Senator Daniel S. Dickinson to Lydia L. Dickinson, July 13, 1850

WASHINGTON, July 13, 1850.

MY DEAR LYDIA L.—I received your mother's of the 8th this morning. I had previously received yours of the 6th. We are waiting for the President's funeral, which is to take place to-morrow, and I suppose on Monday we shall be at work again.

I am glad you are so well pleased at Avon, and hope you will stay long enough to profit by it, if it is likely to benefit you. I should like very much to be at Avon, or somewhere out of this vile heat and dust; but when we are to get away, is more than I know. I gave your cactus into the care of Eliza, but kept the rose myself. When I was gone to New York to the dinner, old Nancy, being lame, &c., let it nearly die: the leaves fell off, and I thought it a dead rose, sure enough. But I nurtured it as did Count de Charney his Picciola in the Castle of Fenestrella, and watered it bountifully as little Mary did her dead geranium, and it is now more beautiful than ever. All the old friends who linger here, including General Jones of Iowa, send many regards to your mother and you. I had a letter from Mr. Merrill to-day. I hope your mother and yourself will enjoy yourselves, and not feel concerned about home.

Love to your mother.

Affectionately your father,

D. S. DICKINSON.

SOURCE: John R. Dickinson, Editor, Speeches, Correspondence, Etc., of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Vol. 2, p. 445

Jefferson Davis to George W. Jones, February 9, 1839

West Warrenton Mi

9th Feby 1839

My dear Jones,

If I were a "whig" I should begin this letter by a Phillipic against Amos Kendall, in this, that your much valued favor of 16th Dec. '38 did not reach me until the news-papers had brought such intelligence as rendered it probable that my answer would not find you in Washington D. C. the further information received by me induced me to send this to your home, a place hallowed in my memory by associations of friendship and kindly feeling.

I will not pretend that I do not regret the decision of the House of Reps. in the Wisconsin Ty. case, yet my regrets are mitigated by the assurance that your interests will be advanced by your presence at home and that the happiness you will find in the midst of your amiable family will greatly exceed all you could have hoped for at Washington that hot bed of heartlessness and home of the world's worldly.

Although I have seen on former occasions a man's best feelings used as weapons of assault against him, I had not conceived that the disinterested sacrifice you made to support Mr. Cilley and the pain and difficulty you encountered because of your connection with that affair, could be arrayed against you, and I am glad to perceive that you have not recoiled with disgust from a constituency so little able to appreciate your motives.

Doty is too cunning to last long, and the "little man that writes for the news-papers" will probably find himself too poorly paid to play into his hand again

The President in refusing your appointment as Govr. of Iowa pursued the same shackled electioneering policy that caused him to call an Extra session of Congress and covered the financial part of his last message with the spirit of Banking, a policy which may divide the Democrats take from the banner under which the State right's men would have rallied to their aid, but can never propitiate Bank whigs or Federalists; as the head of the democratic party I wish him success, but he had sowed indecision, a plant not suited to the deep furrows ploughed by his predecessors. You perceive that when I write of politics I am out of my element and naturally slip back to seeding and ploughing about which I hope to talk with you all next summer.

It gave me much pleasure to hear that I was not forgotten by Dr. Linn¹ and Mr. Allen² I esteem them both, and I love the Doctor.—I have written to you I scarcely know about what but it all means I am interested in whatever concerns you and wish to hear from you often. My health is better than when we parted, and I hope to visit Sinsinawa next summer looking something less pale and yellow than when we met last winter

