The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-03-03
A RECONSTRUCTED REBEL AND
A COPPERHEAD ACROBAT.


martial triumph before 1.-THE capture and
hanging of John Brown-has written q letter
to hs quondam friend, Fernando Wood.
Wise has been wont to lie a political leader,
with an applau1ing constituency to support
him in the South, and Noltaern Democracy
servilely obs aquious TO the crack Of his slave
whip. Hence he lorded it in national politics
Things are changed now. He and his Con-
federstes attempted to perpetuate their sway
with the sword, and they failed and went
under. The Copperhead Democracy attempt
ed to give them aid and comfort, and they,
too, went under. Slave drivers and slavery
apologists are at discount. Freedom was
winner, and its friends do not yield their prize
at the clamor of either the Northern or South
ern friends Of slavery.
In his present "subjugated condition, the
soul of the late irrepressible and uncondi
ionally-never-surrender Wise is heavy within
him. He wants a chance to again lord it in
national politics, as one of the ehivalry.
Hence in his letter to "Fernandy' he anxious
ly and withal lugubrously says:
Can you inform me, then, why the war
having ceased, peace has not been proclaimed?
Why the writ OF habeas corpus has not been
restored? Why civil jurisdiction has not been
allowed 10 take cognizanee of all cases be
longing to the Courts of law and equity under
the Constitution? Is the war power to con
tinue after war itself has ceased? Are arms
TO be employed still, long after the ordinary
process of the judicial tribunals can be exc
cuted! Are the civil laws to be continued
suspended? Are original and sovereign States
to be provncialized and ''territorialized?''
Is the Constitution of the United States itself
to remain suspended until some power or
other can or shall form new National Gov
ernmen,?
might add inquiry to inquiry, further but
these are enough, and confess to you that /
have seen nothing from any quarter as yet
shedding light on these monstrons questions
Whether | look to the Federal Executive, or
Congress, or Judiciary, or TO the country at
large, all is dark. 1 see lnrd light only in
the camps of the army, still surrounding our
very homes and hresides. Can you, from
your stand, point me to any clear, unclouded
prospect to cheer the patriot heart which longs
10 see old MON and old Constitution respec-
ted and honored, and obeyed as they really
exist and have ever since l7S7 existed, with
out any reconstruction?
FROM the beginning of all things that ever
began to be. down to the present, there has
been no more refreshing example of refriger
ating GOODNESS than this spectacle Of Henry
A. Wise striking loyal and theatricaliy en-
treating attitude and begging to be pointed to
some prospect that shall cheer his "patriot
heart" as lover of the old Union and the
Old Constitution But Southern loyalty and
and Southern feeling and the character of
fu,ure Southern political action are foreshad-
owed in this letter of Gov Wise. The chiv-
ally tried hard to be successful rebels and to
destroy the government. In that they failed.
Submitting with n bad grace they clamor for
restoration to political power, that they may
6ght for the oh Laioa and the Old Cpnstitu-
io8-the Union and the Constitution as they
were under the slave drivers rule, with sla-
v,rv, and making void the Union victory, for
ir ,edom and human rights that was won by so
fierce struggle and at so sad price. That
plan may be eminently satisfactory to South
EN- rebels and the Copperhead Democracy,
but it doesn' please Union men.
The response of "Fernsndy" is one Of the
most remarkable political documents we re
member to have seen emanating from even
the most active and accomplished polit ical
somersauters and gymnasts. He says that
the form Of government established by the
present Constitution was not republican. that
the State governments were republican, but
not the Federal Government that the ques
ton. whether the Federal Government was
republican or not, with other issues, led to
war Thatit was decided to be republican
and North and South are concluded by the
result. Now we quote his language:
As you well state, both State sovereignty
and Slavery have been determined against.
For the former We must hereafter have unity
for the latter, freedom. Whether you and
] will it or not, or whatever may be men s
opinions as to the true construction of the
Constitution with reference to thesetwo great
questions, it is folly to disguise the fact that
hereafter there can be no such issues. The
new Americauism opens up before US, and
common sense demands that We should con-
form TO il. Now, what follows? State soxe.
reiguiy being dead, unity follows. The peo-
pie of the whole Union are one, and the ma
jority is that one. This, yon will say, is
consolidation; and soft is, but not a consoi-
dation inconsistent with free government, nor
with Repnbl licanism-nor does it imply that
States, as such, shall not continue North and
South with all needful jurisdiction over domes-
tic RI hts. Slavery being dead freedom follows.
The South has not lost any subs,s nial right
by the war. 1t has gained much. It's homo
geneity and unity with the people of the
whole TTniOn have bpen secured Sourras of
discomfort have been removed, and the door
opened forever for the establishment Of fra
terns relations with other parts Of the Union
not heretofore existing.
And in coenlusion this aforetime defender
Of slavery, and consistent slave propagandist
saws:
| want America to Eli her mission She is
the corner stone of universal liberty Il ,ugh-
ont the world. With this principle laid deep
ana broad in our ewn institutions, it should
be our ann 70 extend it to those oppressed
elsewhere, until despotism ceases, not only on
TINS continent, but throughout the ciritized
tudcerse.
treaaF 1"deas Appeua I No wonder he
says
am aware that there are positions assu.
med and declarations made in tb;s la,,er
which NAV render me liable to tbe eberoa
Of inconsistency. II any thus acc,,sa
let them remember that no partisan assoc;a,
tons nor opinions existing before and during
the war should continue when the whole as.
pect Of public affairs and the premises upon
which they were founded have been altogether
changed. 6
"GLoMous ANDY" says the Hartford
IL l.