The degenerate days of fraud . . .

. . . corruption, unfaithfulness to public and private trusts prolific in all descriptions of human monstrosities, have produced no worse characters than the political harpies, who watching every turn in the wheel, with the sole object of securing some advantage, fair or foul for themselves or the party to which they belong.  They give not one thought to the Country or its peril – they care not one brass farthing for our institutions.  They want the country saved but unless it can be saved upon the Douglas or some other platform, saved with or without slavery, as they have severally decreed it must be, they don’t want it saved at all.  Unless their party can use the War to get into or keep in power, and to get into office or keep there, being already in – unless they can get fat jobs and contracts for themselves and friends they can see no earthly use in having a war.  And having offices and contracts, fat takes and a good thing generally, they are in favor of nursing and keeping the war agoing as long as possible.  The Country has no more dangerous enemies, not even excepting the rebels, than these heartless, mercenary politicians by trade, who do not know what patriotism is, and whose gizzards were never surprised by a generous emotion or an honest or disinterested act, in the memory of the oldest inhabitant.  From all such politicians of whatever party or name, whether in office or out good Lord deliver us.

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