The meaning of the word “Abolitionist” . . .

. . . has undergone many changes within a few years, its meaning always having been changed by the men who grow and work slaves as a business. – Two years ago at Charleston and Baltimore it was changed to include all persons not endorsing the Divine Right of Slavery and laboring for its extension. Within a year it has been still further changed and now includes all persons loyal to the Union. Throughout Dixie every loyal man of whatever section who sustains and upholds the government of his country is an “ABOLITIONIST,” and never spoken of except as an “Abolitionist.” And in the free States all the tories use the word in the same sense and whenever they prate of the “Abolitionists,” they mean all loyal persons who are in favor of crushing the slave-holder’s rebellion.

– Published in the Burlington Daily Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 19, 1862