Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Iowa) 1861-1864, 1863-12-10
Gge yntelligenttr.
M. +. HILDRETH. Editor.
Charles City, Iowa, Dec. 10, 1868.
Democrats and the War.

W 'he eoiuueI vi liic war, diieSlng tnal
its character has been changed, that
1t has been perverted from its original
propriety, and made unconstitutional
by that perversion. The first class
recognize the right of secession-hold
that the Government has no power to
"coercc a sovereign State" &c. 1t is
not necessary to say much to them.
They are the natural allies of the
Southern conspirators. Agreeing with
jeff. Davis and his confcderates in
doctrine, they are not likely to disa-
gree with them materially in practice.
They are not numerous, but make up
in activity, boldncss and malignacy,
for numerical feebleness, and have
usurped the leadership of their party,
and endured thereby the humiliating
defeats which it has suffered.
The second class contains many
honest and patriotic men, who have
followed the secesh sympathizing party
leaders about as far as they can, ma
ny of them further than they will
again. 1t is well to reason with them,
for their determination as to the de-
gree of opposition to the Administra-
ton in which they will indulge, is of
the first Importance. rE -
AS to the alleged change in the
character of the war 1t is not true
that the objects sought to be attained
by the prosecution of the war have
been changed The war is now, as
from the beginning, waged for the
restoration of the Union" the Union
under the Constitution. The obsti-
macy of the rebellion has, in the judg-
ment of the authorities, made nccessa-
ry the adoption, for it's overthrow, Of
measures that seem more radical than
those first employed The fierce te-
nacity with which the rebels fight, has
increased the scope and horror of the
war, and caused the disintegration of
society in the rebel districts that is
now so distinctly apparent. All
thoughtful men expected from the out
break that if the rebellion remained
rampant, and the armies of the Union
penetrated slave and rebel territory,
slavery would be rudcly shaken and
crumble. Those expectations have
not been disappointed. In proportion
as our armies have advanced, the in
stitution of slavery has been broken
up. This, even if it were a thing to
be deprecated, has not been caused by
the Proclamation of Emancipation. 1t
is an inevitable incident of the rebel
lion, and ought to be accepted as such.
Opponents of the anti-slavery policy
of the Administration tell us the rebels
have been exasperated by it, and fight
harder We do not see the facts in
that light The manners of the rebels
have rather improved since they abus-
| ed our wounded and mutilated our
dead at the first battle of Bull Run,
and at Shiloh since they dug up the
corpses of our soldiers on the Bull
Run field, to make tinger-rings of sec
tions of their thigh-bones, and spurs
Of their lower jaws.
We hear much of supposed ulterior
measures of the Administration-that
the war is to be pushed expressly to
abolish slavery in the rebel States,
&c. Let it be remembered that the
President gave the rebels one hundred
days in which to make their peace
with the Government before issuing
his Proclamation of Emancipation and
that they did not improve the days of
grace. No State or section of State
has proposed to return to the Union if
the Proclamation were withdrawn.
Until State now in rebellion makes
such a proposition and is repulsed,
conditions being fixed that slavery
shall be abolished before the State can
be received, it is idle noise to talk
about the war being carried on to
abolish slavery, or to say that the
anti-slavery policy is an obstacle in
the way of the reconstruction of the
Union. h-...- ...........
The only change in the character Of
the war has been the approach to the
conduct of the war ON military princi.
plies, the treatment of our deadliest
enemies as enemies, instead Of as
misguided friends wayward sis
ters and "erring brethren" The ap.
Proclamation to real military policy
has not been SO rapid as lit should have
been, and is not yet complete as il
: ought to be, and it is futile to make a
. clamor about it. The thing needful is
thorough military policy, and we dc
: not see how that could be other than
!, anti-slavery in its tendencies, though
| it need not be so in it's object.