Present my remembrances and kindest regards to your Lady and believe me to be

most sincerely yr. friend

Jeffn. Davis

Geo. W. Jones
        Sinsinawa

_______________

* George Wallace Jones (1804-1896), an American political leader, was born in Vincennes, Ind., April 12, 1804; was graduated from the Transylvania University in 1824, studied law and served as clerk of the U. S. District Court for Missouri in 1826-1827. He removed to Sinsinawa Mound, Michigan Territory (now Wisconsin), in 1827; served in the Black Hawk war on the staff of General Henry Dodge; was a Michigan delegate in Congress, 1835-1836, and a Wisconsin delegate, 1837-1839; Surveyor General of public lands for Wisconsin and Iowa from January 29, 1840, to July 4, 1841, and from January 3, 1846, to December, 1848; U. S. Senator from Iowa from December 7, 1848, to March 3, 1859; U. S. Minister to Bogota from March, 1859, to July, 1861. Shortly after his return from Bogota Jones was arrested in New York on a charge of disloyalty based on a friendly letter to Jefferson Davis and was imprisoned for sixty-four days in Fort Lafayette, when he was released by order of President Lincoln. He died in Dubuque, Iowa, July 22, 1896.

¹ Lewis Fields Linn, United States Senator from Missouri, 1833-1843.

² William Allen, United States Senator from Ohio, 1837-1849. 

SOURCE: Dunbar Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, p. 2-4

John H. Lumpkin to Howell Cobb, August 22, 1848

Athens, East Tennessee, 22 August, 1848.

Dear Cobb, I reached the Stone Mountain on the morning of the 16th inst., the day after the democratic mass meeting, and I found our friends firm, united, enthusiastic and confident of success. As the meeting was over, I passed on the line of the road,¹ and I saw democrats from all the counties in my district and they assured me that the democracy would do their whole duty for Hackett,² and for Cass and Butler. I did not see Hackett, nor did I go to Rome, but I came to this place to see my family as fast as the publick conveyances would take me. I found my wife and children in good health, and my blue eyed boy that I had never seen, the largest and finest child I have. I shall leave here tomorrow for Georgia, and will go by appointment to Cumming. During next week I shall go through Walker county and see Aycock and such as are disaffected there, and I will go from there to Summerville and from thence to Rome. Our democratic friends in this part of Tennessee are doing their duty, and the result of the late elections has given them confidence and hope, and discouraged our political opponents. A. V. Brown has passed on through this section of East Tennessee and he is now above here making speeches. Govr. Jones³ is in company with him. Gentry⁴ has a list of appointments on his return home from Congress. He will be accompanied wherever he goes. I have no fears for the result in this State. I have seen many Clay Whigs since I came here who do not think that any booby can make a President. I am satisfied that there are many here who feel and act just as John M. Botts did while we were at Washington. Colquitt and McAllister visited Marietta from the Stone Mountain, and from there this week they will be at Canton, and next week at Cumming. You must be sure and attend the district mass meeting to be held in Cass county. I am in good health.

_______________

¹ The Georgia and the Western & Atlantic Railroads.

² Thomas C. Hackett, of Marietta, Ga., Member of Congress, 1849-1851.

³ Aaron V. Brown and George W. Jones were leading Democrats in Tennessee.

⁴ Meredith P. Gentry, a Whig Congressman from Tennessee, 1839-1843 and 1845-1853.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 116-7

Senator Stephen A. Douglas to H. G. Crouch, August 7, 1858

Winchester, Aug. 7, 1858.

My dear Sir:—

Your letter of the 28th of July, communicating to me the fact that there is a rumor in circulation in Galena, supposed to have come from Gen. Jones, of Iowa, that pending the Illinois Central Railroad Grant in the Senate of the United States, an arrangement was made between him and me, by which the interests of Galena were sacrificed to those of Dubuque is received. I have a distinct recollection of the facts of the case, and they are in substance as follows: — The bill, as drawn and introduced into Congress by myself, provided for a railroad from the southern terminus of the Illinois and Michigan Canal to the mouth of the Ohio River, with a branch to Chicago and another to Galena, the northwestern terminus of the road. General Jones, his colleague, and perhaps some others, objected to Galena as a terminus on the ground that the road would not connect with the Mississippi River, and thus a hiatus would be created between the east and west side of the river. I endeavored to dissuade them from their objections, and to induce them to allow the bill to pass in the shape I had introduced it, but they were immovable, AND INSISTED ON DEFEATING THE BILL unless we would extend the road to Dubuque. Upon full consultation with my colleagues in both houses of Congress, it was determined to permit the alteration to be made, under the belief that the whole bill would be defeated unless we consented to the change, and we thought it better to allow the change to be made than to lose the bill altogether, although we did not think that our Iowa friends were treating us kindly by attempting to defeat a great measure for our State on a point of the kind. Under these circumstances, I did cheerfully acquiesce and concur in the determination of the united delegation of the State, to agree to the change by which the road should be extended to Dubuque, but carefully omitting to provide at what point the crossing should be, whether at Dubuque, at Tete des Morts, or at any intermediate point. I will only add that any insinuation or intimation on the part of Gen. Jones, or any of his friends, that I had any collusion with him, and was willing to sacrifice the interests of Galena to those of Dubuque, or any other point, is basely and infamously false. Very respectfully,

