The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-08-02

Shall Loyal Hen om1 True SEX
01eED RoEget Tie RnOt9
N. Editor:-Shall the past BE- forgotten ?
Shall the record made by The politicians of
this country during the struggle for nations
life be blotted out, and shall loyal men and
soldiers uphold and sustain the copperheads
Of the North? admit that it is God like to
forgive, but at the same time insist that ohr
duty to ourselves and to the country requires
us that we hold the men who have aided and
abetted the rebels responsible for their acts at
the bar of public opinion. 1t is in mercy
that we spare them greater punishment.
The public cannot safely affiliate with or
trust the men who failed to stand by their
country in a struggle for life, and such men
should be covered with odium, as perpetual
warning against disloyalty. | charge the so
called democratic party with the crime of
aiding the rebellion and assisting onr enemies
when half million of loyal men were peril
ing life in our defense.
| When the life of the nation was first threat
ened and the parricides Of the South COM
menced the secession movement, then it was
that Democratic President told them that he
had no power to interfere with them, that the
government could not "coerce a sovereign
State,n and the democratic" party as
party throughout the Union, sustained their
President, and everywhere, mingled with the
loud calls of the true and loyal for vengeance
against treason, we heard the cry of the TRAIT
or party of emo coercion which meant dis
tho of our ,arta and
the end of liberty in this land.
When the brave and loyal Lincoln assumed
the duties of his high Office, and undertook to
apreserve, protect and defend the constitu-
ton as he had sworn TO do, this same infa-
nous party sought, by every means, open and
lcovert. to embarrass his administration and
render more difficult, dangerous and doubt
full the effort of our noble army to subdue the
rebellion.
The leaders of that party protested against
his calling out the militia as violation of the
constitution. They howled against the sns-
pension of the writ of habeas corpus. They
grew frantic at the arrest of blatant traitors
and the suppression of reasonable newspa-
pers They denounced Abraham Lincoln as
tyrant and usurper, their newspapers eemed
with denunciations of HIM, and their stump
speakers We'd with each other in his defama-
ton, all Of them cell knoicing that erery scori
they uttered or printed against him ,cds so much
aid and comfort TO the enemy They rayed
| like maniacs against his policy of emancipa-
ton. They bitterly denounced him for call
ing in the aid Of the colored people. In
short, everything that was done during the
whole course of the war which seemed likely
to hurt the traitors of the South. excited their
ire.
Did the prospect of success seem dark and
| UlOoynv tbaSa catza1 tba
clamor for an armistice and to divide and dis
turb the people. At the very moment when
: the government needed most the support and
, AID of every man in the community, these
men were londest in their camors and most
violent in their denunciations of Mr. Lincoln s
administration.
When earnest and true men were working
, and praying, sacrificing and dying for our glo.
: rious cause, these shall call them mem
were organizing the Knights of the Golden
Circle and other rebel and societies through
/ out the North
When Grant was pressing on to Richmond
: through rivers of blood, and Sherman wa.
struggling with the foe in the mountains o.
Georgia, and when the soldiers OF their arm
6 les, covered with but partial victory, were
lighting with more than Roman valor anG
looking homeward for words of encourage
b ment and cheer, when every heart beat quicl
/ with apprehension, and every loyal soul wen
a up in prayer to God for the success of our no
BILE boys In blue; in the very midst of thu
greatest crisis of our nations whole history
, then it was that this infamous party met II
/ national council at Chicago and proclaimed
its disloyalty to the world. Look at the blacl
record Of that conventionl Read the trea
u sonable speeches that were uttered there
II amid the plaudits of the assembled "Democ
It racy,n and if you are loyal man your bloot
v will boil with honest Indignation. In tn,
!, midst Of the great struggle in the very face o
:, the enemy, they openly proclaimed to thu
II world and to that enemy that we were
r conquered people, that our army was beaten
our great war was "a failure" and they pub
licly declared for cessation of hostilities
N Infamous as was the character of that con
:. vention, and reasonable as was its platform
:, they were both acceptable to the Democrat
~ icf party. The convention and its platfoIu
III were defended, and its candidates supporte
s. by all that was left OF that party-and all thi
al not twelve months ago. Shall these thing
" be forgotten? Ought they to be forgotten
II Can they be forgotten? The party in low
which is endeavoring to organize in oppos
ton to the Union nominations is the sam
RS party, and is controlled by the same leader
r who last year held the Chicago conventio
!. and supported its platform and nominees
y They may ignore the name which they hav
s, made so Infamous, and may profess great Low
he for the soldier whom they traduced last yeal
N but it is all for effect Let loyal men and tru
. soldiers stand together in solid phalanx.
g UNION.