Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-10-11
HON. HENRY 9. HEMpERsAorr.
His Copperhead Record The Fret
lnStallment.

with the beginning of the year lS6;
| paper was started in this city upon
the ruins of what was called the dem.
ocratic Union, published by j. H. d.
Street. The new concern was called
the democratic Mercury. 4 Two of the
editors Of this paper were II. B. Hen
dcrshott and s. B. Evans. I The7 first
number appeared the first week in
January, 1862, and,..wc quote below
some choice extracts from what APP
peared in that number Of tho Mercury
as its platform. Under the heading in
large letters,
"OUR PLATFORM"
the Mercury said:
LIST. RATHER THAN SEE THESE STATES
REMAIN DISRUPTED, WE WOULD PREFER
THAT SLAVERY SHOULD PREVAIL OVER
EVERY FREE STATE OF THE NORTH"
In another part of this same plat
form, being article four, was the fol-
lowing:
"Oppositiouto the abolition policy
Of prosecuting the present Wdr, and
Nndying hostility to The idea Of enlaa-
cipation 1y the srar po,rerof the gor-
e,'nment."
From this 1t very plainly appears
where the heart Of Judge Hcnder-
shott was in those dark days, nine
months after the flag of the nation
had been tramplcd under rebel feet
Of Fort Sumptcr. Hc would freely
submit to tho rcbellious South to
have slavery spread over every free
state in 1862, to save the Union, but
was undyingly opposed to the de-
struction Of slavery as war measure
against traitors, for the sake of saving
the Union. Judging from the polit-
ical life Of Judge Hendershott from
that hour up to the present, we should
say his opposition was nndying.
Article second of that platform is
as follows:
GAS the best means Of restoring the
Union, we shall strive to advance the
interests of tho Democratic party,
looking and laboring for its complete
reorganization, restoration and an
cient grandeur
1t is wildly within tho memory of
most Of our readers how the demo-
cratic party was saving the nation in
1862. Judge Hendcrshott then says
he was for saving it, If necessary, by
making slavery universal, but rather
than slavery should be destroyed the
nation should be. dissolved.
Article third Of this platform says:
"Thc Mercury will differ from
many of its contemporaries in devot-
ing its energies to the benefit of tho
achite man.
There is significance in the fact
that the Ottumwa Democrat, now
published in this city and edited by
the same s. B. Exams, and which is
the political organ of II. B. Hender-
shott Mt his home, 1aunts to this day
this same whiteman's platform, not
withstanding the endorsement in
word, though not in deed of the
amendment to the Federal Constitu-
ton, which bestows upon the colored
race all civil rights.
The Democrat, run by S. B. Evans
at this time is in full accord with
Judge Memberships Mercury of 1862.
For under the head of Orr Platform,
il says:
"This IL a government of white
men mado by white men, and for
their posterity forever"
This looks like undying opposition.
And this is where the trouble comes
in. 1t is revival of the old qnes-
tons settled by the war, as evinced
last winter at the hands of the demo-
cratic party in the House and the re-
organization of the old democratic
party, solid south, and the nomina-
ton Of the old anti-coercion Bourbons
of the north, which Justly alarms the
country.