Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Iowa) 1861-1864, 1863-11-26
Charles City, Iowa, Nov. 26, 1868
OUR CAUSE.

AND THE CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL JUSTICE.
In this war the American people
have realized the truth that the des-
tinies of the human race are so bound
together that all must suffer for the in
juries of any portion. In this coun-
try we made ourselves accessories to
slaveholding, the greatest crime
against humanity. All moral and re-
ligious sentiment was debased to
make this sum of all wrongs sacred.
Even Northern politicians talked as if
the Bible was only Slavery ordi-
nance, and the Constitution only
thing for perpetuating Slavery. For
it, the right of habeas corpus, trial by
jury, liberty of speech and of the press,
and the freedom of the public mails
were suppressed. For it the citizens
of the North submitted to be deprived
Of all protection Of law in the South.
For it our courts and legal principles
were degraded, and Slavery became
the end and supreme object of all law.
For it the people of the Free States
submitted to be deprived Of their
equal rights in the Government, and
to hold subordinate places in it upon
condition of putting their necks in the
Pro-Slavery yoke. For it no North
ern man was permitted to hold any
position in the Government, at home
or abroad, civil or military, unless he
was an avowed supporter of Slavery.
We thought that another race were
the only sufferers by this wrong, and
we were magnanimous in conccding
their souls and bodies, and in putting
them beyond the pale of human SYM
pathies. We called our Indifference
to the freedom of another people
praiseworthy regard for the Constitu-
ton But the crime which we have
abetted against an inferior race has
in the mean time robbed us of our po-
litical rights, and at last has plunged
us into this bloody war. The serpent
we have nourished has turned to sting
the nation to death.
1t is vain to think that crime can
be at peace. 1t is at war with all
mankind, and it is necessity that it
should fortify itself by more crimes.
Slavery recognizes in every human
right an enemy, and declares war
with it. To strengthen its holds OH
the blacks, it demands absolute polit-
ical power over the whites. Nor
could it stop there. 1t regards every
free laboring man as an accusing enc-
my, and declares war against him.
We have tried to live at peace with
this wrong by debasing the Constitu-
ton, laws and administrations, and
by conccding to it our political rights.
So long as it controlled our elections,
it permitted us TO go through the
forms of voting. But at length it has
been defeated by the popular vote,
and now it has plainly declared that
it has hitherto tolerated popular gov
ernment only because the Slave Pow.
er controlled it, and that because the
Slave Power has lost the control, the
Government shall exist no longer.
Why should the people of Free
States hesitate to meet the issue thus
forced upon them Should they not
welcome it, and rejoice that in fighting
for their own political rights, and for
the constitutional Government, they
carry with them the cause of univer-
sal Justice and that in putting down
crime against our own race, we are
delivering another from the most mon.
strous crime known to humanity2