The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1867-05-19
IsoEsprARIsM Down SOUTH.

April 20, 1907. IN h. ooiiH S"ni'"A'
ISCENDIARIsM DOWN SOUTH.
The Copperhead press Of the North, and
the Presidential organs at Washington, JUS
tify or excuse the murderous mob at Mobile,
on the ground that Judge Kelley delivered
an incendiary speech. An incendiary speech,
in the South, under ''the Constitution as II
was, meant speech in support of the prop
osiuons announced in the Declaration of ln-l
dependence. And it is not likely that peo-
pie educated in that notion Of iDcendiarsm,
for generations, would abandon it readily. |
Nor is 1t to be expected that the naughty |
rebels Of the South will submit TO the exer-
else OF the right of free speech by Northern
mudsis, travelling over the South, especially !
when they are aware that the President OF
the United States sympa,hizes with them,
and is ready to exercise the power OF his ex-
allied position, at all times, for their protee
ton and pardon.
The Northern Democracy learned the
meaning Of incendiary, from their Southern
brethren, before the war, aud they also re-
tain the word in their vocabulary, with its
special aud peculiar Southern signi6cation.
And thus in the Southern and the Northern
Rebel and Copperhesd papers, ''incendiary"
is synonymous with snti-slsvery; and incen-
disrism is the advocacy of liberty and equal
rights, or free discussion.
And this, then, and nothing more, is, after
all, the only crime they charge upon Judge
Kelley, insisting that the indulgence, in this
freedom Of speech, had tendency to arouse
the passions of the irrepressible chiyslry,
and that he, therefore, wantonly incurred the
peril Of death at their hands. The position
taken, now, is precisely the same as that
taken before the war, and announced not
only in the newspapers, but on the floors OF
Congress, where Northern members were
openly threatened with hanging on a limb Of
the nearest tree, should they dare to come
down South and advocate Republican princi.
plies.
Now. the people OF the North, the gallant
soldiers who marched through Dixie, hear.
ing the flag OF freedom, are not satisfied with
style of reconstruction that leaves matters
as they we're before the war. They de-
mand the same rights in the South for them-
selves and for eyefY other man, that every
Southern man has in the North, and will no,
submit to an enforced silence, in regard to
the principles for which they fought, in the
section where they shed their blood, and un.
der the clods Of which lie the mangled form,
Of their comrades and friends.
1t is time that the chivalry and the Copper
heads should be made so familiar with the
advocacy of freedom, equal rights, free
speech aud universal suffrage in the South
that it would cease TO be regarded as in,
cendiary." And we trust that our Republ
can National Committee will see to it thai
the Mobilans are subjected to the ordeal o
free speech so frequently and so persistently
that ii shall cease "to fire the Southern
heart.
Let it be impressed on the mind and hear
Of every patriot that the right of free speech
= in the South has been fairly purchased at III,
cost of the precious blood of our brave sol
diers, aud let it be indicated If need be- a
the cannon's mouth. Practically, let us bio
even from the vocabulary of rebels the Wort
"incendiarism, in their present understand
ing Of its sense and meaning Union sol
diers and Northern patriots ought no
to be required 10 submit to the hu
initiation OF wearing paddock OF
their lips when they go South. The,
ought not to be forced by mob law, at To,
peril of life to conceal their sentiments. ant
even TO pretend that they held treason a
meritorious, and rebellion as honorable, au'
slavery as a divine institution. wickedy de-
stroyed by fanstical bsrbarians from III,
North.
We have read the speech delivered b,
Judge Kelley, at New Orleans, and lind
moderate and temperate in tone, ana libers
in sentiment, and devoted to the advocac, O
the principles and views (which inspire b
dominant party in Congress, as well as III
great body of the people in the loyal States
The murderous assault committed on hr
was an insult, an outrage upon the Gov, rn
ment of the United States, and upon the 10 q
millions who crushed the rebellion in III
seat of its power. And it is such an outrag
as must not be suffered TO pass unnoticed Q
unpublished. If it is submitted 10 in silence
the precedent will be established and person
al violence and mob law will be resorled I
oil over the land, tosuppress sentiments {
condemnation Of The rebellion, andto prever
the advncacy Of the principles of liberty an
equal rights