Charles City intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa) 1864-1866, 1866-03-01

held the rod that had smitten him, the
latter smote the hand that had fed him.
And yet we are asked at this time to
consign these loyal men, both white
and black, to the mercy, as have said,
OF these rebels and enemies.
am free to say, Mr.. Speaker, that
if such is to be the policy of this Gov
crnment it is recreant to its high duty;
it is unworthy Of all the blood shed
and treasure expended in its cause !;
1t deserves to perish in it's ingratitude
aud be blotted from the face of the
earth.
| We are told, sir, that they have rat
flied the constitutional amendment
abolishing slavery i; Ay, so they have
but their courts have sold the freed.
men into slavery the next day under
some pretense of furnishing him for
vagrancy or something else equally
absurd. .E ss.
You say that they have repndiated
the rebel debt. Indeed they have, in
form but how long do you suppose
it will be after they get their members
back into Congress before they will re-
peal all such Legislation They will
have the power todo so do you doubt
their will T? Have they done another
thing more important have they Civ
EN- us any assurance that they in con-
juction with their obsequious northern
allies will not repudiate the national
debt, which they say was incurred in
their subjugation? r. a-. ...'-.s
You say that they have given the
colored man standing in court. Ay,
so had Robert Emmett before his Eng
lish murderers !! So had the early mar
tyrs in councils convened to take their
lives !! So had Jesus of Nazareth in
the court of Plate A standing in
court, with, as have said, hostile
judges, jurors, witnesses, church and
state all hostile. Such standing in
court is mockery it is worse, it is in.
suit. s. tFr
But we are told that these are "hon-
orablc men," and will live mp to the
oaths they have taken. Honorable
men who butchered helpless women
and crushed ont the brains of little
/ children at Lawrence, who murdered
in cold blood prisoners of war at Fort
Pillow, who stood by with internal NAL
ice and saw the flesh shrink month b,
1 month, week by week, day by day from
| the bones Of thirty thousand as brave
opI noble vpo,, - .,,,<. ,,,,~.x c~.xl /.
save nation, until their strong frames
tottered, their eyes grew dim, and suf
fering all the tortures of the damned,
gnashed their teeth and walled for food
until the mind went wandering back
to home and wife, mother and child
and they called on sacred names and
laughed the maniac's laugh, and then
moaned and cried for bread, and died
for want of food. In this land of plen.
ty, in the land they had gone to save,
on the Shiny couch where vermiI
crawled, trampled into the wet earth
or over the "dead linc," in tatters, in
rags, in awful stencil and filth, will
dead men in heaps around them, the,
died, and Robert Il. Lee and Jefferson
Davis, and all the rest of these I" hon
orable men," stood by upholding Tin,
hellish deed. God save the nation from
such honorable men !"
But what would you do ?" says
! the impatient inquirer. Are you not
weary of war and blood? Are yor
not for peace and Union2n | an
for peace and Union--that peace which
will be lasting, that Union which viii
be Just for the fearful lesson of tn,
last four years will be lost upon us
we have reconstruction without justic,
Justice to the loyal men, justice t,
the freedmen. We tolerated iniustic,
to a race until it was wiped out by th,
blood of million men. Let us recon
struct now upon solid foundations
We have the power and the right, an,
J it is our highest duty to do so. w
should convict and hang for treason
the leaders of the rebellion, that al
! ambitious demagogues hereafter shal
be admonished that treason is ;
crime" to be punished. Justice, b,
constitutional amendment fixed beyont
The mutations of southern Legislation
would give to every class and race O
men in those States equality before tin
law, and all the power and franchise
necessary to secure that equality
: Justice and due regard to our ma
: tiOnal safety would take the govern
, ment of those States from the hand
J Of our country's enemies and place
, in the hands of its friends; and if spt
! cial legislation is needed to create fo
, the future, as in the past, territoria
: governments for them to secure thos
! ends, let it be done. And let not an,
, indecent haste to strike hands that ar
! red with our brothers. blood and pr
: on garments that are, reeking with til
. odors of rebel prison pens throw ava
D the opportunity to enforce justic,
D Take all the needed time to settle thes
: grave issues upon the eternal prime
. plies of right, build up the new struc
!, ure on the rock of justice and cfnalit,
SO that the waves of war and seditio
may dash against it unharmed throug
, all the ages that are to come.
We are the judges, | have said, I
. the conditions Of their return to powe
Congress, the loyal Congress, is
4 decide who shall take seats her,
5 Loyal men, / am told, have come her
: as representatives from some Of thos
D States as such men take them b
! the hand. Bnt | would ask them, d
! you represent loyal constituency
t IL ia the constituency we are rejecting
: not the man. would ask them wha
! guarantee they can give, that whe
, their brief term here is ended, tha
, men in sympathy with their rebellion
, districts, who can swear hard enoug
to take the oath, (for they are natio
: of eath.takers and oath-breakers, wi
, not succeed them. They should T,
member that they We're elected whil
J the war was still raging. while thes
I rebel constituents were in the field
now they have retured to vote at til
next election, do they expect re-elet
| tion from their hands Can they as
T sure me that they were not put forwar,