The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1862-02-15

Cumberland, with immense re endorsements
of infantry, and on the 18th, Gen. Grant
had seven heavy batteries in position,
bearing on the Fort.
Dastardly Assault OH the Constitutional
Convention.
The Chicago Tribune of Tuesday con-
tanned the following article:
Sour Springfield reporter states, what
we have had hints of before, that large
number of the Egyptian members OF the
convention are reported to be Knights Of
lie GcHsn Circle, and members of Mutual
| Protection SocIeties-both secession socie-
| ties OF the viest and most dangerous kind.
| This is thing that should engage the
attention of the U. S Marshal for the
Southern District If he can ascertain
that there are such villains in the conven-
ton, it is the duty of the government to
arrest them and convey them to Fort
Lafayette. Loyal Illinois will tolerate no
such characters on her soil, known to be
| SUCH
This paragraph, and the correspondence
upon which it was based, were brought
before the Convention on Wednesday by
Mr. Thornton, in a resolution appointing'a
committee to investigate the grave charges
thus Inaoe against members Of that body.
The resolution, after a sharp debate, in
which the Tribune and its reporter were
handled without gloves, was unanimously
adopted. In the course of the debate Mr..
Hacker said he understood an attempt
l.I L. 20 IL o1 to-
who were knights of the q. c., and that
his name was on the list He was there
fore for full, free and searching investi-
CATION. He believed he was as loyal as
any man, and he believed the Investigation
would show his and the loyalty of every
member. He had as much respect for a
secessionist as for a horse thief and as
much respect for the political opinions of
an abolitionist as for secessionist
Now that the editor of the Tribune, or
their reporter at Springfield, beliered what
is above SO maliciously asserted, is not
supposed for moment. The anintus Of
the assault is . the Chicago Times well
says, That the black republican leaders
have set out to beat the constitution before
it shall oe made, and as the shortest way
Of doing that, they have undertaken to
destroy public confidence in the conven-
ton.
That in this they will fail we have no
doubt, and the malice Of the Tribune tribe
will turn out but the gnawing Of a file
But the article has a much more serious
tendency. viewed in another aspect This
is forcibly presented in the following
which we copy from the comments of the
Chicago Times:
IL is style of warfare that cannot be,
and will not be, carried on by northern
against southern Illinois with impunity.
1t has already produced alienation to the
extent that many of the two peoples
believe their interests are not common,
and to the exteut that tens of thousands
Of dollars in trade are annually diverted
from Chicago. Nothing else than this
style of warfare by the black republican
press of Chicago has created the bitter
| feeling which prevails against the city
among the people of the southern part Of
/ the State.
Isit the purpose Of the black republican
/ leaders to divide the state? Seeing tina:
| liz the State as 1t is no.. constituted their
power is precarious, do they seek to retain
| it by the separation of the State?
| Egypt has proved her loyalty. She
/ has sent, according TO population, many
/ more soldiers to fight for the Union than
/ the northern part of the State has sent,
ard more than any other district in the
/ nothern States has sent, and these are led
by some of her most distinguished sons
whom, at the commencement OF the war,
this same pestilent black republican sheet
denounced as secessionists. And beyond
this merit Of number. the patriotism OF
the people of Egypt is absolutely lustrous
by the side of that of the people in the
northern end of the State, for the people
of Egypt are emigrant from the South anG
are fighting against their own kindred.
| If black republicanism were capable OF
shame, now the statement of this fact
would shame it,
| If Chicago should be sunk from the face
of the earth, 1t would be no more than just
punishment of its people for the sin, the
/ crime, of sustaining SO nefariously vile a
sheet as the Chicago Tribune.
| If the Illinois Central Railroad, which
draws so much of its revenues from the
people of southern Illinois, were sunk from
! the face of the earth, it would be but just
| iudment for the crime it commits in
bestowing thousands of dollars of patron
age annually upon the Chicago Tribune,
| If the time has not already come, it
soon will come, in Illinois, when men and
things and interests and corporations will
| be called and known by their right names.
7
IMPORTANT FROM EURoPE.-Nearly every
steamer from Europe, since the settlement
of the Trent affair, has brought vague ru
mors and hints that although England
was apparently satisfied, and outwardly
exhibited no purpose to Interfere in Amer
lcan affairs for a time, at least, yet she was