Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1864-06-03

What ~ keMfiac1ktRn Thinks of the War.
AT the recent Lincoln demonstration
1 IN New York, Hon. Green Clay Smith,
of Covington, KY, was introduced to
the audience: st --4+# t
After some Introductory remarks, he
said that though he came from Ken
lucky, he had not come among them as
u kentuckian, but as an American citi-
zen. In this great conflict he knew no
line and no State, but recognized only
the whole country, from the Atlantic to
the Pacific; and Lincoln was the man
who was to preserve the country entire.
1t was different matter to have the
iawS executed when armies such as the
world never before saw were arrayed
against the law-armies led by men who
We're not fighting forliberty, or for their
rights, but by men who had reduced the
great common class of the South to SOL
diers, that they might rule them. In
the Northern armies were thousands Of
men who had left home and luxury for
the purpose of defending their rights.
The speaker said that it might be
thought strange that a man raised in the
South should take sides against the rebel
lion. But he loved the northern people.
The hate OF Kentuckians for the rebel
iAoii w ss'p piouVSSt " ISatSOit lLiStt tIlCS
had been robbed and bidndered by the
rebels, and reduced to poverty. If his
hearers had suffered the ills of wrong
and depreciation, was there not some
thing in their breasts which would cry
out, revenge? ... -.
The rebels had commemorative sort of
work. They had disregarded sex and
age in their prosecutions. He had seen
an old man Of eighty years retreating
from the rebels, who were following
him to take his life. There are loyal
men in Kentucky who say, "Take all I
have, but kill the dirty rebels" In the
beginning Kentucky was full of rebels.
In the beginning Kentucky had given i
large vote for Breckinridge, and the
State had been ruled by rebel officers.
But the motto of the State was ''United
we stand, divided we fall.' There We're
cast 5000 votes for Lincoln. In 1864
they would cast 5000 votes for Lincoln.
Immense applause. He had been u
disciple of Douglas-now he was a dis
ciple of Lincoln. He saw the hand of
God in the rebellion. As in old times
Abraham the First had been an enemy
of the great devil, SO now, Abraham the
Second would vanquish the little devil,
jeff Davis, and with him secessionism.
He referred to the tricks of Breckin-
ridge and others, when in tight place,
and said that there We're many men
among US who, cried "peace, peace"
whenever a reverse happened to the
rebel arms. But when the recent atroc-
tiles ut Fort Pillow and plymouth were
publised, they stopped their cries of
peace, and wanted a vigorous prosecu-
tion of the war. Now, when Grant was
hnA -, Il
ing them the devil, Applause, ] the cries
We're renewed. M 30
They had Il very good General in Ken
lucky, who understood how to deal with
the rebels. His name was General
Hemp. He would attend to their cases.
Laughter The rebels killed .the first
man in this war; we would kill the last.
The Democrats talk about the freedom
of speech being suppressed, and then
talk treason all day. When had there
been freedom of speech in the south >
A voice Never, never!"l E'felative
of his-Cassius NJ. Clay-llad spoken
against slavery, and been shot at and
stabbed. But one effect sof this war
would be to let men speak e same in
South Carolina as in NeaY. York. APP
plause.] If slavery was the cause of
this war, let it be ended. If there was
a cancer on the body it must be cut off,
and let us cut our diseased part off. We
had to apply all kinds of remedies to
the disease without avail. Thesurgeon-
soldier got at it, and was cutting the
cause away. Let him cut.
Most of the rebel soldiers had been
forced into the ranks. They were igno-
rant, for slavery and education cannot
go together. They had thought to con-
troll the country but they forgot the in
genuity and resources of the North
The land of the rebels should be divided
among good Union people. His policy
was that of confscation-not during the
lifetime Of the rebels, but forever. There
would be plenty of poor men come for
ward to claim share.
And such revolution would sweep
downward to Mexico, and sweep north
ward to British America. If it was not
against the laws to bet, he would bet that
the, West would give larger vote for
Abraham Lincoln than it had given for
any other man. Applause
j