Despotism in Iowa

We print in another place in this paper, the ukase of Clark Dunham of Burlington.  According to the edict of this petty tool of Abolition despotism, no freight can pass outside the City of Burlington by stage or rail, going westward, without a permit, nor can any traveler proceed in the same direction without his baggage undergoing the surveillance of a custom house officer.

Whither are we drifting?  Iowa is a loyal State, she never claimed to have seceded from the Union, she has furnished nearly twenty thousand troops to sustain the Government, her citizens at home are peaceful Union men, and now under the pretence of necessity, the tyrant’s plea, we of Southern Iowa are subjected to an indignity which only finds its equal in the despotic countries of Europe and Asia.  Is this the inheritance left us by our Revolutionary sires?  The question is pertinent, it should be pressed to an answer. Whither are we drifting? – Ottumwa Mercury.

It is not exceeding strange that a staid, courteous, gentlemanly and dignified Ex-judge, who has always been severe, not to say sanctimonious, in observing the amenities of social life, should tear his undergarments in that way.  Most assuredly his Honor has not recently seen quotations of unbleached muslins.

Observe with what immeasurable contempt and indignation he speaks of the National Administration as an “abolition despotism.”  That is precisely the term used by Jefferson Davis.  Most of the Generals in the Rebel Armies, whenever they have said anything have thus spoken.  The newspapers in the Rebel States have all with one accord characterized the Administration in the same way – the epithet has become stereotyped with them.  And there is a wonderful coincidence in the spirit exhibited.  The severe austerity of the high toned, white neck clothed Judge gives way at once, and the ranting, envenomed, malignant secession sympathizer shows his teeth, as full of poison as a rattlesnake in August.  What is the matter? – Why such an exhibition of anger?  The Government has made an order designed, not to annoy or trouble loyal people but to prevent Missouri rebels from receiving arms, munitions of war, or other aid through Iowa.  Is not the purpose of the order – its intent and object, such as loyal people approve?  As to the manner of its execution?  Does any one complain of inconvenience, detention, insult or oppression?  Who?  When?

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 2