Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1862-12-12
The Courier's Peace Programme.

The Courier's Peace Programme.
Wecannot be insensible to the fact that the
masses of the people, both North and South, |
are tired of the war. They desire cessation
Of hostilities, and negotiations for peace. Let
the authorities at Washington treat lightly |
the efforts of responsible men to bring about |
4 speedy and honorable ri peace, and hay a |
million bayonets will be pointed at the
real enemies Of tho country.
What are the terms of peaces We care
not what they may be, provided the Union IS
restored to the condition it was in ON the Sec
ond Tuesday Of November, 1850. we are
willing to yield to the South all the rights they
then had under the Constitution, with an
additional guarantee, if necessary, that those
rights shall not hereafter be interfered win.
We are willing to help pay their debt and they
help pay ours. We are willing to leave the
leaders of the rebellion to the people OF the
States in which they reside, the same way We
would leave the leaders of the abolition horde
to the verdict of the people Of the Northern
States.-C Courier.
Whatever may be the motive, real or pre-
tended, which induces the publication OF
articles like that from which we have made
the above extracts, there can be no doubt but
what they have the effect upon weak ana
vicious minds Of breeding an active spirit OF
dissatisfaction with the efforts now being put
forth to prosecute the war to successful
issue-a spirit which in state Of desperation
might crop out into open revolution against
the Government, in the North. The bloody
vision at the close of the first paragraph
(which looks something like plagiarism Oh
DR.. Olds) is wholly gratuitous, however, to .
community that has sent its two thousand OF
fighting men into the field, who have not only
again and again repudiated in hard-fought
battles the dastardly method of Northern syc'
ophants for procuring peace, but also by the
more recent verdict of their votes. 1t Is an
artful continuance, indeed, to invoke the au'
thority of the Prince of Peace for persistentiy
advocating conciliatory measures Gas is done IN
a portion of the above article not quoted, but
letit not be forgotten that the true gospel order
is to have first purity, then peace, and that
without absolute contrition and the forsaking
of every evil way on the part Of sinners in
rebellion, not even the Divine goodness In 'ts
infinite reach is committed to bestow pardon
and blessing. =.
To wish the Union restored precisely as 1t
"ras ON the second Tuesday of November,
$780," it is hardly necessary to remind the
intelligent reader, is to wish the free citizens
of the North overawed by the stereotyped
threat of civil war, while the reigns OF Gov
eminent were held in the foul grasp OF tral'
tors and conspirators, busily occupied in per-
fecting and carrying forward their diabollcal
scheme of dissolution, and just ripening into
open and bloody hostility.
There is growing assurance in the Coa'
rier's advocacy of its favorite plan OF pacln'
cation, which might be regarded as alarming
even from so obscure source, but Tor the
intrinsic meanness and low, grovelling base
ness of the plan itself, which only commends
it to the scorn and contempt ofhonorable men
of whom, we are charitably disposed to
believe the majority of Northern people are
still composed.