Gerrit Smith On Peace

A very largo and appreciative audio:oe assenbl(jd Tburaday ovonincf at Cooper Instituto, to lisien tü the ílon. Gerrit Smitli, upon the subject : "Neithcr Loga] Mcrul Rigbt to ! Trv the ftébefij !r Treasou. Tho VVay o a Sure nnd eifttufing i'e.-ice not Through Poríidy and Vcrigó:mco, bú' i Through Juslice and Love.", Thn auI dience (vero evidently' al.so thoraughly i ib sympathy with tbo lectnrer's views j and greeted tlieir eloquent aiid poiíjted enuueiation with frequent aud 'heartv applajise, TU E LEOTlTItE Tfao powors of my voieo uro such, said Mr. Smith, that I fear I hall Dot be ahle to mako myaelf audible over al! this spaoiotis hall, but I shall do the best I can. Tlio South, in pluuging the tiation into thia war oommitted the great crime of tlic ago ; the North, under stroug mfiuer.ca Iroui the pross and pulpits to punish the South, is in danger of eomraiíting the moan crime of the age. [Applause] Lipa and pens no more influentinl tbao mine cau do but little to avert thts thing, but what little they can do shall be done; for, if this mean erime shall be oommitted, I shall want the eonsolation of knovviug that I, at least, have no responmbility. [Applause.] All over the North, "there is a clamor for blood of the leading rebels whom we have cnptured, and of those whom we havo yet !o capture. I have no sympathy with this class. [Applansy.] The South, hy Loe's surren' der, let bloodshed cease, and all punish ruent should cease. [Great applause J Of enurse, I h-ive no reference to the assassination of our beloved President, nor to the starviug of prisoners; letal! merited punishment fall on the auíhnrp of those infamous and infernal olimos. [Cheers.] My basis is siinply that tire South shall not be punished for the rebel ; or, to use otBer wordf. that the South shall not be puuished for treason. Now I do not say this because be ha- suffered, iu my judgment, enongh, or because the property of her peopla is wasted, and she s reduoed to desoíation ; I do not aay this because the Soulh has not beeD guilty oí treaaon ; but I say that she is not to bo punisimd for treason, because we have agroed that she shall not bo. tfe' carné into tbe ment - very rciluctantly I admit tü conduct this war acoording to tho rules of international hiw. Now, I hola that our coming into thia agreenient was a waiver - an entirs surrender of our righi to puuish the South for treason. [Applause ] That ivo eamo into thjs agroement to couduct the war acoording to the rules of war 3 manifost. WoVollowed othor nations, and acoorded to tlie South belligerent rights The Supremo Court of our nation unariimóuply acknowledged these rights of tho South. Moreover, we have aoted upon this agieemeut. Instead of pooiahment, of killing, of trying, convioting and punishing prisoners for treason, we have treated them as prisoners of war, as ene mies at war with us, and then, irom time to time, we haveexchanged prisouers for those the enerny has taken from us; there have beeu innumerable truueo botweon tho euemy and ourselves, for parole and other purposes, and there havo been formal as well as informal negotiations between the North and South. Why, on one occasion, we ree ogniz'jd hov dejado nationality, and all its outcoming diguities aud rights, by choosing for our Oouimissioners of Poaec the President himself, and the Seoretary of Stute ; these gentlemen did not vvait to have the Soulhern Commie ionera Koine to them suuigly aud pleadïngly, but they hopored tho Commis.ioners of the South by going more thun half w:iy to moot them. [Apphiuse.] Now, all Üiis, and muoh inoro tiiau thia, includin" especially our blockading of the South" orn porta, goes to show, beyond cóntroversy, that we agrcod wiih the enemy io conduet this war acoording to the laws of war, aud t-uch an ngroement is virtually an agreomont to treat priaonera as euemies in war. Now, Low ouiTiü wo to consent to coaduct trii war aocording to the laws of war ? In the firsl place, we caiue to do o because the 1 ws of war require it. Let mo road somo authoiities on this point. Vattel ays : " Uut when n nation bccomps divided into two partios, absolutely independent and no longer acknowledging a coiiiraon superior, thü State is