We Must, At Any Rate, Feel That This Is
True Of Men In High Places - As Regards Those Men To
Whom by reason
of their offices it should specially belong to put down rebellion.
Had Washington been the governor of
Virginia, had Cromwell been a
minister of Charles, had Garibaldi held a marshal's baton under the
Emperor of Austria or the King of Naples, those men would have been
traitors as well as rebels. Treason and rebellion may be made one
under the law, but the mind will always draw the distinction. I, if
I rebel against the Crown, am not on that account necessarily a
traitor. A betrayal of trust is, I take it, necessary to treason.
I am not aware that Jefferson Davis is a traitor; but that Buchanan
was a traitor admits, I think, of no doubt. Under him, and with his
connivance, the rebellion was allowed to make its way. Under him,
and by his officers, arms and ships and men and money were sent away
from those points at which it was known that they would be needed,
if it were intended to put down the coming rebellion, and to those
points at which it was known that they would be needed, if it were
intended to foster the coming rebellion. But Mr. Buchanan had no
eager feeling in favor of secession. He was not of that stuff of
which are made Davis, and Toombs, and Slidell. But treason was
easier to him than loyalty.
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