Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 14.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

These were the great questions, and the most usual forums to determine such issues were the courts of law. There was certainly no hindrance to such a test. Our great chief was a prisoner—in a dungeon—in chains! He was not only ready and willing to be tried, but demanded a trial. By himself he was most anxious to vindicate the innocence of his people; or, in himself, expiate their guilt by an ignominious death! Our enemies had the appointment of the judges, the formation of the court, the selection of the jury, the entire control and direction of the proceedings. Why did they hesitate? why did they finally decline to try? Was it because of mercy, or a spirit of magnanimity? Ah! we shall see directly. No, they were gnashing their teeth with rage. They knew that such a trial had no parallel in human history—they knew the whole world, and posterity for all time, would review it. There was the written law, and they knew it had not been violated! Eight millions of people, struggling as one man for liberty, were not traitors, only because power and treachery combined to defeat and enslave them. To try and convict, was to commit perjuries which would redden human nature with an eternal blush of shame—to try and acquit, was a judgment under oath by their own courts, that the war of coercion was itself but a gigantic crime against humanity, and a wicked violation of their own form and principles of government.

Here was the terible dilemma which confronted our accusers, and it was so palpable that all the insolence of recent triumph could not hide it, and they were left no resource but to pretend a mercy, whose necessity they despised, and turn the prisoner loose, after a long and most cowardly delay.

The next forum in which our people had a right to be heard was the Congress—the National Councils. By every protest and profession of our enemies, before and during the war, the Union was preserved, and by the plain terms of the Constitution each State was entitled to representation in both branches of Congress. The refusal to test the crime of secession before the courts increased, if possible, the obligation to recognize this clear right of representation. This was a rare opportunity for vindication. The forms of government had afforded it to few defeated parties in history, and to none on such terms of fairness and equality. There was never a time when the intellect of a people was so needed for their vindication, and no people ever possessed grander intellects for the work. We had trained