American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1866-09-05

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mcnt must be placed in the hands of the
men who saved 1.-THE civilians at home
and the soldiers in the field. applause }
The people of this country shall be fer
ever placed beyond the reach of traitors,
or men who have conspired to destroy it.
You h ave soldiers in the field, you have
civilians at home, whom you can trust,
you can always find soldiers you can trust.
(Cheers.) We have plenty Of loyal men,
both civilians and soldiers, who did save
the country once, and can,save il. again,
at home and on the battle field These
are the men we propose to trust, and we
propose by this constitutional amend
ment to say so to JEFF. Davis, and to
Robert L. Lee, and Bcauregard, and
Alexa nder Ii. Stevens-the man that is
put up by the Copperheads nova days
as a man who is loyal TO the Union of
the United States He is held up as a
paragon of perfection-he is the man
from whom you are to learn loyalty; the
Vice President of the pretended South
ern Confcdcracy he and Toombs, Sill
dell, Mason, and Breckin ridge, who was
Vice President of this noble Govern
me pt oncc-he who forfeited his oath,
his life, and everything else, according to
the laws of the land, and escaped from
his country to be a man hated and des-
pised in all the nations of the earth
wherever he may go And our Copper
head friends here say we must not place
any restriction. There must be no con-
ditions precedent These men are loyal
now. Why? Because they are not in
rebellion. Why, they are obeying the
laws just the same as anybody else
They are quiet, are they not ? Yes, very
quiet, Very quiet down in New Orleans
a few days ago-quiet at Memphis; in
quite number of places they have been
peaceable and quiet. They say they are
not arming themselves against the Gov
ernmcnt now; they are not rebels now
They have laid down their arms; hence,
they arr civilians; they are citizens;they
are loyal men because they obey the laws
of the land. Well, you obey the laws
of the land too. You are loyal man
without having been rebel You have
been loyal man all tha time. You have
obeycd the laws all the time, and | would
like to ask some of these Copperhcad
friends this question Suppose man
steals horse to-day and you send him
to Jail tomorrow, is he any less horse
thief tomorrow than he was to day
daughter and cheersJ--I would like to
know f? He obeys the law. He is in jail
and he cannot violate it. (Great laugh
ter.) He obeys The law just precisely as
these rebels do. They laid down their
arms. Why Because they loved the
Constitution OF the United States p
laughter. We think not. Because
they loved? 1t seems to me if they had
they would have had it in place of Their
own. Was it because they loved the
Govcrnment of the United States If
they had, they would not have tried to
establish one of different form. Why
was it they laid down their ,arms?-
Just as the horse thief went to jail-be-
cause he could not help it [Cheers. l.
Hence, they obey the law because they
are compelled to obey it--not because
they love it, They obey the cdicts of
this country, not because they love the
country, but because they cannot help it.
That is the only reason. They are loyal,
our Copperhes friends say, because they
obey tue law. We don't exactly under.
stand it in the same light they do. We
have obeyed the law all the time. We
are making these chaps obey the law
They cannot help themselves and we
propose to keep on making them obey
the law until they come to be very good
law abiding citizens. We will Let them
know if we have any use for them, aud
if we have anything in Congress for them
we will send them word and give them
notice daughter f 7aiaf
3 Why, JEFF. Davis is good, loyal man
now, according to the Copperh cad idea
and according to Mr.. Johnson's theory
While man obeys the law he is loyal
man. jeff is obeying it, believe
| have not heard of any disobedience
while he has been down there He sub
mits not very willingly. but yet he obeys
because he cannot help it. We'll, ac-
cording to this theory, jeff. is a good 10y
al maR. That looks very strange. If
that theory is correct, and aRother re-
bellion comes up in this country, you had
a great deal better be traitor than
loyal man. Why ? Because fyou are 10y
al man, and fghtfor your country you gain
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