The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-09-20
Union Soldiers Address,

The Committee appointed by the meeting
of the Union Soldiers at Des Moines, have
issued an address to their comrades of the
State, of which the following are the closing
paragraphs:
:" Your ancient enemies have suddenly be-
come your warmest friends. You are ad-
vised by these would-be allies to cut loose
from those who were your friends in your
troubles and unite your fortune with those
who have all the time been your enemies
When you left home and family to enter the
military service of your country. these new
friends of yours said to you derisively Lin
coin hirelings. Cut-throat murderers of
our dear Southern brethren. When your
wives and little ones asked for bread, they
gave them stone When the waves of the
rebellion were surging against the Capital of
she Nation, they said there is no right to drive
back these waves by force of arms. When
traitors were striking at the heart of the Ma
ton through the hearts of your friends and
neghbors, they said : not another man.
When you asked for little money to send to
your families. they said not another dollar
When YOU asked for aid in putting down the
rebellion by ballots as well as bullets, they
said YOU are engaged in a unholy and wicked
war and you shall not vote. When Won asked
Congress TO pass coDscripiion law to fill the
vacancies of your dead comrades, they said
il was unconstitutional. When you asked
that the currency of the country should be
made legal tender, they said unconsttu-
tional' When you asked that the traitors
should be arrested by military authority, and
tried by Court Martial they said 'unconshtu-
tonal' When sympathizers with the rebel
lion were arrested, they said, the Constitu-
ton is violated When Abraham Lincoln,
your martvred President. suspended the writ
of habeas corpus, they said tyranny 'usur
per- When you were victorious and rejoic-
ed. they gnashed their teeth. When YOU had
driven the rebels from Shiloh. and Vicksburg,
and Stone River, and Chickamauga, and Get
hsburg you were glad-they desponding;
When, at Lookout Mountain, above the
clouds you, with yours words dyed with blood,
wrote victory, they cried failure When you
continually. from Mission Ridge to Atlanta,
and from Rappahannoek to Petersburg, were
proclaiming victory, they were CRYING fail
ure.' When their friends in the South were
clamoring for your Presidents blood, and
calling for assassins, they echoed back the
democratic howl, the tyrant let us have his
blood'
When their teachings eliminated in the as
sassination of President Lincoln. they. re-
ioiced When his murderers were executed,
they mourned. Now that the rebellion is
IL,
their record of infamy upon them, bending
under the load of insults they have inflicted
on YOU and yours, totter mp to you and at
tempt to take you by the hand and say my
friend while their fisgers are dripping with
the gore of your own friends.
No, soldiers, such Union as this cannot
be effected. As we'll expect any other impos-
sbility. There is not sufficient cohesive pow
er in all the nation to unite Union soldiers
and Copperheads on the same ticket Let us
try our united efforts at home Place and
keep in power those only who have been our
friends Let us not be divided by the fool
ish statements that negroe suffrage is the only
question before us. We know better The
Legislature, to be elected in part at the COM
ing election, will have TO elect United States
Senator to fill the vacancy caused by the re-
signation of Secretary Harlan, and also to
elect a Senator for the full term of six years.
The constitutional amendment prohibiting
slavery in the United States will have to be
passed upon by the next Legislature. These
questions are certainly Of more importance to
the people Of Iowa than the question wheth-
er four hundred thousand negroes shall or
shall not at some distant day exercise the
right of suffrage 1t is simply trick of un-
worthy men, helping thereby to again get into
power and place, that they may again teach
the doctrine of State sovereignty and the
right of secession by States, and at some au-
spicious moment again plunge the nation into
civil strife Let the soldiers of Iowa teach
these miserable demagogues and tricksters
that they know the power of the ballot as
well as the power Of the, sword that they
are as we'll skilled in the use Of the one as
the other since they have compelled, by the
sword, their open and more manly foes to
ground arms, they will be by the ballot and
drive into obscurity those worse men who
wished the success Of the rebellion, but who
we're too cowardly u enter the rsbel army and
fight alongside of their. friends.
Cor. r. p. HENDERSON,
Ma T.. II. HnusrQN. kCom.