Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-03-20
From the 18th Iowa.
Fohr Brown, SPRINGFIELD, No., !
March 4th. 1863.

FROM tho 40t0 IOWA.
Fohr BROWN, SPRINGFIELD, No.
March 4th, 1868. l
At meeting of the officers of the 18th
Iowa Volunteer Infantry, for the purpose of
.aking into consideration the condition of the |
country, Captains D. P. Long and q. @. Clo-
yer and Lieut.. A. B. Conway were appointed
to draft resolutions, to be presented at the
next dress parade Of the regiment, on the 4th
instant.
After dress parade was dismissed, the reg
iment was deployed in column and closed in
mass, by order of Col. John Edwards, who
then entertained the audience with o very
lucid and logical discourse, denouncing in
the strongest terms those northern doughfaces
and rebels who are keeping up "fire in our
rear" waging war Of words against the
Government, tending to discourage the Union
lists and encourage their enemy in arms, and
declared that should there be any such in
sentiment in our army, the sooner they are
disbanded and drummed out of camp, the
better it would be for the cause of our coun-
try, and offered these resolutions as a test Of
this regiment to prove to their friends at
home that the patriotism which prompted
them to leave home and all its endearments,
to face and fight the enemy in the field, has
not in the least abated, and are as resolute as
ever. He argued that to propose an armis-
tice or treaty with the traitors in arms who
have repeatedly refused any compromise,
would be virtually falling down upon our
knees and asking Jeff. Davis to receive us in
to his so-caled Confederate Union-an idea
which every friend of the Union possessing
spark of patriotism would resent. He re-
viewed the coEniving conduct of the rebellious
States in first running off our ships into for
eign ports, in robbing our national treasury,
in stealing our arms and munitions of war
and then turning them against us and crying
out, "All we ask is to be let alone" He closed
by administering scathing rebuke to all
such in the North as are secretly or openly
conspiring against vigorous war policy.
Lieut.. A. II. Dunlap then read the follow.
ing resolutions, which were unanimously rat
flied, after which three enthusiastic cheers
were sent up for the Union:
WHEREAS, The present formidable REBEL
ion against the Government of the United
States was in contemplation for series of
years, by the conspirators who seized upon
the intense partisanship and imbecility of the
Buchanan administration, as the favorable
moment to strike for the dissolution of the
Union, thereby involving the country in the
calamities of civil war and
WHEREAS, In order to accomplish their I'M
holy design, they took good care to weaken
our means Of national defense and robbed our
national treasury; and
WHEREAS, James Buchanan being the con-
stitutional head of the Government, it was
with pain and modification we endured his
connivance with the rebel conspirators, but
as loyal citizens we had no alternative but to
submit; and
WHEREAS, The present administration as
sumed the reins of government under the
then existing foregoing state Of facts, and has
steadily pursued the purpose to crush this
wicked rebellion and preserve the Union in
tact; and
WHEREAS, Under the many complications
which unavoidably attend war conducted
on such vast scale as the present, it is not
to be expected that every act or policy adopted
by the administration will meet the approba-
ton of every friend of the Government, be
he Republican or Democrat, but it is the
bounden duty of every citizen to sustain the
Government which for limited time is com
mitted to the keeping Of our present chief
executive; and
WHEREAS, The officers and men of the
18th Regiment of Iowa Volunteers have
viewed with shame and regret the action Of
persons we left behind us, safe in the protec-
ton and enjoyment of life, property, and the
comforts of home, who are aiding and abet-
ting the enemy we are confronting face to
face while they do not possess the courage to
do so, but continue to keep up {" fire in the
rear" therefore be it
Resolued, That every citizen of the
United States is for or against the Govern
ment that traitor residing in loyal State
is meaner and more culpable than one resid-
ing in a rebellous State, and both deserve
the same fate.
Resolvei, That the cry for peace (when
there is no prospect for it under the existing
facts,) is a base subterfuge, resorted to BY
designing demagogues, who seek in an indi.
rect and covert way, to betrav the Govern
ment into the hands Of Jeff. Davis, through
an armistice and national Convention, a
mode of settling our troubles which the rebels
in arms against the Government have never
sought for, but have actually repudiated the
&c <Iosr
again.
Kesolved, That it would be an act of bad
faith on our part to abandon, in such q
shameful manner as is proposed by the north
ern doughfaces, the thousands of true and
loyal citizens, scattered throughout the rebel
lious States. who have been and are being
murdered, despoiled of their property, their
families driven from their homes and made
wandering exiles, for no other offence save
that of loyalty and patriotism.
Resolved, Thatwe want no treaty with jeff
Davis, no truce with the rebellion we de.
mand that our dearly earned advantages be
retained and that the whole power of the
Government be put forth to crush the traitors
both North and South.
Resolved, That we regard the rebel who op-
poses us in arms as foe to be conquered, and
he may deserve to be treated as a generous
enemy, but the man who proposes truce is
a reptile to be crushed-he would give to the
rebels all that they have vainly asked for
from foreign intervention-hism motive is plain
and he will be branded withe the hatred of
posterity.
Resolued, That all we ask is an open field
and fair fight, with vigorous prosecution
of the war aoainst all the enemies If the Gov.
with the undying motto on our ban
served"
Resolred, 7. That copy Of the foregoing
preamble and resolutions be forwarded to the
Muscatine journal for publication and that all
papers endorsing the same be requested to