The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-09-27
COUNTY TICKET.
The Record Stands Against
Them


The copperhead leaders have the bare faced
effrontery to Set themselves up as the friends
Of the soldiers, now that the war is over and
the soldiers don't need their friendship. In
deed, the copperhead leaders 90 still further
than that, and claim that they were the spec
a friends ard advocates Of the soldiers du-
ring the war; and none of them 60 in sleeper
on this tack than VALLAsDIGHAN himself,
their great ader and martyr.
Now. how stands the facts On the record of
history?
We opposed secession and disunon at the
risk Of war. They opposed coercion" and
insisted that the Government had no right to
maintain the Union by war. We supported
the war and its measure. They opposed the
y ar and eeery measure adopted for its prose
cution. They embarrassed the government
and denounced the Administration, and
wrought division in the North and advocated
"Armistice" and 'peace" platforms. We
favored the raising of strong armies. They
opposed raising troeIs either py voluntary
anhstments or by draft, and organized "Gold-
en- Circles and other secret societies, armed
and unarmed to resist the Government and
encourage the rebels. We stood by the SOL
diers in the field, and published their letters
and the proceedings of their meetings calling
for aid and an increase Of tne ap,ny, and de-
uuunemg opposition to the draft, but no such
letters or resolutions Of the soldiers in the
field were ever published in copperhead
sheet. In the spring of 1863, when all the
regiments in the army held such meetings and
requested the publications of their proceed
ings in the northern papers. not single cop
perhead paper published a word vt iF, sxeept
70 deAeanee and ridicuie them and deny that
they expressed the sentiments of the mass of
the soldiers We organized and sustained
aid societies, sanitary commissions, and such
like agencies for the benefit of the soldiers,
but they wonld have nothing to do with them.
We advocated the right Of suffrage for the sol
diers in the field. They opposed soldier suf
rays then as bisterly as they oppose negro
suffooe now, while We extended the right of
suffrage to soldiers in the field in all the
States under our control.
We advocated the draft-they resisted it.
We sustained the policy of the Government in
arning the slaves of rebels to fight their mas
,ers, stop rebel hullets, and save the lives of
white men-they opposed it. We supported
LINCOLN emancipation policy, they denounc-
ed it as unconstitutional and infamous, and
Il l.lo ~. G.L4 Al,
ocracy turned the old tyrant LINCOLN out of
power, and they should have peace on salts
factory terms. They denounced LINCOLN
throughout the war in tones Of such fiendish
bitterness as instigated his assassination while
we sustained HIM in his ardorons duties.
We elected ANDREW JOHNSON on the ticket
with LINCOLN, while they denounced him as
renegade, military satrap, the infamous
tool of the tyraut LINCOLN. We sustained
him when he ordered a military commission
10 try the assassins of MR. LINCOLN, they de-
nounced this act and declared it murder, and
sought 10 hold tho President responsible for
the blood of Mrs. SuRRATT.
We sustained President JOHNSON, when,
after assuming the duties of the Presidential
Chair, he said:
"The time has arrived when the American
people should be educated and taught that
treason against the United States Govern
ment is the highest crime that can be com
mitted, and those engaged in it should suffer
oil its penalties. 1t is not the PRONUNCIATION
of anything that have not heretofore said,
to say that traitors must be made odiots, and
l. II nd Tbo,r
social mower must be destroyed: if not, they
will still maintain ascendency, and may again
BECOME nqmsrops and powerful; for, in the
words of a former Senator of the United
States, when traitors become numerous,
treason becomes respectable
They opposed the policy of the President,
and denounced these sentiments. We en-
dorsed them then, we endorse them still. We
stood by the President in his approval of the
efforts Of Governor BRe~xLot, Of Tennes-
and General PALMER, Of Kentucky. to keep
the secesh of that State from exercising the
right Of suffrage they denounced il - mill.
tary tyranny.
They never approved or endorsed snythine
tending to injure the rebels, or weaken theil
cause, and they have always endorsed every.
thing which they thought would please the
rebels, and prove beneficial - dir interests.
They are now in favor of rsstaring tAe rebels
to all their political privileges, and Practically
to yield up to them, in league viii Copper,
heads, the control Of the Government and
the destinies of the Country. We oppose
that policy.
Nov ~ should like 70 tnsv q >hs Cor.