There is no misunderstanding recent movements in this State.

The attempt to resurrect the Democratic party is made by Geo. W. [J]ones, A. C. Dodge, Chas. Mason, Dennis Mahony, Barnhart Henn and others of the same class and stripe and for the benefit of the above named parties.  There is not a single live Democrat in it – not one.  There is not a single Democrat in it who has given his active support to the war for the Union.  The above parties are acting through lesser politicians just as completely played out as their principals – men who would never have voted a dollar or recruited a company for the war, but would, on the contrary, have sent a commission to Missouri to form a treaty of amity with the traitor Claib Jackson and his rebel horde and then declared for neutrality.  These parties seek power for the avowed purpose of making peace with Southern traitors and saving these same traitors from the consequences of their acts.  No such party can be organized in Iowa with the remotest chance of accomplishing anything save the lasting infamy of those engaged in it.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 17, 1862, p. 2