Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1863-04-30
Prem the Daily OF April 20.
Who are Aboiitionisrs ,

rNciy olhel SUBJECT OF clanlor against
the Administration, and the war for the
deiease of the Union, having become pref
ty thoroughly exposed and Intellectual, the
opposition have the more desperately raj
he'd upon the cry of "abolitonism.n Ii is
the chief staple Of copperhead arti-
cles; and not the least so in the few news
papers Of that stripe in Vermont As it
Is about all that is left to them, they have
been under the necessity of giving the
term so broad an application that il has
become amusingly divested of its sgniR-
canoe. This is well illustrated by an in
cident reported during the recent cam
palgn IN Connecticut. Al a Seymour
meeting in Hartford, Isaac Toucey, Bu-
chanan's Secretary of the Navy, deliv-
cred speech, in the course of which he
asked, How is this war TO be ended and
peace restored TO the Union 2n Somebody
in the audience responded, "By sustain
ing the Government and crushing the
traitors" Instantly cries of "put him
out n "hes an Internal abolitonist I"
"put him out p resounded through the
room, and it was with great difficulty the
speaker could restrain the Seymour clubs
from summarily ejecting an individual
who had dared to utter sentiment 80 op-
posed to the spirit OF the meeting.
Is a person in favor of supporting the
government in the work of defending the
Union against armed treason and rebel
lion ? He's an "infernal apohtionlst.n-
Do our brave volunteers in the field
send back word to the people at home
that they are not discouraged, as the cop
perheads would fondly persuade them they
are, and have us believe; and that they
are as earnestly and zealously as ever
IN favor Of fighting down treason, and as
confident of success-tavoring copper
heads IN their rear at the same time, per-
haps, with their hearty detestauon and
loathlng? They are abohtionists" of
course though they be entirely silent upon
the subject of slavery, with which it has
generally been supposed that the term
'abolltionism," in politics, was alone con-
nected.-Some of the opposition papers of
this State have their hiss at the great I'm
ion meeting held in New York on Monday
of last week, presided over by the vete-
ran Gen. Scott, and participated in by
democrats, republicans-aN parties ex-
cept the copperhead. They call it an
"abolition" meeting Men are uniting,
all through the loyal states, uumindful of
party lines and issues, unmindul of every
thing but the peril of the Union, brought
together by the impulse of warm pat
rotism, and having only for their common
platform L determination to support the
government in saving the national life !;
and what are they? All " abolitionists.' .
But the copperheads have not even the
merit of originality in the use of the term.
A rebel dispatch in yesterdays paper
stated that " a squadron of abolition cav
airy estimated at 1900, were advancing
on Pontotac," &c. We read similar reb-
ell dispatches daily. Every federal SOL
dier and loyal man is in rebel language
an ''abolitionlst." So he is in copperhead
parlance. The copperheads borrowed it
IN its present use from the rebels. They
borrow most of their ideas, and much of
their language from the same source.
This extending the term so as to cover
such multitude of men, has of course
rendered it so thin and transparent that it
has lost all the force and opprobrium it
was once supposed to possess. 1t is an
other instance of copperhead zeal far out
running discretion. What will they do
next