From the New York Herald to the Chicago Times, thence down to the Democrat of this city and the Express of Dubuque, there is a determination to renew the old compact with slavery, to bring matters back status quo ante bellum - to the condition they occupied before this unholy alliance culminated in civil war. In the beginning of the war their motto was that of the infamous Vallandigham, “Millions for defence, but not a dollar nor a man for civil or aggressive warfare.” This traitor was not only in favor of “letting alone” the Southern States, but he wished to see the President impeached for using the means necessary to defend the Union and the Constitution, and all the little dogs of the pro-slavery school barked in acclaim. These were the friends of Buchanan and of Floyd. Alas, that their leaders should have sunk so low that there is none to do them reverence. Justice is none to do them reverence. Justice is sure, though sometimes slow, and will yet overtake the infamous instigators and leaders in this unholy plot.
The evidence of determination on the part of the pro-slavery Democracy to restore the old condition, wherein for many years the policy of the country was governed by threats of disunion, is thus concisely summed up by a contemporary:– “The proofs are written on the whole history of the war in the continued protests made by Democratic leaders; first against legislative resistance to secession; second, against the employment of military force; third, against the arrest of Northern traitors; and fourth, against any and all forms of military policy which might endanger the property of traitors in human flesh and blood.” As we approach the period when the future condition of the rebel States is to be decided, we see their leaders under the garb of conservatism and violated, constitution seeking a restoration of the ancient order of things, a return to that status in which the rebel States were before the rebellion. Slavery must not be permitted to come back with its hands dyed in blood to hold the balance of power in our Government. It has already heaped untold misery upon our country, and history demonstrates that wherever it has existed, that has been its uniform effect.
The Saturday’s issue of the Democrat was a reflex of this pro-slavery policy. In addition to its leader, to which we paid our respects yesterday, it contained what was entitled, “An Episode in the House,” giving the remarks of Mr. Richardson, of Ills., in which he takes occasion to assert, that of the four thousand men from his congressional District who were in the fight at Fort Donelson, twenty-five hundred of them voted for him. Although we doubt the statement we hope it may be so; we would that every man in the District who enlisted had been a pro-slavery Democrat; we venture the assertion that had such been the case ninety-nine hundredths of them would have returned what the gentleman is pleased to call abolitionists. Such has been the uniform effect of this war. What the unprejudiced telegraph informed us, one day last week, that “the officers who entered the Richmond tobacco factories pro-slavery Democrats, returned thoroughly abolitionists.”
The Chicago Tribune, speaking of this man Richardson’s District, says: “we met, the other day, an officer of an Illinois regiment, recruited almost exclusively in Gen. Richardson’s District, and which has seen nine months of actual service in the field. We asked him what was now the sentiment of the regiment in regard to slavery. Said he, ‘Without a solitary exception so far as I know, rank and file are in favor of its extermination.’” The same authority instances the case of an uncompromising pro-slavery Democrat, from the same District, one who voted for Mr. Richardson, who, after serving as captain of a company in Missouri, says, “My experience in Missouri has flattened out my bump of conservatism, and I am in favor of destroying the cause of the war!” His company, many of whom voted as he did, to a man repeat his sentiments. An officer of another company, a Democrat who had voted for Richardson, in a speech said, “In the very first fight which we had, when I saw Capt. M. shot out of his saddle, and when I saw three of our brave privates shot dead in their tracks by the minions of slavery, I raised myself in my stirrups, and said, God being my helper, from this day forth I am an abolitionist.” And so it is everywhere. When Mr. Richardson returns from the polluted atmosphere of Washington to the invigorating air of his own prairie home, he will find such a revolution in public sentiment, as nothing but a nation wrestling with giant wrong threatening to subvert her liberties, could ever produce.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 4, 1862, p. 2
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