dissolved and the war betwoen the two parties stands on the stme ground, in cvery respect, as a proper war between two different nations; and, they deoicled their quarrelfi by armies, ns two different iiations wouH do. The obligatioa to observe the oomraorl laws of war toward eaeh other is, therefore, absolutely, indispeneably binding on boih parties, and the saniu uhich the law of natioas imposed on all nations in transaotioüg botween State and State." Now, this is preeisoly our case, is it Dot ? [Applause) Vattol has adapted lus words as precieely to our oane is he could havo done if he had had it, and it only, in hia eye. For, buur iu niind, when the Southern half of this nation broke off irom the Northern half, it beciime a nation de facto juut as clearly as our part of the country booawe a natiou defacto, and eaoh had all the niaiíhinory tf a national government. Then, hnd we not just the same riijbts as in eonducting a war wit li M(;xico - do more, no k-ss. [Great cheering ] "Buï," somo will say, " Vattel lived more llinn a century ttgo." Yc and all the more shame to us if wo, iu this age of greuier iütolligeuce, oarinói li-e up to the upprcciiftion and gcherous eiila!1. cement of th principies whic-h he ro nobly advoeated. Now, I hold that we QUght to bc prcpared pnücias alto gefcher njorc liberal and humane I these. Weoiight to bo prcpared to take tho high ground tbat Uallrim, tbo ; unsurpassod publicist of our own age, who takes tho ground that the strifo or civil war in England in the middlo of (he sevonteenth ccntnry, which ondcd in tho executidn f (iharlos I, should have been conduclcd, from tho beginuing to tho end, according to tho laws of war, and that tho King's life should have boom spared. I will read what Hallam gaid. You must rëratmibei that bo died iu 1859, only six years ago. Tbo speaker thefi rcad from Hallam as follows : " Though Charlea' ádfrerentB did not form, as I think tliey did not, tho majority of the pcop'c, thoy wcre at least more numeroua, Leyond comparison, than thosc who demandod or believed in bis death. The steady, delibérate poreveranee of so oonsiderable a body, in auy cause, takés away tho right of punishment from tho conquerors, beyond wht their own safet.y requiros They are to be judged by rules of national, not municipal, war." [Applause.] And then we see how emphatioally Hallam ia er,dorsed by another of the largest minds of our day. Maoaulay, who dicd in the samo year as Hallam died- in '59, Macaulay saya : "Mr. Hallam deeidedly oondemns the exooution of Chrrlcs, and, in all that he says on that subject, we hearlily agree. We fully conour with hira in thinking that a great soeialism rucIi as the civil war." [How faint a resemblance that civil war bcars to our civil war, ora war between two nations !J- " We fully concur with hira in thinking that a great suoialism suoh as the civil war is uot to bo confounded with a mere rebellion of turbulent elementa coinposed of a diminutive minority of tho people. ñrmness is a great virtue in public life; but if has a proper mphere. Conspira' oies and insurrections, in which srnall minorities are engsged, the outbreaking o( popular violenee are best suppressed by vigor nnd decisión ; but nó wi.se ruler will confound a pervading rebellion with a slight local irritation. The neglect oí this diatinction has been fatal even to Government." Now, my next authority is Karl Welcher, a noble patrio' and eminent publicist of Germany. Welcher was bom as late as the year 1790. We will read what he says : " As tho leaders, the followers are also the moro or less punished, aa long as their party has not grovvn ao largo that a sincero belief oxists in its causo aa right nnd just- -with the consent of tlie uatiou, or with a división of the natioa taken place into two hostile camps. In tho latter oase, the rebollicn booomoa a civil War." Whon the nation is divided into two hostile cnmps, as in our country, the rebellion then becomes a civil war. [Applause.] Under pucIi circumstaneea, according to Wek-hcr, every citizen ia bound to declare himself for tho one or the other - to go either right or left { and then neither blaine nor punishment can reaoh him. Thon ihere nre only vlotors and vanquished - not