The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1862-08-16
WHY do they not Publish tben,s


Why is it, that the Mercury and kindred
sheets, while they are so lavish in their
quotations from the former speeches of
Douglas when it suits their purposes, never
publish, or even quote from or refer to his
two last speeches. Of which we pub
lished in our last issue? When the Nercu-
~ wants to justify southern traitors OF their
northern aids by throwing the responsibility
and guilt of the rebellion upon the Republi.
can party, it in all haste rummages the files
to find, if possible, something in Douglas
former speeches-pronounced under circum-
stances that bear no analogy to those of the
present,-that may, in the slightest degree,
seem to justify its course; but it has ever
failed, like its illustrious predecessor-th
weekly Union"--to publish, or quote from,
or refer to those two last speeches These
two great browning efforts of Douglas life
are studiously passed by, as if they We're
heresies that it were dangerous to promul.
gate, Did their publication to the world
depend alone upon the Mercury and kindred
sheets, they would be lost under the dust of
oblivion. We ask, why is this
Are we not justified in concluding that it
is because the Mercury. like it's predecessor,
the Union, has no congenial sympathy with
the sentiments of those speeches. The fact
is, when Douglas pronounced those ringing
words of patriotism, he was considered by
the Vallandigham- Mahonyites as an apos-
tate, and so was he, as he ap ,cared in his
last days, treated by them. .......
In those speeches Douglas said that there
had been conspiracy among southern trait
ors, for years, to break up the government,
and that the present rebellion was the result
OF that long concocted conspiracy. The
Mercury and it's kin, say that it was the
legitimate result Of the Republican party!
In those speeches Douglas said that there
never had been time, from the admin,stra-
ton of Washington to the time he then
spoke, when there was not Just as good
cause for the South to rebel as there was
when they did rebel The Murcury and
kindred journals, have, times innumerable,
given this the fiat, emphatic denial and
assert to-day, that the Republican party is
responsible for, and guilty of the rebellion,
because republicans would not consent to
an amendment of the constitution in order
that the violated and endangered rights of
the south might be made secure"
In those speeches Douglas said, that we
must cease discussing party issues and ig-
more party ties, that there must be no Grim
ination as to who had been the cause of our
troubles or politically contributed to produce
them-that we must present united front
to the enemy, leaving political responsible
ties to be enquired into when we shall have
rescued the Government from the traitors
who were endeavoring to destroy it; and
that the man who would not do this should
be marked as no true patriot"
The course of the Mercury and it's kind
has been to continually appeal to partisan
prejuaiees and to stir up partizan animosi-
ties aeessantly persisting that the only
way to save the country was not in the uni
ted action and patriotism Of the people, but
in the election Of the Democratic party to
po,oer! To continually whine about the
enormitv Of taxes and send forth their lugu-
brious wsilings about the uncomfortable bur-
dens imposed by the ''abolition dcspotism''
mt Westinghouse continually urge that
nearly every act Of the Administration, hon
estiy intended to speedily and effectually
suppress the rebellion, was unwarrarted and
unconstitutional Ito continually bubble,
with all the splepetic force of unallayed pet
tifogism, about the constitutional legality of
nearly every material administrative meas
ure--to continually justify and give aid and
comfort to the traitors by charging that the
republican party are alone responsible for
the war, and that republicans and secession
lists "werc twins and equally guilty and
deserving of punishment These are the
differences between that course, marked out
BY Douglas, for patriots 10 pursue, and that
pursued by the Mercury and like journals |
Hero may 30 perceived the reasons for their !
entiIe omission to publish the two last !
>peeches of Stephen A. Douglas-thcir own |
ephatic rebukc.
= -. A. MahOny Arrested.
1UBEQUE, Aug. 14.-D. A. Mahoney, ed