The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-03-08
THE RECORD OF THE UNION PARTY

from copperheads and rebels when President
JOHNSON developed line of policy that IL
was thought would lift rebels and secession
lists into political supremacy, strengthened
the nerves of loyal men and made them close
up their ranks, and in peace as in the war,
they present solid front against the enemies
of enduring Union and Freedom. The party
is true to its record. OF that record, the New
York Times says:
The Union Party has had too noble q his
tory-one associated with the most advanced
ideas of humanity aud freedom, and illustra-
ted with the most heroic sacrifices and services
for the Republic to permit 1t to be broken
up now. The great cause of human liberty
and equal rights for all races was proclaimed
By H. in times when a majority of the people
looked on the doctrine as factious and fanat-
ical; it was maintained by the party through
years of defeat and disaster; it was carried on
at length to peaceful victory, when sudden
ly rebellious minority converted grand
and constitutional movement in favor OF free
dom into desperate struggle for the very
life OF the Republic. Through a war OF APP
pailng magnitude and under disasters which
deceived The whole world as to the future issue,
this great organization never lost courage a
moment-never even thought of retreat or
compromise 1t poured forth, in common
with citizens Of all shades Of opinions, its
lives and wealth for the upholding of the
Union and the secure establishment of uni
versal freedom on this continent. While plan
ming wisely for the credit and defence OF the
country, for its honor abroad and its power at
home. il never lost sight of the great ideas
which had always inspired it. Steadily and
por ftfE Inv II no " m N
on the broad field of human rights. Ii de-
stroyed slavery in the Territories; it made the
District of Columbia forever free soil. 1t did
away with the internal slave trade. aud ex-
pressed its horror of this atrocious traffic by
iuficting the first capital punishment on a for
eign slave trader: it freed the slaves with their
families, of rebels found in arms; it offered
compensation to the shareholders of the bor-
der States and at length emancipated by a
stroke of war all the slaves in the insurgent
States.
We bring the Times on the stand willingly,
and let it bear testimony to the grand achieve
ments and glorious history Of the Union party
especially to its uneompromising hostility
TO slavery, because that journal shows dispo-
sidon TO become strsggler from the Union
ranks, and to trihe with the triumph OF free
dom
An over cautious conservatism was barter
ing away by successive compromises national
liberty. aud giving free government over to
the unlimited sway Of slave propagandists.
To oppose that result, anl to preserve the
Union threatened by the slave oligarchy, if
freedom should be successfully defended, was
the Union party formed-formed too in a
Conservative spirit. for it was willing to rec
ocu;ze slavery in the Constitution. and make
it eadurinA in the States where it existed.
Bl, slavery levied war, and brought upon the
land the horrors of the last half decade OF
years The Union party know the weight
and cost Of that struggle. In the burden oi
taxation. in suffering and death. they have
learned the lessons Of a bitter experience and
they have no compromises to make hence
forth with dsloyalty or the slave spirit.
Hence the action Of Union men in the
present crisis hey upheld aud voted foi
Andrew johnson against Copperhead and
rebel opposition. They assume his devotion
to freedom and the Union. he vetoes bill
They weigh bis objections and are not greatly
concerned about his action therein. But a
the same time he outlines policy which
awakens the boisterous praise of every Cop
perhead and rebel in the land, and then Unior
men take alarm. Since the great popular up
rising IN u and 90, when the guns OF rebel
lion reused to frenzy of patriotic fervor oul
l. ltbo lie bv r,fs
there has no such storm of popular feeling
swept over the Northwest as that TO which
the events of the last two weeks has giver
rise. Feeling that the victory and the ibert,
they have won are endangered, they have
rallied around the flag with the old spin
that transformed our raw recruits into veter
ans, and bore our colors in triumph south
ward to the gulf and the ocean, and they de
mand. with determined earnestness not L
be resisted, that there be no trifing with thu
nation safety and destiny.
When it is deemed that President johnson
is recreant to principle and freedom, and /
becoming the friend of rebels, then for th'
frst time Copperheads and traitors take hin
u and praise him, and the first time IN al
these last FIVE years Union men cease to sup
port and defend him. In all loyal and free
dom loving labor the Union party will sup
port Andrew johnson; but does he waver a
all, does he enter the South,rl lines and tr,
again to give the S ave oligarchy rule over us
then the Union Iarty divorces itself iron
him and standing on the ,ure pll form O
truth, erpe'ual Union and human rights, sa
as Lutf er to the Diet ave stand here, VI
cenaot do otherwise, SO help US God
CoPpERHEAD jeblation doesn't scare Uniol
men. 1t has only consolidated our columns
Das No;poe 6ras the first round against tn