loyalists and rebola; and, though it is difficult to Btato the precise moment when rebellion ceaaea and civil war conuuences, neverthelcss, it exists and theu the moment of mercy nnivos, the tinie to oxtend the amplest clemency, and to not punish at a!l. [öreat applause.] Now the last authority that I will oite is the nevv American Eiioyclopa)dÍ8, from tho ariiclü in itcntitlod '"Troason," whi.'h is said - I know not with what iruth - to be from the pen of our dis Anguished fellow-citizen, ür. Lciber. - rhat artiole suïks up the subject in a 'ow words. ïhe apeaker hero read from the articlo in (uestion, indorsing the authoritios already eited, and then continued : And now it may be well, having road' .heso authorities, to give jome roasons on which we may conccive these authoriies are based. Tho first reason is this : iVhen a nation breaks into two parts, lid eaoh a very considerable part, the )ülligerent8 on each side are too numeroua to bo troatod as traitors. " I coness," said Edmun.l Buike, " [ knor not how to framo nn indictuient againat a vhole poople. They are too iiutncrious o be treated as anything else hrt.it ''ás irisoneiH of war, and the objoctïon to reatíng thciu as anything else is by no means reheved by saying: "Tho final victor need not pui:ish tho final v'a'tj:uishod ; lio can punish a few of thèq) md pardon the rjmaiodor." Tbis rthos uot rolievö tbo case with me. (Horo tho appearanee of Horaco (i'reoy upon the platform caused an iutanupion, the erowd greeting him with bearty nd continued applause. Mr. Smitl hen resumed :) I liks this proof of an intelligent aulioiice, whose thoughts run ahead of' my words. [Laughtoï and fmther eheorng.] The noxt thing is ïhe pardon of bo guilt of treason, ;ind wheu the atigma of suoh a pardou falla up,on a great massof men, tho effect uponthenj is saa, ad upon the uommon tamilv, and a diraco to human nature. [Applause.J for one. I uin (.-uúríily unwilliug that t hall go down through all the ages and ner all the e;uth, that luillious of my oountrymen were pardoued ti.itors.- (rreat applanse.j Another reaaon is, why sueh a wur, a, civil war, espeoially uch a ono as ours, should bc oariied oa mder the laws of war. Whero groat nassi-3 of men take very momentous and very respon-iblc stops, it is not only haritable, but just, to conclnde that hey had a very sincere and deop conviction in the wisdenu and rightfuluoss of suph steps. [Applause.] Auotlnr reason why a civil war should bo on diifted aecoiding to the mies of war is this: Whero such yreut nuinliors of nuMi oarry on a wmv. ac miiv wi-11 1m eve there has been suflering otiough. - At the close of snob a war the voico of compasión exolnims : " Shall the sword devour iorever ï " " Put up thv sword." As it was said in behalf of the troublod Jews, " It s euough- stay now tliino hand," In the case of the rebellion in Ireland sonco sixteen or sevcnteon years ago, the British govennnent had the legal right to punish the insurgcnts, but it is gratifyiog to rae to kuow that government did not go so far as to punish one pf those wilh death, [Applause.] Would you have had our Washiugtou and Franfclin and theiv noble associates puuished tbr troasou ? [No, no.] Moreover, there inay yet bu niany" civil wars over ihe earth, aud many of them inay likely etart in the interest ol freedom. JN'uw, is it for America to set the precedent of pumshing a vauquished fou ? - ( Cries of "yes" and "no."] Now and then orowned heads will euccoed in suppressing the hopes ot' freemcu. It is for America to put it in the power of these ciowned hoatls to folio w hor example in treating tho vanquishod as t:aitora [A voice iu the audience : Mr. Smitb, let me ask you oue question. Do you mean' to compare Washington and Franklin to Jeff. Davis ?J [Cries of put hini out, &c] Mr. Suiith : let me reply to this gentleman. He virtually says tbe oause of Washington and Franklia wasjust, and thereforo Washington and Franklin should not be puuished as traitors, but in the event of the failure of their purpose then thia objector will go on to say, the causo of Davis aud Lee is unjust, and therefore they should be punishod for that. I believo witli the objector, the cau3e of Washington and Franklin to have beenjust - the