The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1868-07-24

HORACE GHE FL r IN SE HUM
Horace Greeley having been invited to the
task by the World gives one article in the
New York Tribune, and promises another on
a'fhe Loyalty Of Horatio Seymour Some
paris Of this first article we give here:
The 1st Of July 1868, was one Of che dark
est days Of our Union. Grant stood before
the still defiant intrenchments Of Vicksburg.
Banks was likewise obstructed by the earth
works of Port Hudson. Each Of these Cen.
erals, in the midst Of hostile region, was
then probably confronted by foes on either
side nearly il not quite as numerous as his
own effective force. Our national resources
and credit were ct low water mark. Milroy
had Just been smashed at Winchester. We
were making no Roadway in Tennessee, in
North nor in South Carolina. Hooker had
been beaten BY bad generaship at Chancel-
loryille and forced to recross the Rappahan-
mock His vanquished army, just provided
with anew, untrled commander, had encoun-
tered Lees dashing advance, and was cover-
ing Washington and Baltimore while follow.
lowing the invader into Pennsylvania. Such
were the circumstances of unprecedented
gloom and peril under which Horatio Sey-
mour, then Governor of our State, prepared
and brought to this city carefully written
Grafton wherein he nowhere recognized the
Rebel government and armies az public and
formidable enemies, whose confidently ex-
pected and speedy triumph involved our ma
,ional downfall and ruin, but, from beginning
TO end, arraigned President Lincoln aud his
Administration as the great malefactors OF
the age-the chef sources Of national evil
and peril.
A lengthy extract from that Grafton is
gwen apd H. g. continues
Having thus grossly misrepresented and
DETAINED those who were trying to save the
Union from the conspirators in the Free
States who secretly cloaked their treason and
did not disguise their sympathy With the rebel
cause, Governor Seymour turned upon the
Republicans, and thus addressed them:
We only ask that you shall give to US that which
you claim for yourselves, and that which every
freedmen, and every man who respects himself,
will have, freedom Of speech the right to exercise
All the franchises conferred by the Constitution
upon American citizens. (Great applausc.l Can
you safely deny us these. Will you not trample
upon your rights if you refuse to Listen De
you net create revolution when you say thas your
persons may be rightfuily seized. yonr property
eouhscated your homes entered Are you not
exposing yourselves, sAur ewn interests, TO as
great peri as that witfwhich YOU threaten US z
Remember this: that the bloody, and reasonable
and revolutionary doctrine Of public necessity can
lie pr, saimed BY mob well as by &c orn-
ment. (applause.
To-day, the great mass of Conservatives who
still battle for time hons red principles of govern
ment, amid denunciation, oontumely, and abuse,
are the only barriers that stand between this Gov
efnment and its ewn destruction. If We should
acquiesce in the doctrine that, in times of war
constitutions are suspended, and laws have lost
their force, then should accept doctrine II at
the very right by which this Government admin
isiers it's power has lost its virtue, and We would
be brought down to the level of rebellion itself
having an existence only by virtue Of material
power. When men accept despotism. they moy
hare choice as TO rio that despot shall b.. The
struggle then will not be- shall we have constitu-
ionnl liberty? Bnt, having accepted the doctrine
that the Constitution has lost its force, every
stinct of personal ambition, every instinct of per-
s,nal security, will lead men to put themselve.
under the protection Of that power which they
suppose most competent 70 guard their persons.
Who can fail to see here the seed openly
sown whence sprung our balefnl harvest Of
riot, arson, rapine and murder, eight to ten
days afterwards?
But Gov. Seymour was not content with
holding up to Reproduction the President the
Administration, and the party which sustain.
ed them, as the guilty authors Of our National
woes and perils. He exulted over our Nation.
al disasters and disappontments, as follows:
When | accepted the invitation to speak. with
others, at this meeting, we promised the
downfall Of Vieksburg, the opening of tho Miss
issippi. the probable capture of the Confederate
capital. and the exhaustion Of the rebellion. BY
common consent, all parties had fixed upon the
day when the result of the campaign should be
krown, to mark out that line Of policy which they
felt that our country should pursue. But in the
moment Of expected victory, there came the mid.
night cry for help from Pennsylvania to save the
despoiled fields frem,th invading foe, and almost
within sight of this great commercial metropolis
the ships Of your merchants were burned to The
waters edge.
This was uttered on the 9TH day Of July
the very day of 1.-THE downfall of Vicksburg'
the day wherein Leo relinquished TO the
Army of the Potomac the hard fought field
Of Gettysburg, and commenced his FINAL re-
treat from the soil Of the loyal States. Gov.
Seymour had, of course, written it some days
before.
We must devote one more article to the
loyalty of Horatio Seymour, He will hard
" impeach our chief witness--to wit himself.
We quote no hasty, eausual utterancee. bul
his own carefully prepared, deliberately
weighed language. In view thereof we ask a
public judgment on this question-"Can he
who thus sweepingly assailed and denounced
the head Of our Government when he evi,
IDENTITY supposed the Union just tottering to
its fall. have been loyal to his fearfully i'm
periled country ~