Your friend,

S. A. Douglas.

H. G. Crouch, Esq. Galena, Illinois.

SOURCE: John Carl Parish, George Wallace Jones, p. 195-7

Senator George W. Jones to Senator Stephen A. Douglas, November 9, 1858

Dubuque, Iowa, Nov. 9, ’58.

Hon. S. A. Douglas,

Chicago, Ill,

Sir: — Herewith is enclosed your letter dated August 7th, 1858, to H. G. Crouch, editor of the Galena, Illinois, Courier, cut from that paper of the 2d instant, with the editorial accompanying the same, headed — “A Base Calumny.” I will not condescend to notice the scurrilous editorial, predicated upon the many wilful [mis]representations of your letter, preferring to deal with you, as more responsible than your instrument. I say “wilful misrepresentation,” because you say you "have a distinct recollection of the facts in the case,'' and because the journals of the Senate prove your statements to be wholly destitute of truth, so far as you refer to my colleague (Gen. A. C. Dodge,) myself and our friends as having ever expressed or entertained the idea, as you say, of “defeating the bill unless the road was extended to Dubuque,” though we surely had as much right so to amend it as our Southern friends of Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama had to suggest and require, as I think they did, that you should make the road extend to Mobile, through those three States.

You knew well that neither you nor your colleague, Gen. Shields, ever had such consultation, either between yourselves or your colleagues of the House, before I offered my amendment to make the road terminate at this place, instead of at Galena. You moreover knew equally well that when I approached you towards the close of the debate in the Senate on the bill with my amendment, and asked you whether you had any objections to my offering it, stating as I did that it was merely to extend your road to Dubuque, 12 or 15 miles further West, that you not only freely assented thereto, but thanked me for the suggestion, and that I immediately thereafter, in your presence and hearing, obtained the assent of your colleagues to the same effect;— that I then offered it and it was passed without a dissenting vote or objection from any quarter whatever, as the records show.

You must also recollect that within twenty-four hours after the passage of the bill through the Senate, I informed you that I had had a conversation with Col. Baker, the then Representative from Galena in Congress, and that he declared to me that he would not allow the bill to pass the House without having my amendment stricken from it, and that you then said that you cared not what Baker wished — that it was right that the road should terminate on the Mississippi, and so connect with our proposed railroad, and that you would so state to your colleagues, Col. Richardson, Major Harris, and others of the House, who would take charge of the bill, and would prevent Baker from making any such amendment in that body.

The assertion on your part that I or my colleague, or any one of our friends had determined to defeat your bill upon the ground stated by you, or for any other reason whatever is false, and its publication being deferred until the day of the Illinois election, too late to be contradicted by myself or others, shows that you and he (your Galena organ) who acted for you, designed to mislead the Galena people, and accomplish your selfish purpose. The journals and the debates of the Senate show that Gen. Dodge and I heartily cooperated with you and your colleague in every effort and every vote which was given on that question. For many considerations we could not but be deeply interested in the passage of that bill.

At the celebration of the completion of the Illinois Central Railroad to Dunleith, held at this place in July, 1855, you complimented me, in exalted terms, in your speech on that occasion as the person who procured the amendment, making Dubuque the terminus of the road, and although you knew that hundreds of your own constituents were there present, you did not intimate that the same had been done contrary to your wishes. You were then addressing an Iowa audience whom you wished to propitiate.

