The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1862-05-03

f1ces They have been entailtd on us as
part of the fearful cost of saving our
country from destruction. But what .
mountain of guilt must Test upon those
who, by their efforts to destroy the Gov.
ernment and the Union, have rendered
these terrible sacrifices necessary.
Standing here between the living and
the dead. We cannot avoid the grave and
fearful responsibility devolving on US. The
people will ask us when We return to their
midst, when our brave soldiers went forth
to the battlefield 70 suffer, To bleed, and
TO die for their country, what did you ci
villains in the Halls Of Congress do to
cripple the power Of the rebels whom they
confronted atthe cannon's mouth What
Legislation did you enact to punish those
who are responsible, by their perjury and
treason, for this suffering, desolation and
death 7 Did you levy heavy taxes on us
and our property to pay the expenses of !
war into which we we're unwilliDgly forced
and allow the man who are the guilty and
reckless authors of it to go paratively
Ifreef Did you leave the slaves Of these
Southern rebels to plant and SOW and
reap, to till their farms, and thus support
their masters and the armies Of treason,
while they, thus strengthened, met us in
the 6elds Did you require the patriots of
the loyal States TO give up business, pro-
perty, home, health, life. and all for the
country, and yet hesitate about using the
law-making power Of the Republic to
subject traitors to the penalties as to pro
perty and possessions which their crimes
deserve / would feel ~ il worthy of the
severest condemnation for life, if did
not mete out TO those who are the cause
OF oil this woe and anguish and death, by
the side Of which all the vast expenses Of
the war dwindle into insigni6cance, the
sternest penalties Of the law while they
still remain in arms in their parricidal en-
deavor to blot this country from the map
Of the world.
Why do We hesitate These men have
drawn the sword and thrown away the
scabbard. They did not hesitate in pub
ishing Union men within their power -
They have con6scated their property, and
have for year past, without any Of the
compunctions that trouble us here. They
imprisoned Jchn NJ. Bolts for silently re-
taining lingering love for the Union in
his desolate home. They hang Union
men in East Tennessee for bridge burn
ing, refusing them even the sympathy of
. chaplain to console their dying hours.
They persecute Brownlow because, faith
ful amoag the faithless, he refused, al
most alone. in his outspoken heroism, to
bow the knee to the Baal of their worship.
Let us follow his counsel BY stripping tho
leaders Of this conspiracy Of their posses
sions, and outIawing them hereafter from
The high places Of honor and of trust they
have heretofore enjoyed.
In no other way cen We more effectualIy
be felt throughout all the region where
treason rears its blackened crest. The
loyal Union men Of Ill those regions win
see in this legislation, and in tie concur
rent advance of our armies towards the
Gulf, that We have put our hands TO the
plow, determined not to look back that
we have resolved that every man Who
raises his hand against the Union shall
be punished that those who remaiN true
to the nation shall be protected and that
the retribution which shall follow the
leaders Of this rebellion for life, shall be
% thorough md severe that no reptile dag
OF disunion WI ever again be reared on
the soil III this Republic. And they viii
1t least all realize that the inducemant TO
with secession $50 rs 10 save
their property from rebel con6scation, and
to claim 1t the same time Union protec-
tion) M longer exists that the time for
this misplaced lenity has expired that
the property Of rebels is to be con6scated,
and the armies Of the Republic sustained
thereon in the regions which treason re-
quires them to occupy.
Mercy 70 traitors. il has been we'll said.
Is cruelty to loyal men. / would not
initiate their crimes or their barbarity.
but would initiate their resolution
The gentleman from Kentucky nearest me
{ Mr., Grider) told us a month Or two ago,
TINT the rebel army had run OF 13O0, 900
worth of slaves Of Union men from coun-
ties near his residence, and they have con-
liscated and taken slaves rs sweepiDgly
as anything elsc claimed or held by these
men. Their own slaves work on their
fortifcations, from cannon bshind which
uur soldiers are mercilessly slain; they
perform their camp drudgery, thus in
creasing the power Of their army; they
raise the produce that feeds their troops,
and the crops on the faith Of which their
scrip ID rendered current. IF We wish to
break the power Of tho rebellion. let us
strike u wherever We can weaken it, and
strike i boldly and fearlessly, 40 the
justice Of our cause most fully warrants.
And let us, II there are but 6ty OF i've
hundred loyal men in Stase, resolve that
they shall lbe projected BY the whole power
Of the Government, and clothed with ill
the advantages hereafter that their m