Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-12-25

South could never live at peace with each
other, except as one nation, and that without
Slavery. As anxious as am to see peace
established, would not, therefore, be willing
to see any settlement until this question is
forever settled.
DAVENPORT, Dec. 81, 1858.
E. r. Thayer, Editor Of tho Courier:
have Just found time to conclude read
ing Of your reply to my proposition to "enliss
in an old regiment provided you would 60
and do likewise"
l envy not the fame your response has
produced you. Your party friends were
hopeful you would compel me to enlist
Your warmest political and personal friends
frankly declared "that if you did not accept
you ought never to open your mouth again,
or pen another word concerning the ex'Min-
ister." Your daily companions and associ-
ates said "you were too cowardly to accept"
and now believe them ali. Your response
convicts you Of being very mean rebel,
stranger to truth, and poltroon and coward.
No man can accept your position without
being all of these. 1t was, sir, wholly gratu-
itous on your part to make public that you
we're "peace man." If it be true, then GER
tainly you are not Democrat, for the re-
mains of a Democratic organization have,
within the past week, resolved in Congress
ional caucus to "vote for all the men and
money asked to carry on the war;" If Cox,
VOORHEES,, Wood, Davis Ono relation of mine)
and Hendricks are Democrats, then you are
not. The rebels are not peace men. because
they insist upon fight. What are you then
Why. kind of mongrel-a cross between
a Southern rebel and tory, which makes a
man too cowardly to fight on either side.
Your declaration that you are q "Union
man." accept as rather facetious than 9TH
erwise-uttered in Pickwickian sense-or
rather in the sense of bushwhackers and
guerrillas-Union men, when it is neither
safe or profitable to be anything else.
You are unnecessarily alarmed about the
army machines for carrying elections" and
should not be so easily excited over the
wicked imaginations of your own perverse
mind. The truth is you have lied so fire
quently about soldiers being punished for
voting Democratic tickets, you will yet be led
to believe and voluntarily make oath to their
truth.
That you "are better shot with the pen
than with a musket' proves nothing, for,
Judging from the effects of the former during
the recent political campaign, neither is worth
q continental shin-plaster. So that unless
you brought down more rebels with your
musket than you made votes for your ticket
the Government will lose nothing by your
declination.
So far as the 10000 readers of the Courier
are concerned in your remaining at your post,
the majority Of them are Of the opinion that q
change of pasture would be beneficial. Re-
duce your number of readers by the fraction
one-fourth, and then your figures will be SUI
fciently large to entitle you to consideration
from the historian of Heather Mythology
You can hire good writer for $500 per an
mum who will excel you as an editor. The
truth is your readers are not over anxious
about your remaining at your post. They
complain that they are assessed too often and
don't get value received. So you had no
excuse for declining my proposition on that
score.
It will not descend to controversies upon
personal courage. The people who have read
my proposition and your reply, must be the
judges in the present instance. Let thunder
storms and live geese feathers be "a reminder
that all men have their weaknesses.
do not wonder that you were envious OF
my standing in an old regiment as compared
with yours. That should be promoted and
you remain in the ranks, would not be at all
strange. I am sure, that if promoted from
the ranks over your head, my good fortune
would be attributable exclusively to superior
merit. Excuse my vanity, Mr.. Thayer, but
feel it is authorized at the present time. My
first prayer upon receiving the chaplaincy
would be to "deliver me from all evil, Thayer
Of the Courier included" Knowing that evil
corrupt good manners, l
should labor with the powers that be to have
you separated from the boys, "even as q
shepherd divideth his sheep"
The remainder of your response is mere
bombsst, a patching up Of old editorials,
&C., &C., that have become SO old
and stale th,.t they produce nausea among
the miserable sneaks, who, having enjoyed
the protection and privileges of this Govern
ment for years, now throw off their allegiance
and become the most foul and loathsome Of
all earthly creatures, save and except tory
born in New England. You, sir, promised
Democrat for every Union Lacquer who en-
listed in Muscatine county. I took you at
your word and offered to leave family larger
than yours, . fair and reputable standing
among my fellow citizens, and hold upon
Government teat more lucrative than you will
receive for some time to come. You had
charged me with dishonest and fraudulent
intentions towards my fellow citizens in the
prospective draft. You had indirectly charged
me with extracting my name from the rolls
and wheel-you had directly charged me with
n determination to draw from the wheel ocly
the names Of my political opponents-all Of
which YOU knew to be foul mouthed SANDERS
and villainous falsehoodS. / gave you thu