Franklin Repository

The time must be near at hand when Jefferson Davis will be tried, paroled or discharged, and the sooner one or the other is done, the more creditable it will be for the government. It seems clear that the President is determined that Davis shall not be punished, and he has persistently refused any sort of a trial that could possibly endanger his life, liberty or property.

Without pretending to determine whether Davis could be convicted of treason, it is enough to know that it is too late to punish him in that way, when most of his associates in crime have been pardoned, and some of them would now be our law-makers had the President been able to carry out his policy. As to his alleged complicity in the Booth conspiracy to assassinate Mr. Lincoln, we do not pretend to express an opinion. The investigation of the subject has been carried on privately, and there may be evidence on the point of which the public is not advised. If there is sufficient testimony to warrant a judicial investigation, there should be a trial as promptly as the interests of justice will allow.

We do not apprehend, however, that Jefferson Davis either will be, or should be, tried for treason or the assassination of Mr. Lincoln; but there is one charge preferred against him which the government should not overlook. It has been charged that the starvation and cruel neglect of prisoners in Andersonville, Belle Island, Saulisbury and other points, was a part of the system of warfare deliberately adopted by Davis, and the appalling atrocities practiced upon our brave men in rebel prison-pens gives the strongest possible color of truth, to say the least, to the fearful accusation. It is not questioned that our prisoners were murdered in every conceivable manner, some of them by the most studied cruelties. Werz, the creature of Davis, who was subject to the orders of his chief, and who was continued in his place as executioner long after the whole civilized world had revolted at the barbarities of Andersonville, was tried, convicted and executed as an inhuman monster. His death was pronounced an act of mercy to mankind; but while he is thus condemned, what must be said of his chief? Had Davis ordered it otherwise, the shivering maniacs of Andersonville might have been restored to reason and sound health, but he refused to do so. At least such seems to be the truth of history. Is it an error? If it is, the world should know the fact. If it is not an error, the chief criminal should pay the penalty already suffered by his menial servant.

We do not assume that Jefferson Davis is the man who should be held responsible for the violation of the rules of war in the treatment of prisoners; but it is most natural to suppose that, as he ruled most despotically during his brief and bloody reign, he should answer for the thousands of our heroic sons who were thus murdered. It will be a blistering stain upon our fame if this deepest shade of the black record of rebellion shall not. . . [illeg] the government to have done. We do not ask the life of Jefferson Davis. We should gladly record his innocence of this terrible charge; but if he is innocent, we ask to know who is guilty. Mr. Davis is now a military prisoner. He was the chief military, as well as civil, officer of the rebellion. He commanded its armies and dictated its policy. He was captured by the military force, and to this day is in its custody. Although indicted in a civil tribunal, he has never been in its custody or plead to the charge preferred against him. The graver charge of murdering prisoners is a military offence. No civil tribunal could, under the circumstances, take cognizance of it. His forces were acknowledged belligerents, and the crime was a violation of the laws of war. For this offence, clearly committed by him or some of his subordinates, he should be tried. The tribunal to decide upon his guilt or innocence should be one to which the judgement of the world would bow. It should embrace the names of Grant, Sherman, Meade, Thomas, Sheridan, and Hancock; men too brave to render an unjust verdict. They would settle this grave issue satisfactorily to all but the guilty, and if they should pronounce Davis the criminal, he should die. If they would acquit him, he should be discharged from all further restraint.

We appeal to the government, especially to Congress, not to be unmindful of this monstrous crime whose deadly fruits are still felt in so many bereaved households. It is due to our brave soldiers of the Republic that it be done. It is due to humanity that the fiends who sent thousands to untimely graves should be made to answer, and the history of the most causeless war of the world will be incomplete without a thorough investigation by some competent tribunal. None but the guilty and their apologists can complain of what we ask, and we submit whether justice to friend and foe does not demand that Jefferson Davis, the chief of traitors, should be arraigned and tried for this crowning crime against Humanity and Heaven.

The President's message, received in Congress on Monday the 2nd ult., the first day of the session, has been duly published to the country. There is nothing remarkable about it except its weakness, and the universal disappointment it has occasioned. The President seems to have learned nothing from the logic of events, except perhaps a little decency in referring to Congress. He no longer considers it necessary to describe it as an "unconstitutional body hanging on the verge of the government." He satisfies the desires of the people for new suggestions on the subject of the re-construction of the country, by a submission of his "policy" exactly as he argued it, but in a more respectful style than he proclaimed it a hundred times, while "swinging around the circle" before the fall elections. The people having as they thought heard a full discussion of the merits of the "policy" and having decided by a majority of 400,000 against it, are naturally struck with the brilliancy and originality of the President on the subject. They have learned, however, one thing, that they have to deal with a man bold enough to resist their sovereign will, and to undertake any usurpation which his interest or ambition may dictate. They realize further that to Congress alone they must look for some plan for the pacification of the country on the basis of justice and honor, safety for the future, and for the present protection against the designs of a faithless President, bold and ready at any time opportunity may offer to overturn the liberties of the country. But protected by a loyal Congress, this part of the President's message will be read by the people with wonder and contempt that a man should be so stolid as to repeat by rote, and recommend what they had so lately rejected. The remainder of the message is of still less importance than that just referred to. There are no suggestions made in reference to the various departments of the government, and for information concerning them he refers Congress to the reports of heads of departments. He advises legislation necessary for the preservation of the Mississippi levees, and urges Congress to aid the Southern States to reorganize their agriculture. He recommends that the district of Columbia be allowed to delegate in Congress to represent it, as territories are at present represented. He refers to the failure of the French Emperor to remove his troops from Mexico, according to agreement, one detachment this fall, one next spring and one next fall. The Emperor has deferred action until spring when he promises to remove his troops all in a body. This change of plan has been disapproved by our government, but it remains to be seen whether this disapproval will have any effect on the determination of the French Emperor.

The mission of Gen. Sherman to Mexico which occasioned considerable anxiety, it seems is merely in an advisory capacity to Minister Campbell, and for the obtaining of information necessary to maintain proper intercourse with the Republic of Mexico. Sincere hopes are expressed of an amicable settlement of the Alabama and other claims on Great Britain, arising from the depredation of the rebel pirates sent out from British ports during the late war. A plea is made for clemency and amnesty in favor of the Fenian prisoners recently convicted and sentenced to death in Canada. The country is congratulated on the completion of the Atlantic Telegraph, and on an earlier completion of the Pacific Rail Road than was hoped for. The rights of American citizens abroad are commended to the protection of Congress, which will no doubt be attended to after an investigation of the New Orleans massacre, and the rights of American citizens at home are secured. This is a brief summary of the Message, which of itself is not long, but for all the satisfaction it gives to the American people on the subjects in which they are most vitally interested, might as well never have been written. The best that can be said of it is that, it is written in a dispassionate manner, betrays little or none of the malice and spleen that usually pervade the Executive's speeches, is earnest in its appeals and rather dignified in its arguments. Beyond this if it has any merit, we have failed to discover it.