ShalJ he he permitted to realize his hopes, or not? Shall our resentment he propitiated by promises? - or shall we move sternly onward, regardless of favor or affection, lo the infliction of a righteous punishment? My voice is "Fial justilia, ru.at coelum." Send forlh this decree and c1ll will be well. It will be a corner stone of adamant to the Government which we are about lo erect. On such a solid foundation we shalJ be able to rear a fair fabric of freedom, with such a pleasing combination of beauty and strength, as to attract the admiration of the virtuous, and at the same time bid defiance to the assaults of the vicious. But if on the other hand we should he overawed from this course by the dread of consequences, or be seduced from it by the flattering suggestions of a selfish policy; - what will the present generation say; what will be the language of posterity; what but that we were deficient in necessary energy for the times; - that we had lost in the Cabinet what we gained in the field, and that the selfish character of our councils had dimmed the chivalry of San Jacinto. I do not fly to the law of retaliation in support of the measure I propose. I repudiate the doctrine of "Les talionis." All that I ask is even handed justice. Give to crime the punishment that is due. Justice is a lovely attribute. If personified, ~he would rival the master-work of Praxiteles. I would not mar the least of her beauties; I would not offer violence to one of her pure and hoJy precepts for all the diadems of all the Caesars. Amongst her sacred principles, that which demands an impartial administration of public law is perhaps the most exalted and preeminent. l require only that this he not set aside, in adjudicating the case of our distinguished prisoner. Let the same punishment be awarded him, which we would feel bound in honor and conscience to inflict on a subaltern, charged and convicted of the like offence. This is all that justice can require. If he have committed no act which would bring condemnation on a private individual, then let him be protected; but if he have perpetrated crimes for which a man in humble life would have to expiate upon the scaffold, then why shield him from the just operations of a law to which another is held amenable? The exalted criminal finds security in negotiation, whilst the subaltern offender is given over to the sword of the executioner. Surely no considerations of interest or policy can atone for such a violation of principle. View the matter in every possible light, and Santa Anna is st-ill a murderer. If it were any other person we should all feel it to be our imperious duty to invoke on his head the thunders of the violated law; but being him, what becomes of this imperious duty? It holds a party to calculate the profits of a dereliction. I would
239
Powered by FlippingBook