The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-05-17
OUTsPoKEN REBEL PRESS.

OUTsP0KEN REBEL PRESS.
Down to the day Of President Lincoln,
assassination the Copperhead press of ,h,
North emulated, IL it did rot surpass, tn,
rebel press in bitterness of denunciatior
against him. That event worked q sud.
den conversion in the tone of Copperhead
expression, and even such rebels as J. Y
Mason and Beverly Tucker feel constrained d
By the pressure of public opinion to de.
nounce and repudiate the assassination
though they do not 60 to the extent ol
their Northern brethren in euloQizing the
late President or in wearing badges Of
mourning for him. But the few papers
left down in the depths OF rebeldom have
experienced no such change, and speak
out since the assassination the same sen
timents and proclaim the same spirit that
has animated them all the time. They
not only rejoice over the assassination, but
they rcterate the very terms of vitupera
tion against Mr.. Lincoln which have been
stereotyped in the Copperhead press of
the North and are but a month old even
now.
The Rebel, a paper published at Selma,
when our cavalry captured tha: place,
published the following editorial:
If the news we published yesterday
from Senatobia is true, VIM. II. Seward.
the cold.blooded and heartless political
miscreaus, who guided the Internal policy
which plugged US into this bloody and
desolsting war, has been arrested by an
angry God in the midst of his iniq quities,
and has paid the penalty Of his crime .,
the hands Of an unknown assassin.
For many years Mr.. Seward has been
the moving spirit of Northern hostility to
the South. and to his enmity and ambi
tious designs do We owe this war. It is
doubtful whether Lincoln would have
had the nerve to press the differences be.
tween the two sections to the point of &C
tusl collision, if Mr.. Seward had not
stood at his back, and with his devilish
malice urged him on.
His ambitious plans have been brought
to bloody, We do not say fitting con-
c,usion. Ii il was right for Bru,us to
ssy the despo,ic Ce ar, who shall say
tha, the man who slit the throat OF this
arch -plotter against the lives and liberties
of this people is not worthy Of the laurel
wreath.
And Abe Lincoln, too. the politicsl
mountebsnk and professional j,ker, whom
nature intended for tho ring Of circus,
bu. whom . strange streak of popular de-
lusion elevated to the Presidency-he also
= has fallen. His career Vas as short - il
vas bloody and Infamous. lie has gone
answer before the bar Of God. for the
s pocent blood which he has permitted d
II shed, and his efforts to enslave free
heroic people.
md the Free Trader, published 81
son. Nississippi, has the following
ensed expression Of sentiment:
DLEAs SwEEp.-We can't say We are
rnSticularly rejoiced At Lincoln's death
- We are not so hypocrisical as to deny
tGas We should have felt decidedly gratifec
If the conspira.ors had succeeded Ia theil
schemes and rid the world of the Presi
dent, Vice President and every member
Of the Cabinet. That job done. peace
would follow, for that would change th'
phase Of affairs.
1t may be that those papers are wors
than the Northern Copperhead sheet
which denounced and vili6ed Mr.. Lin
coin and instiga.ed his murder BY declas
ing that he was tyrsns, IN ppemI Of hi
country, and unit to lisastill the. day Q
bis death, and then forthwith began I
praise him and lament over the YER
event that their readers bad suppose
they we're most snxiops that "soms BFs
tus" or Booth should accomplish.