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 Leaves 
 
 OF THE YEAR 
 
 1863. 
 
 THE LOTAL 
 .PUBUGMION SOGIETY/ 
 
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 <=7t7WoS-ir/^ 'i 
 
 Leave 
 
 OF 
 
 A o b o 
 

 TO THE FUTURJE JV^^JT. 
 
 There were many of these leaves, but the winds have 
 scattered them. Such as could be found, I have picked up, 
 and here throw them forth upon the stream of lime, thus 
 sending them down to you. — To you, to whom my heart goes 
 forth, in its longings for the day, wliich you will see, which I 
 also almost see, in the distance — the day when this great 
 nation shall fulfill its happy destiny. 1 see, as in the distance, 
 an era of peace and plenty, and of the development of un- 
 told wealth ; I see an era of liberty and ri{Tht(!Ous law ; and 
 my faith beholds, in that good time coming, our own dear 
 and beautiful human nature regenerated, perfected, and 
 adorned. We (eur nation) are passing through a red sea ; a 
 baptism of fire and blood. O it was a sad thought thai it 
 must needs he. But dear and loving friend — brighter skies 
 are yours, than ever we have known. Your sun will be as 
 seven times, as the light of seven diys. Yet do not think of us 
 as without hope and gladness — tliink of us as expecting to 
 join you. Wc know not how, nor when, nor where ; but the 
 cause of universal humanity is ours; God is in it, and shall 
 we not, some day, lake you by the hand .-* In the midst of 
 sorrows we are glad, and no spirit of envy shall mar our 
 joy ; for even now do we rejoice wiih you, as we seem almost 
 to hear the distant echo of your hallelujahs, while wc are 
 marching on. 
 
 New Haven, January 1st, A.D. 1864. 
 
And when, in the lime to come, it shall be asked what 
 meant your Fathers by that strange symbol ? then shall ye 
 answer that it was the sign and memorial by which the pat- 
 riotism of these free states of America did mark the infamy 
 of a base political party in the days of the slaveholder's 
 great rebellion. And thou shall tell it to thy sons and to thy 
 son's sons, that it was the party which did basely cry peace, 
 peace, when there should be no peace — that it did strive to 
 reinstate the rebels into power, that it was willing, and eager, 
 to seal the doom of a whole race of men in perpetual slav- 
 ery and chains, and to blast a free and prosperous nation 
 wiih the guilt of perpetual crime. Yea, thou shall surely 
 tell it to all the people, in the time to come, for it is a foul 
 party, and it shall be remembered as a hissing and a curse; 
 for there were traitors there, and behold they were traitors 
 to their country, and to humanity, and to God ; and it shall 
 be that throughout all your generations, when ye shall look 
 upon this symbol, every man shall rejoice in his heart be- 
 cause that which it signifies is dead and buried, and that no 
 man livelh to say one good word for its memory, and no 
 man to mourn for it, nor to say "alas, my brother" — but it 
 shall be remembered as a loathesome thing, a reptile party, 
 and men shall say of it (as they bring to remembrance how 
 mean and vile it was) that 
 
 On its belly it did go, 
 Aud dirt it did eat, 
 
 All the days of its life. 
 
ABSOLUTE SUBMISSION 
 
 ( ll^~ Submission to a slaveholder's rebellion .M^ ) 
 
 OR WAR. 
 
 Of course it must be war. Then let it be real, earnest, 
 strong, decisive war; and nothing else, till it be ended. 
 Whatever there is to give aid and comfort to an enemy, pre- 
 vent it, damage or destroy it. It is the rule of war, it is the 
 rule of our own self-preservation ; and as against such a re- 
 bellion, it is the rule of right. If we can intercept and cut 
 off our enemies' commissary stores, shall we not do it ? If 
 our enemies were Fejees, claiming their peculiar rations as a 
 sacred right above all the touch of war or of military neces- 
 sity, should we respect such a claim ? And now, does our 
 enemy's subsistance depend upon enforced labor? Surely 
 if we deprive them of that labor, we shall strike where it 
 hurts. It is the vital point, it is where they live. Do it then 
 — discharge their laborers. If our enemy has got but one 
 thing to stand on — only one foundation — then demolish and 
 abolish that ; do it as soon as possible. These rebels have 
 undertaken to destroy our Republic, and to establish upon 
 our territory another government, hostile to our own. They 
 wish to found an empire in which they shall be fdlihusters 
 and conquerors, while the enforced labor of slaves shall sup- 
 ply their armies. This is their meaning. Remember their 
 old fillibustering attempts aimed at the same thing. But the 
 spirit of liberty in the nation, and the love of peace were too 
 much for them. They changed their tactics, but they aim 
 
at empire by robbery and conquest. They have started their 
 enterprize upon the one idea of human slavery. They pro- 
 claim it as their foundation. Would we end this war, then 
 destroy, demolish the foundation. Do it thoroughly. Th*' 
 is both policy and duly. What in the world can be plainer.^ 
 But does some one say " that is not il." — Look then, — the 
 rebel " Vice President" Stevens in his inaugural announced 
 that slavery was to be the foundation and corner stone of 
 their new monarchy — or whatever it might be — a govern- 
 ment hostile of course to our free Republic. 
 
