The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1861-07-13
Arc They Dementedf

down politically than Owen Lovejoy.-
One of the most respectable citizens of
Ottawa, Il. M. HOLSTER Esq came with
In an ace of being tarred and feathered
and rode on a rail few weeks ago, in
Will county Ga county which last fall gave
LoveIoy 500 majority for Congress- because
some wicked wag pointed him out to a
crowd of bystanders as Owen Lovejoy. 1t
is admitted on all hands that were Love
joy to-day a candidate for reelection to
Congress, he would not receive 1000 votes
in his district That a man who in few
months has succeeded in rendering him
self so utterly odious and detested, should
avail himself of the first opportunity that
offered on the assembling of Congress to
commit some GROWING act of infamy, that
| (seeing no other hope of being remember
ed by posterity remained) should avail to
damn him to everlasting fame" is not
astonishing But that the other republi
can members Of Congress from Illinois
should seek to share this infamy with him,
and that So republican members of Con-
gress from other States should be alike
dementsd, is not only amazing, but enough
to alarm one that madness is Selling on
the whole land
By Mondays proceedings Of Congress
we observe that Owen Lovejoy introduced
the following resolutions in the House:
Resolyed, That, in the udgment of this
! House, it is no part of the duty of the sol
diers of the United States to capture or
return fugitive slaves
| Resoired The Committee on Judiciary
be instructed to inquire into the expe-
. d;cncy of repeating the law commonly
called the fugitive slave law"
The drift. OF the first resolution is OBJ
vious. In various instances in Maryland
and Virginia. as well as at Cairo, fugitive
slaves have sought shelter among the L.
S. troops, and in all cases, where it has
appeared that such slaves had not been
employed by the enemy for warlike pur-
poses, they have been returned, on ppli-
cation, to their masters. That this was
plain and obvious duty can be denied only
on the assumption that the United States
government, instead of waging war on the
known max!ms Of civilized nations spect-
ing private property, is attempting to de-
vastate'and scourge the South by sending
among them bands of freebooters and
marauders. No one has objected to tho
performance of the duty By our military
commanders, but the most rabid and de-
mented negro stealers Of the North The
second resolution is a natural sequence of
the first. Army officers have recognized
the duty to return fugitive slaves because
the constitution and the fugitive slave
law enjoin it, A simple expression OF the
cplh.ioa of Congress that it is not the duty
Of the soldiers of the L. S" to do W ha,
Congress has made the particular business
OF marshals might not be sufficient TO
Cause them to discontinue the practice.
Officers might have an opinion Of their
own, as Gen. Butler had, in opposition to
Gov Andrews, of Mass, on this subject.
Loveloy and sixty odd republican mem
bers Of Congress therefore propose to make
Y e
not only on the soldiers but the whole
North, by repeating the fugitive slave ,aw
And now, what a spectacle is this The
President, in his message, bases his hope
Tor the preservation Of the Union upon
the assumed fact that III all the Southern
States, except perhaps South Carolina"
the majority of the people are opposed to
disunion. He thinks by crushing Jeff
Davis and his army, these Union men will
be rid Of the terrorism which now over
awes them, will be abba to seize the reins
of government, and bring back those States
to their allegiance To aid these Union
men in every way, then, by demonstra ing
to the people of the South that their APP
prehensions of danger to their property
from republican administration are i'm
aginary, and that all the constitutional
guarantees for its security are to be rig.dly
enforced, is the first and plainest duty of
the government And now how Is this
done? The most odious man to the South
in Congress rises in his place and offers
in the constitution which protects the
South IN their property, and In a house
where probably 1870 members were pres
ent CT vote for the proposition, And this
with a full consciousness of the disastrou.
effects such vote must have upon the
Union cause in the South. Had the rebel
Gen. johnson met Gen. Patterson at Mar.
tinsburg and cut his army utterly to
psieces, the result would not have been
more disastrous to the Union cause than
this vote. How can Andy johnson, and
Brownlow, and Holt, and Carlile and all
the Union heroes of the South, who have
been daily pledging their lives to their
people that the republican government at
Washington mean no hostility to the
Southern people, but will rigidly and
honestly respect and enforce all the con-
stitutionai guaratees for the security of
their slave property, stand up after vote
in Congress like thi? If 81 republican
members of Congress, at time like this,
will cast such a vote, what will the two.
thirds republican majority IN that body
not do should the rebellion be suppressed
1t IS our honest conviction, after such
an expression as to the objects for which
this war is waged by the republicans, that
if such madness is to be persisted in,
but two chances remain for its termina-
ton within the next ten years. The first
is, to hurl the republicans as speedily as
possible from power, and place the gov
ernment in the hands of the democracy
to wage the war for legitimate. pur-
poses or else, for the democrats to