Again, sir, when you last visited Dubuque, (26th August, 1857,) you had an interview with J. B. Dorr, the editor of the Express and Herald of this city, who had, ever since you introduced the Kansas and Nebraska Bill in the Senate, been your bitter opponent, and the opponent of that measure. The next morning an editorial article appeared in that paper, of which the following is an extract:

"But Illinois is not the only State which has been benefited by the policy and by the labors of Stephen A. Douglas. All the Western States are indebted to him for the material improvement which is observable within her borders. We believe, however, that our own State, Iowa, stands next to Illinois in her obligations to Mr. Douglas. To him more than to any living man is owing the magnificent railroad system planned out for her — the system which is destined to make her one of the wealthiest and most important States in the West. Even our own good city of Dubuque owes, in a great measure, her present importance to the labors of Mr. Douglas. She knows that the extension of the north western branch of the Illinois Central to the opposite bank of the Mississippi has greatly added to her prosperity, and the land grant roads running from here to the interior will still add more towards making her the commercial metropolis of the region North and West of Chicago.''

Two numbers of the paper containing the above extract were sent to you the next day, one to Galena and the other to Chicago, with the expectation that you would have the honesty to spurn the offer thus made you by your newly acquired advocate here, to the detriment of myself, for whom you then professed friendship. Instead of doing so, however, the same article was republished in the Times, your organ at Chicago, and that, too, within a very few days after it came out here, and whilst you were still at Chicago, and necessarily within your knowledge, if not at your request. Thus, sir, at one time you extolled me in unmeasured terms for causing Dubuque to be made the terminus of the Illinois Central Railroad when addressing an Iowa audience; at another, you allow Dorr, your ally and my unscrupulous opponent here, to filch that which justly belongs to me and appropriate it to your temporary benefit. And now, when arraigned by your constituents for allowing me to make an amendment to your bill, to the disadvantage of Galena, (as the people there believe,) you resort to the dishonest and unworthy pretext of saying you were compelled either to allow the amendment to be made, or to lose the bill entirely, because “they (myself and colleague) were immovable and insisted on defeating the bill,” &c. Neither Gen'l Dodge, his father nor myself, ever voted against you or Gen'l Shields on any amendment or proposition offered to the bill. The vote was generally two to one in favor of the bill and it finally passed by yeas and nays 26 to 14, so we had not, as you allege, the power to defeat the bill, as still it would have passed.

My amendment was offered without consultation with any one, not excepting my own colleague, or any one of my constituents. I am proud of having procured such a benefit for the State which has trusted and honored me, but I would spurn it had it been obtained “by collusion” with yourself or any one else — a charge never within my knowledge made at Galena or elsewhere, until now meanly insinuated by yourself.

This, sir, is the third time that you have made “infamously false” accusations against me, and that I have been compelled to fasten the lie upon you. Though you may, at the sacrifice of Democratic organization, have effected a triumph in your own State, as you say “over Executive and Congressional dictation,” I can but look with contempt upon any fame or position you may have acquired by a union with “white spirits and black, blue spirits and grey,'” Black Republicans, South Americans, disappointed office-seekers, &c., as I do upon the miserable resort to opprob[r]ious epithets connected with my name, but covered with a contingency which gave you a sure escape.

George Wallace Jones.

P. S. This was prepared at the time and place that it bears date, and would have been sent to you had I known where it would reach you. As you are still canvassing the country, I address it to you at your own home, and publish a copy of the same in order to make sure of it being seen by you,

Geo. W. Jones.

SOURCE: John Carl Parish, George Wallace Jones, p. 197-202

John Wilson to Senator George W. Jones, January 9, 1859

Washington, Jan. 10, 1859.

Dear Sir:—

I have examined with much care your letter of 9th of November, 1858, to Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, as published in the Chicago Herald of December 16, 1858. This letter is exactly what I expected in view of the high minded, honorable and independent course you have always pursued.

The public characters of public men belong to the country, and when wilful misrepresentations are made of them, it is a duty the party maligned owes to himself and his fellow citizens to place the matter right. In doing this I much prefer such good, old English terms as you have used to more high sounding expressions, which might leave doubts on the minds of the readers of the intentions of the writer.

