New York, April 11, 1865.
. . . I hope the President will walk very, very warily in
coming to his new proclamation. I do not blame Lee's being received on parole;
but I hope things are looked at in a very clear light, and that it is plainly
seen by every one that, virtually, you put a rebel beyond trial for treason
when you receive him according to the laws of war, as prisoner of war, and
parole him, — most surely so with us. People here agree with me on this point;
but, say they (e. g. Bancroft), he is not restored to his citizenship. I
cannot see what can withhold from Lee his citizenship, so soon as the war is
declared at an end, and, the parole being at an end, he must be given his
freedom. All that the President may do as commander-in-chief in war, dissolves
when the war ends, except, of course, those things regarding which postliminium exists not.
SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and
Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 357
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