 And hold here a moment. Reader ; let us talk a little about 
 this. — Slavery the foundation and corner stone of empire ! 
 Arc there any curiosit^'-hunters, who desire to see a speci- 
 men of precious rascality, so precious that there is no fitting 
 place for it upon the earth ? Behold it ! — Behold it personi- 
 fied and embodied in this slaveholder's rebellion ! Here it 
 is; they themselves have indicated it. Well may the future 
 historian characterize this grand enterprize of the slaveholder's 
 treason, both in its conception and in its attempted execution 
 as the grand rascality of the 19th century. Yea, let him 
 write rascal, rascal, rascal, all over it, within and without. 
 And yet, perhaps, there may be some one other thing even 
 more shameful than this. If there is, it must be this, name- 
 ly, that such an infamy should find some show of a part}' here 
 among us, in these free States. Let us for a moment look 
 it in the face, both there and here. There all masks are 
 thrown off, and the crime-stained traitors trample on our na- 
 tionality, and spit upon our flag. Here their helpers, their 
 allies, artful schemers, professing loyalty, political tricksters, 
 dealing in shams and false pretences, prating peace, and 
 meaning treason, they are looking wistfully lor political pre- 
 ferment, and would be willing to take it even at the cost of 
 the heritage bequeathed to us by our fathers ! O, is there 
 any thing so mean as the sneaking nasliness of a sham de- 
 1* 
 
6 
 
 mocracy ? Lies are its refuge, and under falsehoods doth it 
 hide itself. 
 
 Look again on that picture and on this. The rebels, bold 
 as they are wicked, are marching on through fire and blood, 
 to their destiny, a destiny of retribution, as we hope, but 
 meaning to destroy our national life, and found a new and 
 barbaric empire, upon the ruins of a free republic. A false 
 glory bedizens the vision of their unprincipled leaders, and 
 falsehoods, mistaken for truth, have poisoned the minds of 
 their followers. Charity itself cannot present their rebellion 
 in a more favorable view than this. Here, on the other 
 hand, among us, are their allies — not men of war, but lead- 
 ers of a make-believe democracy, (with nothing truly demo- 
 cratic in them,) pretenders, sneaking politicians, pulling on 
 airs of conservatism, and mousing around for selfish, personal 
 advantage, which they hope to achieve under some coming 
 man — some successful demagogue from the old plantations, 
 by and bye. They have been toad-eaters to the slaveholders 
 in former days, have bent the knee and held office under 
 them, and they are longing to put their old masters into po- 
 sition again, that they may get the balance of wages for their 
 own dirty services. This is the measure of their patriotism. 
 
 Well do they remember when they looked to the slave 
 power for office, and gladly did their bidding — the days 
 when they raised the mad dog cry of ahnlitio7iisl., while their 
 Southern brethren dealt out tar and feathers; and now the 
 wretches are sighing for that same old time to come again 
 with " the Union as it was." See how they adopt the rebel 
 tactics in all but open war — " call our enemies not Yankees," 
 says Beauregard, " but call them ahoUlionisls.'''' And lo ! 
 the sham newspapers re-echo the direful epithet, as if it were 
 a stigma too dreadful to be borne. But there is good mean- 
 ing in the name, and when we shall fearlessly accept it, put 
 it on and use it, we shall soon see an end of this most infa- 
 mous rebellion. May God and good angels hasten on the day. 
 
Tell us what sort of democrats are your man-worshippers 
 — these wretches who are trying to raise a popular hosannah 
 to glorify " Utile Mac'"' or some other insignificant name, and 
 set it up in rivalry to our great grand cause of a nation's 
 birthright to government and liberty and law. True patriot- 
 ism needeth no such homage. Washington needed it not; 
 and a democracy which scoffs at principles and shouts itself 
 hoarse to glorify a man is no democracy at all — it is a sham. 
 Again this same sham democracy have cried out that letting 
 loose thousands of slaves as free men, will overstock the mar- 
 ket for labor. Whereas the truth would be, that give the 
 slave liberty, with justice and law, as to other men, and more 
 colored men would emigrate South than would ever come 
 North ; and the very thing which the shams urge against 
 emancipation, if there is any force in it at all, is altogether 
 in the favor of the argument for freedotn. So much for one 
 of their pretences. But what can we expect but shams of 
 that which is itself a sham.'' And consider again that eman- 
 cipation cannot over-stock the labor market, because the in- 
 crease of human wants always creates an increase of the 
 demand for labor, and when slaves are made freemen their 
 extra wants will soon vastly increase this demand. Does 
 any body but a dunce believe that a freed man, when he 
 feels himself to have the rights of a man, will be content 
 with the same food and clothing as when a slave.? Fie will 
 want more and will have more, for he will earn more. And 
 it is most undoubtedly true that their emancipation will be 
 not only an act of justice, but it must make more business 
 and more labor in all the States, and must add largely to 
 the nation's wealth. A few more words about the shams. 
 Every sham thing is a sign that there is something that is 
 true; just as counterfeit bank bills are signs that there are 
 true ones. Is there not then a true democracy .'' Yes, and 
 we honor true democracy. But it is not the stuff which sym- 
 
