The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1868-06-20
Conservative Soldiers Convention.

Conservative Soldiers and Sailors to publish
the proceedings of their meeting to make ar
rangements for the proposed convention at
Ottawa on the eth inst. 1t is not only surly
and snappish, but insulting. 1t intimates that
the soldiers engaged in the movement are. in
the first place, the members of little squad
OF office holding and office seeking soldiers
galvanized into life under the auspices of A.
johnson; and secondly a few dupes, inveigled
to give responsibility to the "vile copper
heads who, " during the war for the union,
opposed every measure calculated to conquer
peace ana to support the boys in blue while
facing rebel bullets" and so on, with batch
of that sort of slang.
There are two big talsehoods here, which
run through the whole article of the Repub-
''can, and constitute its pith, that may deserve
word OF comment. We are willing the reader
shall scan the names attached to the call in an
other column, for the proof that this long list
constitutes a little squad OF "oflice holders
and office seekers galvanized into life under
the auspices of A. Johnson Let the RepuJ-
lican place its finger on the names of the Office
seekers or office holders in the list
Secondly, that old, stereotyphed lie about
the democrats opposing "every measure du-
ring the war for the union. calculated to con-
quer peace and to support the boys in blue
&c. The talschood has been so often repeated
as to have become hackneyed and stale, yet
we defy the editor Of the Republican, or any
one, to produce the proof, either from the rec
ords of a democratic convention, democratic
legislature, or a vote by democratic member
OF congress, that can, even by peryersion of
language, be construed into opposition, du-
ring the war, to prosecuting the war for the
union, or supporting the boys in blue in the
field. There is no such vote, and the whole
charge is an infamous falsehood when uttered
against the democracy Of the whole or any
part of the non-rebelhous states On the con-
trary, it is notorious that the democracy were
for the first year and a half, nearly the sole
supporters of the war for the union, in oppo-
stion to the life long traitors and disunionists
of the Wendell Phillips, Lloyd Garrison, Sum-
ner, Governor Andrew and Parker Pillsbury
| class, who insisted on the abandonment of the
"war for the union," and its conversion into
| an infamous crusade for southern subligu-
CATION.
But even when the war was perverted to
that object, the democrats, though protesting,
never voted against supplies, Or supporting, TO
the fullest extent, by reinforcements or other
wise, the boys in the field. The whole oppo-
sition Of the democracy to the war consisted
i'll protesting against the abuses of the war
power in the hands of infamous men, They
were accused of opposing the war when they
called Butler Haynau for whipping women
at New Orleans, and a thief tor stealing
spoons; and they were accused Of opposing
the war when they called Banks cotton steal
ing expedition up Red River, by which the
lives of $4,000 " boys in blue" were sacrificed,
an infamous butchery. But beyond rascally
operations of this sort, we defy the production
of an instance where the democrats opposed
any legitimate measure for the prosecution of
the war, either for the Union," or when
prosecuted ayowedly only for the destruction
of slavery and southern subjugaton, in the
teeth of the congressional pledge under the
Crittenden resolution.
The soldiers who have signed this censerva- |
tive call are not the dupes Of the "enemies of
the war for the Union They are on the con-
trary, a part of at least half million of re. |
turned soldiers who propose to vote the
democratic ticket on the very account because
the democrats were the only true supporters
of the "war for the Union" They intend to
be again in the front battling against the reyo-
lutonary party who have sought to bring to
nought their victories in the field, by making
odious determinations between the States, and
thus making perpetual the destruction of the |
Union and the nationality of the American
people by erecting military despotisms over
ten States, taking out of the hands of the |
white race the rights OF selfgOvernment, and |
imposing upon them negro governments Dol
stored up by bayonets, overthrowing the
homogeneous institutions of the republic and |
presenting to the world the spectacle of hete-
rogeneous institutions, twenty-seven States be-
ing left masters and controllers of their own |
internal affairs, while ten states, overrun by |
armies, are compelled to accept at the |
point of the bayonet institutions which the |
GREAT states of tho north .yprnsa1v ro;oct for |