Relating to God's Government

For God shall bring every work into judgment, 

with every secret thing, 

whether it be good, 

or whether it be evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:14

"Our relation to the Government and our relation to the means of our restoration, should be considered with great careful ness and candor.

1. Treason is the highest crime

He who commits murder takes a life, but he who seeks to subvert the law, seeks the destruction of life’s safeguard, of that which is to protect life by preventing and punishing crime. 

Hence, it is the aggregation of all crimes. 

2. The Government has the sole right to free therefrom

By this is meant that the Government has the sole right to dictate the terms or conditions by which rebels may be restored to citizenship. This is true, also, in regard to all crimes for which pardon is desired. And this right, Government ought to exercise. No criminal has any right to dictate the terms of his own pardon, or the means by which he may be restored to the favor of the Government. 

3. He who will not accept the conditions is a traitor still

If the Government has the sole right to dictate terms to rebels, which all must allow, then the transgressor can only change his relation to the Government by accepting those terms; and if he refuses to accept them, he, of course, persists in maintaining his position in rebellion.

Therefore two things must be required of a transgressor or rebel, which only can be accepted, to wit: 

(1) UNQUALIFIED SUBMISSION TO THE LAWS WHICH HAVE BEEN TRANSGRESSED, and, 

(2) A HEARTY ACCEPTANCE OF THE PLAN OR CONDITIONS OFFERED FOR HIS RESTORATION." 

Joseph Waggoner