Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1864-04-14
Rebels in Illinois. :

The riotous proceedings in Coles county,
are the legitimate results of the teachings
of the Chicago Times and its contemptible
echoes, the copperhead papers of the small
er towns. These organs of JEFF. Davis have
been for long time engaged in svstemat
ic effort to instigate civil strife IN the North
ern States. They have slandered the Pres
ident. his Cabinet, Congress, the Army and
Navy, and all who oppose treason and re-
bellion- They have represented that the
Government, as now administered, is only
an engine of oppression and that under it
there is no security for the lives and prop
erty of Democrats They have advised
their party friends to prepare" themselves
for selfdefense, and have repeatedly pro-
claimed that they were indebted solely for
their. peace and security to their ability to
defend themselves by physicalIforce.
Thus instructed, their deluded followers
have felt it duty to arm themselves for
deadly conflict with their peaceful neigh
bors. While intelligent Union men have
been amused at the foolish rawlings of the
copperhead press, and have been slow to
believe that such rawlings could do harm,
the iliterate and the vicious who alone
patronize such press, have really believed
its teachings, and have been reused to mad
ness by its incendiary appeals.
So, these deluded and phrenzied disciples
of unprincipled, blood thirsty, and coward
ly demagogues, secretly prepare themselves
for the murder of Union citizens, and when
the first opportunity presents itself carry
into execution their bloody designs. To-
day the free soil of our loyal State drinks
the blood of brave sons who escaped death
on the battle fields of the South only to
be shot down like dogs by traitors at
home. no
Whose is the responsibility We offer
no excuse for the vile wretches who were
the immediate instruments IN this horrid
work; we would have them suffer the Sc
vercst penalty Of the law; but truth and
Justice demand that those who have melted
them to such deeds shall be pronounced
more deeply, damnable guilty. Such crime
as theirs was never dreamed of by the law
makers of the past; and accordingly no
adequate provision has been made for their
punishment. Indeed we doubt whether
human ingenuity could devise or execute
penalties proportioned to the m gnitude of
such crime. But that some cans, of a
constitutional and legal character should be
employed to silence these teachers of trea
son and rebellion must now be apparent to
every loyal man. The punishment Of the
men who do this bloody work is useless, if
not criminal, while we leave unpublished the
men who plan it. ''sA'
To all arbitrary and illegal proceedings,
and to all mob violence, we are unalterably
opposed But let the laws be executed i'm
partially; and if we have no laws which
will reach the case Of those vilest pests of
society, copperhead writers and speakers,
we demand of our legislators such legal
enactments as will effectually silence the
clamors of peace.
Patiently has the Government borne the
abuse and SANDER of a corrupt press. Pa
tiently have loyal and self-sacriicing peo-
pie borne its insults added to injury But
we have arrived at that point where for
bearance ceases to be virtue. The time
has come to declare that freedom Of speech
and the press does not mean unlimited IL
cense to teach treason and light the flames
of civil war G0Le7la Gazette.