The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1862-03-22
THE GATE CITY /.
X E OK II X:
SATURDAY, NARCH 20.
The Cause Of tho war, &c.

The Cause OF tho war, &c.
Our contemporary has leader devoted
to this subject and continued through
two issues Of his paper In this hbored
editorial he attempts to support the prop
osition that the Abolitionists, including in
his argument the Republican party which
triumphed in the election Of Lincoln,
caused the war and not Slavery and Slave
holders, as is falsely assumed in the North.
We can only account for such per-
verified view of The question by attfibuting
it to the influence Of early habits, associa-
tons and prejudices enforced by present
| personal interests operating on the mind
of our contemporary, and bringing. him
back in his old age to the position occu-
pied in his youth. He was raised among
slaves, and his present wealth and his
prospects of future Inheritance are based
on the accumulated proceeds of the un-
paid toll Of oppressed laborers, bond
slaves, for several generations. It is
common to men to defend that by which
they live, and out of which grows their
prosperity and Importance. We, on the
other hand, who inherited no ancestral
wealth, and have never had money to ex-
pend since we came to years Of manhood,
which we did net first obtain by our own
efforts, are inclined to idolize free labor.
He looks upon human beings as prop
erty, and regards all who would attempt
to disturb it. as guilty of the worst of
crimes. We very naturally take the OPP
posite view. He thinks the anti-slavery
sentiment of the North and the Republ-
can Party the cause Of the war. We hold
the oligarchy of the South, stimulated by
slavery, As the criminals. He would pun
ish abolitionists,w would punish traitors.
Our contemporary reviews the early his
tory Of the country, and finds that slavery
existed at the time Of the formation of the
Constitution, but the Union was nsverths-
isless formed, although many leading men
in both sections Of the country were hos
tile to slavery. He might have added
that'the men Of that day regarded it as but
q. temporary evil which would soon be
disposed Of, and none Of them had the
slightest prescience that the cotton crop
and the cotton gin, would, in brief pc
Rod, increase the value of the slave four
fold, and their numbers ten fold Even
Washington, at later day than that, ex-
pressed the hope That We should soon have
an entire confederacy Of free States.
There was, however. far more excite
ment on the slavery question in Congress
and out Of II in the early days Of the Re
public than is generally believed by casu-
| al readers. But it was the increasing
number and the enhanced value of slaves
and the insolent and domineering tone Of
the shareholders. which not only dissipa-
ted every hope that they would put an
end to slavery, but even filled the land
with fear that they would convert our
Government into Slaveocracy, and rem
der the institution universal and perpet-
ual. For many years the course Of events
rapidly tended in that direction. All de-
partments OF the Government were in
their hands or under their control. And
in the Lecompton Constitution the Pres
idential efforts to snbjugate Kansas and
the bred Scott opinion Of the Supreme
Court, We have but the natural outwork.
ings Of the system. The President, the
Supreme Court and the Democratic Party
in Congress had been subsidized into tht
support Of the most infamous outrages o.
the slave oligarchy. Douglas, and ont
or two more Democrats in the Senate ant
To dezen in the HeHse, united their Ebert.
with the Republicans to save Kansas
and to save the Constitution from tn
grasp Of that same traitor oligarch,
which is now waging war upon it.
i But if it vas abolition, and not slave
~, that caused the@disruption Of the Un
ion and the war, what was it that cause,
the disruption Of the Democratic Part.
at Charleston, and the utter Republication
Of Douglas, who was fairly entitled t
, the nomination ? Ofcourse there was nj
sbolitionists in the Democratic Party
and yet this reasonable slave oligarch
broke up the party and made war upo