Truly yours,

John Wilson,

Late Commissioner of the General Land Office.

Gen. George W. Jones, U. S. Senate.

SOURCE: John Carl Parish, George Wallace Jones, p. 204-5

The Democratic State Convention of Iowa . . .

. . . is to meet at Des Moines, Thursday, June 17th, to nominate candidates for Secretary of State, and other officers.  “Lafayette” Jones and Clay Dean, a worthy pair of rebels are traversing the State as emissaries of Jeff. Davis, under the cloak of organizing the Democracy to respond to this call. – Chicago Trib.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 22, 1862, p. 2

The Jones Family

One would naturally suppose that Geo. W. Jones, after his arrest for treasonable correspondence with the arch traitor Jeff. Davis and incarceration at Fort Lafayette and release only on taking the oath of allegiance to support the Government and the capture of his son in arms against the Government at Fort Donelson, would not have the temerity to show his face to the people of Iowa, let alone traveling among them and trying to reorganize the Democratic Party.  But the brazen impudence of the man is only exceeded by the fact that loyal Iowa should contain enough disloyalists to give a show of success to his efforts.  Another item has leaked out to show the treason of the Jones family.  A Shiloh correspondent of the N. Y Times, who was in the battle at Wilson’s Creek, picked up a letter from another son of the notorious George W., introducing to a Captain in the rebel army a citizen of Dubuque, who wished to fight against his Government.  But the letter and extract will explain the matter, and show the traitor propensities of the family:

In roaming about the woods I found a well worn letter, whose contents may prove of interest.  It is dated:

DUBUQUE, Iowa, July 1, 1861.

DEAR HUNTER: By this I introduce to you my friend, Daniel O. C. Quigly, of this town, and bespeak your kindness and attention toward him.  I believe he will prove himself worthy of your friendship.  With every wish for your prosperity and happiness, your friend.

CHARLES D. JONES.

To Captain S. E. Hunter, Hunter’s Rifles,

Clinton, Louisiana.

The particularities of this document consist in the fact that the writer is a son of Gen. Geo. W. Jones, of Dubuque, (late Minister to Bogota, Fort Lafayette, &c.,) and a brother of the Lieut. Jones who was bagged at Fort Henry.  The Quigly spoken of, is a son of a prominent citizen of Dubuque, and one who, soon after the war commenced, bolted to the South and offered his services to the scoundrels who are trying to break up this government.  I offer the letter for publication from the fact that the writer now lives in Dubuque, and pretends, as he ever has pretended since the war began, to be loyal.  How far such loyalty will be tolerated by a Government whose burdens are already heavy enough, should be tested.  The letter was given, and for a treasonable purpose, at a time when the gallant Lyon was struggling against the traitorous uprisings in Missouri – at a time when hundreds of Jones’ townsmen in the First Iowa, were toiling and suffering beneath the burning sun of Missouri, inspired only by motives of patriotism, by a wish to preserve intact their beloved Constitution – it was at such a time that Jones chose to perpetrate his treason and assist in the work of breaking up the Government.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, May 21, 1862, p. 2

See Also:

• The Jones Family of Dubuque, Iowa

The Old Regime

As a precursor of the re-organization of the Democracy, the Burlington Argus gives its readers two columns of eulogy upon Geo. W. Jones, and Augustus Cesar Dodge.  These old hacks whose sympathies have been with the traitor wing of the Democracy for many years, are looming up once more into public notice under the general influences of the Vallandigham and Mahony manipulations. – Gate City.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, May 19, 1862, p. 2

Politics in Indiana

At the election to be held in Indiana next October, Congressmen are to be chosen with minor State officers (Secretary, Treasurer, &c.,) and a Legislature upon which it will devolve to fill Mr. Wright’s seat in the Senate.  Some months since the Jesse D. Bright Democracy held a convention and nominated candidates, opening a canvass that was avowedly to give the expelled Senator a new lease of power. – Their disgusting fondness for a branded traitor, and their leniency toward the seceded States, has driven off many Democrats, and there are several old Democratic organs that refuse to support the ticket, while the ticket itself has begun to break up.  Hon. Milton B. Hopkins, nominated for Superintendent of Schools, withdraws his name with a very pointed letter of rebuke for the disloyal combination which is trying to steal the name of Democracy to serve treason in.  Mr. Hopkins but reflects the intentions of thousands of honest democrats who intend to vote against the concern. – Exchange paper.

