The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-02-23
DEFENSE OF LIBERTY---FURTH
THOUGHTS ABOl r THE VITO.

THOUGHTS ABOl r THE VITO.
From out four years strife has our coun-
try just come. Talk as gentlemen of demo-
cratic proclivities win of its being the result
of the revolutionary labors Of Northern and
Southern fanatics, that strife came out OF
Southern injustice and madness, and Gods
own instice. As the broken fetters of an
accursed bondage cover the land, we will not
now look back of the fiat that emancipated.
to review the long years during which this, q
professedly democratic land, which invited to
its protection the people of all Europe, was
riveting the chains upon It's own children.
Those years of oppression were, and we
closed our ears to Gods solemn command,
"Let my people go" and then came the
plaques. Ayl scof as You will, there is a
Higher Law of justice and right, and
Heavens curse comes upon people that
cherish injustice, even though that injustice
seem TO have the sanction of Constitutions,
the protection of democratic laws, and the
Judicial support OF democratic courts. Then,
too, there is law of progress in democratic
ideas, in the principles of republican govern
ment. The equal and impartial sovereignty of
man is the political idea underlying our gov
crnment, and the world goes forward TO the
full realization of that truth. God breaks in
pieces that government, even though it be the
Government of the United States, which
stops short of the recognition of man S SOW
reignty, and says, the established order of
things is guarded by Constitution and the
relations Of States, and we will not change
it. We will not move on with advancing
ideas toward the final establishment of the
political equality Of men," Our people had
said that, and there came a bloody tide and
washed away with the blood of the nation
sons and the tears of its daughters slavery
and the existing order of things that we pr-
ded ourselves on maintaining, and God bade
us go forward toward Liberty and recognition
of the rights Of man. We cannot disregard,
God forbid that we should disregard, the
teachings of the years through which we are
passing. We must not stop. We mnst 20
on to liberty and justice. By our people for
the most part, mayhap, thai contest was ac-
cepted TO maintain the Union, and the free
government of their choice and love. To the
God that rules in the affairs of men. that
strife was against slavery and for human
progress.
Nor let us forget the process by which the
Union was preserved. There was the gallant
devotion of the country's loyal sons, shown
on land and water in five hundred encounters
with rebels. To their mighty efforts was
joined the humble support of four millions OF
slaves that were the bondmeu of rebels, and
whose oppression the administration of this
free government had sanctioned. These CO.
pie, ignorant as the slavery imposed by dem
mocratic masters had made them, simple
minded as they were, comprehended sooner
than many of our wisest statesmen the issues
of, and the principles involved in, this strug
gle. And they never wayered in the support
they gave the Union cause. Their " eyes had
seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
and with patient souls and true hearts they
waited i'll the midst of traitors aud rebellion
for the coming of deliverance. Their feet
messengers bore us tidings when to guard
against the coming of the enemy. and when
to strike him in his weakness. They tended
ed our escaped men and piloted them to the
shelter of loyal lines. They dared whippings,
and blood hounds, and death, and never one
of them was faithless More than that, they
DOM the uniform of the country and help
ed our white soldiers put down rebellion, and
whip those traitors who, we are told, should
now be admitted to partieipancy in the legis
lation and administration of the government
they were then seeking to destroy, and which,
we apprehend, they hate with a Southern
rebels hatred, and these loyal men, guilty of
the crime of having colored skin must re-
main unenfranchised.
Mr.. JOHNSON reiterates in his veto the dec
laratlons Of his annual message at the con-
venng Of Congress, and which he has often
repeated, that the freedmen shall be protect
cd There are before him the words, III do
order and declare that all persons held as
slaves within designated States or parts Of
States, are and hence forward shall be free,
and that the Executive Government of the
United States, including the military and ma
val authorities thereof will recognize and
maintain the freedom of said persons. y
Abraham Lincoln wrote thus. There are be-
fore HIM the services Of the negro in the cause
of the Union, his own solemn declarations
made to the colored people at Nashville and
repeated at Washington, and Mr.. JOHNSON
cannot be guilty of the per6dy and infamy of
seeking to disavow his record, and giving the
negro over to the tender mercies of rebels.
Those of our cotemporaries that assume de
sire on his part to do this and to oppose every
measure looking to the performance, by the
government, of this duty, are charging Pres
ident JOHNSON with a wrong of that enormity,
and make an accusation against him that he
must himself hereafter establish before we
can believe.
To perfect the work of reconstruction in
the true spirit Of our free institutions, in the
spirit pervading the Declaration of Independ-
ence, that Is what we mean by the defence of
hoerty. This we are certain, until we have
reached the plane of a true Democratic gov
ernment, until the era is iuaugurated when
the political sovereignty and manhood of all
our people 10 acknowledged, there is no place
where we can stop with safety to the Repub
lie. We don't know when we shall reach
that plane. The time may not We. be. God
moves slowly in history but surely How.
ever, in this present work of reconstruction,
we may not probeb reach the end ofunlyersal