New York, June 2,1863.
. . . Is the threat of General Burnside true, that he would
hang ten Confederate officers for every Union officer hung by the Confederates?
Whether true or not, you are aware that this is the spirit which generally
shows itself when a barbarous outrage is committed, but which it is very
necessary promptly to stop. The wanton insolence of our enemy has been growing
so fast, and is so provoking, that I am plainly and simply for quick and stern
retaliation; but in retaliation it is necessary strictly to adhere to sections
twenty-seven and twenty-eight of General Order 100, to the elementary principle
which prevails all the world over, —tit for tat, or eye for eye, — and not to adopt ten eyes for one eye. If
one belligerent hangs ten men for one, the other will hang ten times ten for the
ten; and what a dreadful geometrical progression of skulls and crossbones we
should have! . . . You will decide what
the general-in-chief has to do in this matter. Some distinct expression of the
essential character of retaliation, whether by general order or by a
proclamation of the President (intended for our side as well as for the other),
or by a general letter of yours addressed to all generals, — I do not presume
to decide. . . . President King read
yesterday to me a letter from Mr. Lawrence, in whieh he informs him that
Broekhaua in Leipzig has made him a very liberal offer to publish in Germany a
French translation of Lawrence's new edition of Wheaton. So we shall have a European
edition of this secessionized American “Law of Nations.” It worries me. These
two large volumes in French will be the universal authority in Europe
concerning us. . . . A first-rate work
should be written as an antidote; but it would require a long time of absolute
leisure for a great jurist, — as Halleck, if he had not the sword in his hand,
taking Heffter as his basis, as Lawrence takes Wheaton. . . .
SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and
Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 334-5
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