The Indiana convention and platform got up last winter, was hailed by the Vallandigham press throughout the country and by the Mahony press of Iowa, as a glorious revival of the Democratic party.  It was followed up by the Vallandigham Congressional caucus, and the leading Mahony presses of Iowa, including Mahony’s Herald, the Davenport Democrat, defaulter Babbitt’s Council Bluffs Bugle, and Claggett’s Constitution, have enlisted in the scheme.  Dodge of Burlington, has also bestirred himself, and another of the same stripe of papers is about to be established in Burlington.

Bright, it will be remembered, was expelled from the Senate on the charge of treason, and our Bright, – Geo. W. Jones, – who seems now to be on a mission to reorganized the Mahonyites, was imprisoned on a similar charge in Fort Lafayette.  Will the Iowa traitor have any better success than he of Indiana? – Gate City

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, May 17, 1862, p. 2

Ft. Warren Jones

Our city was honored yesterday with another visit from this man.  He is on his return home from a pilgrimage to the southern part of the State.  His object, we presume to be the re-organization of the Democratic party on the Vallandigham platform.  We believe George W. Jones to be a traitor from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, and that if his letter to Jeff. Davis had not been intercepted, and his plans frustrated, he would be as closely identified with the South at this moment as Floyd, Wise, or Pillow.  Will not some of his friends here, who claim loyalty for this man, try and remove the stench of treason that arises from his infamous letter to Jeff. Davis, and clings to him like the poisoned shirt of Nessus? – Until that be done, let no man say there is a drop of loyal blood in the veins of George W. Jones.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 16, 1862, p. 1

Concurrently with the mission of . . .

. . . the ex-traitor Geo. W. Jones, the Mahony Central committee have called a State convention to meet at Des Moines on the 17th of July. – Gate City.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 15, 1862, p. 2

Traitors at Dubuque

Among our telegraph dispatches of Thursday morning occurred the following extract from the Washington correspondence of the N. Y. Tribune:

“It is known here, that a secret organization exists at Dubuque, Iowa, to resist the collection of federal taxes.  The ringleaders in this movement are known to the Government, and its eye is upon them.”

This is one of the direct consequences of the treasonable teachings of the Dubuque Herald.  If the names of these “ringleaders” ever are made public, we predict that Dennis A. Mahony and George W. Jones will be found to figure conspicuously among them.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, May 10, 1862, p. 2

George W. Jones . . .

. . . Ex-Minister, etc., it appears did not fail to call on the editor of the Democrat, while in this city, and receive a little of his sympathy.  The Democrat says, that “Jones spoke of his Ft. Lafayette experience freely, and places the proper estimates upon the unauthorized and tyrannical acts of the great Mogul of the Department of State.”  Secretary Seward arrested Jones for complicity with treason.  He wrote a letter to Hon. Jefferson Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy, in which he expressed his sympathy with the rebellion, and promised to give the South all the aid in his power.  This letter fell into the possession of Secretary Seward, and as it was strong evidence of Jones’ traitorism, he had him arrested and sent to Fort Lafayette.  Had it not been for that arrest, we firmly believe Jones would have at this day held some position among the rebels, had he not sooner met his deserts.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Fort Warren Jones

The extinguished George W. Jones, once Senator from Iowa, more recently Minister to Bogota, and still later a resident of Fort Warren, with, it is supposed, his rebel son, taken prisoner at New Madrid, since, like his father, released on parole, dishonored our city with their presence Saturday.  When seen by our informant, they were conversing on the street with G. C. R. Mitchell and J. W. Churchill, Esqs.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, May 5, 1862, p. 1

