. . . Fort Lafayette for an avowal of his intention to join the
southern confederacy and take up arms against the lawful government of the
United States in a letter over his own signature addressed to Jefferson Davis,
President, C. S. A., Father Mahoney of the Dubuque Herald, made a great outcry.
Recently, a more humble but equally guilty villain called Hill, Clerk of the
Court in Harrison county Iowa, has been sent to Fort Lafayette for equally
treasonable avowals of sympathy with rebellion, and that other traitor,
Babbitt, of the Council Bluffs Bugle, even out does Mahoney in his outcry over
the matter. It is an awful outrage upon
the freedom of speech and the press that traitors are sent to prison for
preaching treason, at least these two fellows pretend to think so. It may not be amiss to remind them that life
and liberty are guaranteed to white men under our free institutions. Yet white men have been incarcerated in jails
and sometimes deprived of life, without violating any provision of our
Constitution. The rights and property of
honest citizens can only be protected by punishing rogues, thieves and
murderers.
In all ages of the world and under all forms of government
to conspire against the lawful Government, adhere to and give aid to its
enemies has been held and punished as the greatest crime a citizen could be
guilty of, and in times of public peril offenders have always been arrested,
imprisoned, tried and condemned by both civil and military authorities as the
public good seemed to require. And of
this no loyal citizen ever did or ever will complain.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye,
Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 1
No comments:
Post a Comment