cause oí Lee and Davis to have been unjust; now suppose one of these crawncd hoads that I refer to should sueceed in suppressiug the hopo of freemon; now ray objector meets all this and says rny cause is a just one and their's is an unjust one. and therefore there is causo to hang. [Tremendous cbeering.] The objector miatook me. I was dcaling with general principies, not with general causes, Now tbe time may como ere long when the Hungariaus will rise again to assert their right to indopendence, and perhaps Austria ahall be able to suppress them. God iorbid that Austria should tben have the noblest oí all exarnples in her bohalf. The day inay come when all Ire!and will risc up [applause], when oppresscd Ireland vvill rise up- I cali her oppressod, uot beoause I fall in with all that are to support a religión alien to their own. [Applause.] I say it may come when oppressed Ireland will rise up with great unanimity against EngSand, as the Southeru part of our country did ; and supposo the English gavernment will again be able to defeat her, will you allow this governtnent to gire an examplo ia behalf of blood ? - [Never, never ] Oh, I cannot believe that niy upright government, with that brave and strong patriot, Andrew Johnson, [great applause] would propose a breach of faith. I would oall these vanquished foes my brothers, they are dear to my heart of hearts ; why, I would loathe myself if I had a partiële of batred- or revengo for them. [Applause.] It we havo hated them when they were our armed foes, ob, cannot we love them now when they are our fallen foea ? - [Applause.] Now, I have spoken these words of kindness for our Southern brothors ; let us cali them brothors - it wout burc us, it will bless us. There is thjs crime of starving, from whence did that crime come ? It came from the pro-slavery spirit - from that spirit whieh denied all rights to the black man, and did not this spirit come from the Nortb as well as the South? Let no man deny it. Now, there is the assassination of our late Presideuth wliere came that from ? Not from the South. No, it came from the pro slavery spirit, and that spirit dwells iu Northern bosoms as well as iu Southern, and as intensely in one aa in the other. Now, do not mob me out of the house, and I will say what I am going to say. [Laughter.] I ask whether Jiootb, even 13ooth, was not tho product of tho North as well as the .South ? - I ak you, was he not mulded by the Northern pulpit and Northern presses as well as by Southern presses and Southern pulpits and Southern usages ? There is one of my hearers seeins to doubt it. [Laughter.] A voice in the audience - " It's only a crazy Frenchman."] There never was a worse sight in the South than that which was seen less than two yeara ago inyour own city, when the negroos were hung and burned. ■ You need not go farther away thau your city for such scènes. I want a littlo change for the South. She must havo no more slavery. [Applause.] Her great landed e&taies must be brokon up, and her poor must have them - not our sóldiers; wo can pay our soldiers, and they should be paid well. [Cries, "Thal's so.'M, And next, an utter repudiation of ths Southern debt ; the North oannot consent to take a mortgago on tho South ; and there is one thing more-, to the loyal bslongs the ballot-box. [Great applause.J I cannot transmute a traitor into a loyal man, by having him ropeat twelve words, and kiss a book, - [applause] - while all the di-doyal must be kept away from tho ballotbox. [Applausa.] The masses íor some ten or a dozen years, and the U'adors for life, well, you will say, this will be punishment certainly. Not at all so intended. Some eay the black man must not vote. What shall I. say unto this class of gentlemen ? "Yerily, verily I say unto you, ye must bo bom again." [Great applause.] Nover, till you are bom again, will you get rid of your caste spirit and contempt of race, and then you will sec that there is no ether fault so great,, fto other ingratitude so base, as to take from the hands of these black soldiurs the inuskets with which they havo saved us. ILc concluded with a glowing eulogy npon the ate President,, whioh was recoivcd with further dcuioustrations of euthusiastio applause.