The Difference

Judge Birch has been arrested for preaching treason on the stump in Missouri.  He is a candidate for Governor. – Geo. W. Jones, Dennis Mahony and their co-laborers in this State are allowed to utter and print disloyal sentiments with impunity so they do not commit the overt act.  The reason why Jones and Mahony are not, like Birch, arrested and dealt with, is not because they are less guilty, but because they are less liable to do harm.  The people of Iowa are too patriotic – have furnished too many brave troops and made too many sacrifices for the preservation of the life of the nation to be seduced from their allegiance by any act of politicians however crafty, much less by the Jones faction.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, June 7, 1862, p. 2

When George Wallace Jones was sent to . . .

. . . 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

Henry Clay Dean

HENRY CLAY DEAN was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, October 27, 1822. He was a graduate of Madison College, Pennsylvania, taught for a time and studied law. In 1845 he joined the Methodist Episcopal Conference of Virginia and began to preach in the mountain region of that State where he remained for four years. In 1850 he removed to Iowa, locating at Pittsburg, Van Buren County, where he preached through the Keosauqua circuit, joining the Fairfield Conference. Through the influence of General George W. Jones, one of our first United States Senators, Mr. Dean was chosen chaplain of the Senate. He was one of the trustees of the Iowa Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant. Mr. Dean was admitted to the bar but did not practice law. He was a public speaker of rare eloquence and was frequently invited to deliver lectures, among which was a "Reply to Ingersoll," "The Constitution," "Declaration of Independence" and many other topics. During the Civil War he was arrested for disloyal utterances and confined in prison for several months by order of Government officials. Upon his release he wrote and published a book with the title, "Crimes of the Civil War." It was a bitter assault upon President Lincoln and the administration in the great work of subduing the Rebellion. He removed to a farm in Putnam County, Missouri, which he named "Rebel Cove "; it was about four miles from a station on the C. B. & Q. Railroad where a post-office was named Dean. Here he had gathered a great library which was destroyed by fire. He died on this farm February 6, 1887.

SOURCE: Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa, Volume IV: Iowa Biography, p. 69

Gen. A. C. Dodge

Alluding to the promotion of Col. D. M. Dodge is suggestive of the fact that Iowa once possessed a Gen. A. C. Dodge.  Yes General was his title, a sobriquet it may have been, a misnomer certainly, while Augustus Caesar was the baptismal appellation that was prophetically conferred upon him by his godfather and his patronymic, Dodge, which we were wont to consider also somewhat predictive, all combined formed the pseudonymous cognomen of an individual upon whom more honors have been lavished upon by the state of Iowa than upon any half dozen men – the traitor Jones excepted – that ever trod her soil, and without so far as we know, owning a foot of the ground he called his own.  The name of our gallant Colonel reminds us of the other Dodge, and as he so long represented our State in her prosperity, basked upon her smiles and fattened at her expense at the public crib, we are bold to ask, where now in her necessity is the chivalrous Gen. Dodge?  During all this campaign we have not seen so much as heard his name whispered in connection with military matters, so that we must fain believe [sic] he has gone to the tomb of the Capulets – in modern phraseology, pegged out.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, March 27, 1862, p. 2

Good

Some of the political prisoners arrested by Seward’s arbitrary order and without just cause, have refused the proffered amnesty of the President on the ground that they are not guilty of anything requiring the interposition of executive clemency.  All such prisoners should demand a trial, or an unconditional release from imprisonment, and hold Mr. Seward responsible for their illegal arrest and incarceration.  This course would bring Mr. Secretary Seward to his senses probably.  It might convince him, too, that there is another degree of supremacy above his higher law. – Dubuque Herald.

How was it with your dear friend and old leader, Geo. W. Jones?  It seems he was glad enough to accept Executive clemency.  How is it that the Constitution is constantly invoked by a certain class of politicians in the North for the protection of traitors, but never appealed for their punishment?  Why do they seek to hound down Mr. Seward, whose prompt and fearless action and bold assumption of responsibility has saved the country from the machinations of traitors for its overthrow, while holding up these same traitors as injured innocents and martyrs to the Constitution? – Gate City.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2