The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-03-04
THE SPIRIT OF FREEDOM THE TRUE
MOTOR IN RECONsTRUCTION

MOTOR IN REcONsTRUCTlON.
The garments rolled in blood have passed
away. There met during four years upon the
battle plains of the rebellion the grand array
of opposing hosts. The tide of war surged
and ebbed and flowed, crmsoning the soil
with the currents that were the life of brave
men. The contest of physical strength is
over. The fight is transferred to new
arena. 1t is political now.
In its political phase it is not directly a
question of maintaining the unity ofthe coun-
try. 1t is not question of maintaining the
institution of slavery. Those questions were
settled with the overthrow of the armies OF
the Confederacy and the Constitutional abo-
lition Of slavery. Involved in the political
contest inaugurated by the process of recon
struction, they form no direct and immediate
basis of parties or political action.
Since the Union is saved and slavery abol-
ished, why further strife? That is for those
who would finish the work Of national adjust
ment in pro-slavery spirit to ansrer. Where
in this party strife shall the Union men stand2
We answer upon the side of freedom and the
rights Of man.
There are few now probably of the defend
ers of the Union but know that all that mighty
struggle was for something more than to pre-
serve the unity this Republic. 1t was truth
crushed under the incubus of wrong and
error, asserting its indestructbility. 1t was
the ihroes by which liberty emerged from
legalized slavery to q condition of greater en-
franchisement and a more expansive deyel-
opment 1t was the progressive freedom and
higher development of the human race burst
ing through conservative forces that would
have prevented their further growth, and de-
claring the constant progress Of Republican
principles and Democratic ideas toward the
entire enfranchisement of all men.
Had the Administration of this government
enunciated or adopted any democratic ideas
in advance of those professed by our fathers
in the last century? No. We all know how
far below even the principles expressed in the
Declaration Of independence had been the
organization and administration of this gov
ernment. Was there no further growth in re-
publican institutions Had the United States
reached the farthest approximative perfect
hihty Of free government. Had those polit-
ical ideas which had been gradually unfold
ing throughout all the later centuries, culmi
mated with the men Of 76? No. The anal
ogies Of Gods course in history are against
the assumption. The theory that man is
constantly advancing and will ultimately reach
a much higher plane of civilization and en-
hghtenment, is opposed to the hypothesis. And
the strife just closed, with its graves and vio
lence. and suffering, and sad memories,
proves that liberty cannot long be shackled;
that the friends Of freedom must not attempt
to hedge it in; that the progress of man to-
ward self government and political sovereign
ty cannot be stayed. Slavery and its friends
tried TO stay progress, they were foiled and il
was slain conservatism labored mayhap un
Willingly to the same end and it was borne
down. kadicalism was the ally of liberty and
progress and it was winner. Is il radical
love Of Freedom? Then let us be radicals
for tits surely the spirit Of freedom as op-
posed TO that of slavery that should control in
reconstruction.
Let us have peace and amity aud restored
Uuion and good will between all sections of
the country, it is said. That is we'll But
we had Union that was the prolific inspirs-
tion Of spread eagle and patriotic speeches
concerning fraternal love and unity, but that
didn't keep the war cloud from bursting upon
us We can have no enduring Union now
unless the love Of Liberty governs in the work
of reconstruction. Radlcalism. say the con.
seryatives, is revolutionary and dangerous.
We admit. that could there be discovered and
applied in popular action the laws ofa true sys-
tenn OF propulsive or progressive conservatism,
it would be preferable to radicalism, for IT Is
more thoroughly a normal social and political
condition But conservatism in American
politics has never been progressive, nor has
it been in Europe. Tenacious of the old
landmarks, it robes the present invariably in
the past, becomes quiescent and immoble'
and erects barriers against the progress that
is fixed principle in the divine economy of
the Universe, until The advancing tide breaks
down Instructions and begets revolution and
radicalism.
We deem radiealism the safest master
architect in the national work now, because
it will lay broad the foundations and rear
strong and eomely the columns of the new
national structure in the spirit of freedom, in
harmony with the ideas of a progressive re-
publican creed. In its policy we would have
radicalism conservative-we mean IN the
sense Of being preservative. Hence from a
radical stand point, and we have no doubt we
differed therein toto coelo from him, We have
shared President Johnsons objections to the
Freedmen bill We would legalize radical
ism by weaving it into the constitutional or
ganizaton of the nation. When an attempt
is made to give the coored man civil protec-
tion we would make it just by making it am
pie, and secure, by making it the outgrowth
of constitutional law aud the product of courts
and legal process.
Southern Illinois came to be called Egypt,
says an old resident of that section, in this
wise In the early settlement of the Sangauv
country, as II was called before the counties of
Sangamon and Greene were organized, there
were several families who emgrated TO these
counties from St. Clair Among the number
there was an old man named Lew Dav. Every
spring he returned, in company with several
others, to this country to get seed corn For
three or four years after those counties were
settled the insects and frost so injured the corn
that It would not answer for seed. The third
i