The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1867-01-12
KE0KvK. IOWA.
1aUl1s q ~aaI Es.lo1n a n1xls

40 - u ~ II Il
SATURDAY MORNING, JAN. IL.
1nuI1S On ar re.l0rn n DIXIE.
The President in the White House de6es
he law-making power Of the Government,
ND charges the Representatives Of the peo>
pie with treason and usurpation, because they
refuse to surrender all power into his hands,
ma bow hnmhayst his feet. His Cabinet Of
6cers, openly, and at the Presidents sugges-
lion, disregard the laws of the country, in
The administration Of their departments, and
publicly stigmatize the Congress Of the Uni~
ted States - "ConsttutioA tinksss' because
they chocss to exercise the powers coafsrsed
N them By the Constitution. Ard the South |
ern supporters Of the Administration, who
bore arms against the flag of their country for
four Year,, take encouragement from the
course of their new leaders to Treat the laws
of the country with contempt, and TO wreak
their vengeance upon the ioysi people Who
nay BE- in their power, both black and white,
soldiers and civilians.
The early manifestations Of the triumph
ant feeling Of the rsbsls, when they drst felt
that they had new chief in the person of
the President Of the United States, were the
massarrss Il Memphis and New Orleans.
But such public and monstrous massacres Of
Union men aroused too much indignation in
the North, and tho continuance of such
Wholesale sacrifices to the vengeance of
traitors, it was thought, would be neither pol
itic nor safe. Hence, the word was passed
that the partisans of the President must save
his popularity in the North, by taking less
public means Of Cutting their hatred of loyal
men. And, having had an ilustrious exam.
pie in the assassination Of President LrscoIS
the rebels were not slow to follow it up, by
assassinating Union soldiers and Union ci,i.
zens in every neighborhood throughout the
South. Most Of these cases have been kept
from the public ear, by the efforts of the Pres.
ident and his friends, bat enough have come
to the knowledge Of the public to show that,
under ''the policy of President JOHNSON,
murder, assassination, and massacre prevail
systematically throughout the South. And
what is more to the shame of the country,
not only the State officials encourage and up.
hold the murderers, but the President, him
self winks At their crimes, and interposes his
authority to protect any sristocra,ic murderer
who may, BY chance, be pu. in peril for his
cri mes.
Instances Of this chNActer are frequt NJ
and numerous, but We will present one ~ Q
sample Of the Wholesale business in which
the President is engaged.
In South Carolina . clique of the frss
families couspired together TO sssa.sinate q
squad Of United States soldiers, and sue.
ceeded in killing three soldiers of the United
States from Maine. Four of the murderers
were convicted Of the crime and sentenced
TO expiate it with death. The aristocracy
of South Carolina came to the rescue and
peti,ioned the President in behalf Of the
murderers. He interposed and COMMITTED
their sentence to imprisonrn emit in Fort Der
aware, whence they were taken by writ Of
hd1eos corpus, and discharged.
lhas TO sIate tue thing briefly and truly.
the President pardoned and discharged four
murderers on the simple petition of Their
friends. The murdered men we're poor Yam.
kee soldiers in the service of the United
States and the murderers, ss set forth by
their friends, were amongst the most wealthy
and respectable traitors of the State of South
Carolina.
There is no question that the President
was in completely with the friends of these
rebel murderers in the matter of procuring
their unconditional discharge, and that he
only took an indirect way to accomplish it iu
order to blind the public. For, in the first
place he committed the sentence of death to
confinement At the Dry Tortugas, and after
wards changed that to confinement at Fort
Delaware, where the prisoners would be With
In reach Of the habeas corpus Of the court.
And moreover, it was under bis authority
that these aristocratlc murderers, rebels and
supporters of MY Policy" we're surrend-
cred by the Military Commander to the Reb,
el Court.
Many of our readers have served in the
South and can appreciate something Of the
infamy which should attach to the Presiden,
for thus sapctioning and protecting the rebel
murdsrers Of Union soldiers. And men who
have served their country in tramping OF,
treason on Southern soil, can realize vha,
will be the effect of thus granting impunity
and encouragement to rebel miscreants, TO
wreak their cowardly vengeance upon Union
soldiers.
But it is not only the soldiers Of the United
States who suffer from the revival of rebel
pride and vengeance under the policy Of their
new chief Everywhere throughout the
South the rebel element was stimulated into
renewed activity by JoHNsos's policy, aud
manifested its bitter vigor by outrages on
white loyalists, as we'll as freedmen, as every
one who has been in the South or has CORE,
spondents there, knows full WE'LL
Take the following extract from recent
report Of General ORD for Arkansas, ~ an
indication of the manner in which the recon-
structed accept the situation" not to say
abide by the laws and maintain liberty and
justice.
General ORD gives this glimpse of the spin,
prevalent amongst JoHxsos's party down in
Arkansas:
"Outrages. assaults and murders, commit.
ted on the persons Of freedmen and women,
are being continually reported from nearly all
sections Of the State, and decided want oil
disposition to punish offenders apparently ex-
lists with the local civil officers, and in the
minds Of the people. There have been re-
ported fifty-two murders of freed persons BY
white men in this State in the past three OF
four months, and no reports have been re.
ceived that the murderers have been impris
oned or punished. In some parts of the
State. particularly in the southwest and south
east, freedmen's lives are threatened if they
report their wrongs to the agent OF the Blu
rean, and IN many instances the parties max
III reports are missed and never heard o,
afterward. 1t ia believed that the number o,
murders reported is not half the number com.
Ais1sd during the time mentioned
0snsnl Hc~.xp in his brief report init;
mates that the iel'ng and the practice in 9th
q pogtions of tt -outh is similar to tina, in
Ask61Sas. He ss,. that the State Courts d.
eaAEs The Civil R,g.,s bill unconstitutional
end refuse protec,ioa to the freedmen. II,
GxSHnr$a alao that ia uory oe A.. c...