
er the severer would not have been
the wiser policy. Mistaking the
character Of the clemency shown them
they demand, with unparalleled insO-
Ience, to be treated as though they /
had been victorious in the war of
their own bagetting, and were confer
ring favors by allowing Union men
to live among them by sufferance.--I
The pretence that they are the spec
ial wardens of constitutional liberty;
and, by their devotion to the Union,
pre-eminently entitled to administer
its affairs, as their fathers did before
them, shows the sublime assurance
whicha man may reach who, with
pardon for his crime in his pocket, /
goes to a defrauded partner, and de-
mands to be reinstated in the manage
ment ola business he had zealously /
striven to ruin. The words of JEFF. |
Thompson should suggest some whole
some reflections to such persons, and |
check their noisy clamor for a pOliti-
cal restoration that will give to them,
in q modified form, all that they haz-
arded on the fortunes of war.-CCin.
Com.