8 
 
 palhizes with this slaveholders' rebellion. Call over the roll 
 of the true men of the old democratic party, and see where 
 they stand. Where, for example, are Andrew Johnson, and 
 Cass, and Dix, and Butler, and Dickinson, and Holt, and 
 McClernand, and Wadsworth of New York, and Hamilton of 
 Texas? they all stand with thousands of others, democrats, 
 good and truii, shoulder to shoulder with patriot men of all 
 parties, from whatever nationalities, with high resolve to down 
 with this rebellion, slavery and all. 
 
 Then look over the miserable roll of this wretched sham 
 democracy, where are they.? Where the smaller lights of 
 our own State, Toucy, Seymour, Eaton, (lights whose shining 
 is but the phosphorescence of their own political putridity), 
 or go into the neighboring State and look at the platform of 
 another Seymour, upheld on one side by a Ben VA^ood, and 
 on the other by a Fernando, names famously infamous ! 
 Then go forth into Pennsylvania, and call on old pretender 
 Buchanan ; and go down South into the rebel cnmps, and 
 hunt up those other sham democrats, by the names of Floyd, 
 and Breckinridge, and then return enriched by travel, with 
 the knowledge that this sham democracy is the most rotten 
 and corrupt thing that ever gave sign of political life. O, it 
 is no ordinary nuisance which is thus allowed to .remain above 
 ground, unburied, a moral stench in the nostrils of honest 
 and patriotic men. 
 
 Let no man admonish us for too much severity against 
 party leaders, who would apologize for treason, while our 
 brothers and our friends are in deadly struggle with the 
 traitors. We charge that the leaders of this sham democracy 
 are giving aid and comfort to a rebellion which is red and 
 gory with the blood of our dearest kindred, a rebellion which 
 is trying utterly to destroy our nationality — which has sent 
 its Judases across the ocean to the monarchies of Europe, 
 saying "what will ye give and we will deliver the great 
 
Republic into your hands ?" O, is it not a s/mfft-democracy 
 which can sympatiiize with traitors such as these ? We 
 charge that the ring-leaders of this sham democracy are the 
 men who will bring back if ihey can, the red-handed traitors 
 into our national councils. They are seeking to divide the 
 loyal Stales, that they may tl>us aid the rebels; and already, 
 by reason of their influence, has the subjugation of this rebel- 
 lion been postponed. Thousands of lives have doubtless 
 been sacrificed, which might have been spared, but for this 
 sham democracy. And what do they propose as an oflsel 
 for this needless waste of life — Is it some great thing that 
 these sham democrats are seeking for.' Is it a nation's honor, 
 a nation's wealth, a nation's life that they seek to save ? O, 
 no, — It is simply that they may restore the slavery faction 
 into power again, only because they want to climb up into 
 office upon its back ! Is this reason enough for all this extra 
 waste of life and treasure? — this extra waste which is owing 
 to the encouragement which these sham democrats are ex- 
 tending to the rebels. And yet these shams, true only to 
 their character of pretenders, are charging upon others the 
 guilt which belongs to themselves! — "J^ is tJic abolitionists,^'' 
 say they, " who provoked the slaveholders, exasperated the 
 chivalry, and made the war," and then that dreadful word 
 abolition, abolition, abolition, is emblazoned through the col- 
 umns of all their newspapers, as if it were the guilty thing. 
 But citizens of common sense, see through the meaning of 
 their clamor — they know that it is but the robber's cry of stop 
 thief, the assassins shout of murder, when he himself hath 
 done it ! A united, unanimous North would very soon finish 
 out this rebellion by thoroughly subduing it. But this is just 
 what the sham democracy do not desire. To show that they 
 do not, we may appeal to the circulars and speeches of the 
 leading home conspirators, high and low, beginning with the 
 " Knights of the Golden Circle" and going down to that 
 
to 
 
 miserable moral abortion, John Van Buren. We say that 
 they do not desire thai this rebellion should be conquered, but 
 prefer to keep it up and extend it for political purposes, and 
 in the hope that, at last, the rebellion may conquer the gov- 
 ernment ! Therefore we say they are guilty of crime. 
 Behold them ; there is blood upon their souls (if they have 
 souls). Look at ihem, ye wives, fathers, mothers, sons, 
 brothers, friends — if you are bereaved, think how much of 
 your bereavement is due to this vile faction — this sham dem- 
 ocracy. And when you shall turn away heart sick, as you 
 will from the contemplation of their remorseless treachery, 
 then join with us in upholding this government of ours which 
 (if ever government was) is ordained of God for punishment 
 of evil doers, and the praise of those who do well. 
 
 Do I hear some echo in the crowd repeat, " O yes, we go 
 for the government and the constitution ; but how, again 
 about that proclamation, liberty to slaves! what do yon say 
 to that ?" Say to it ! Amen. In the name of our nationality, 
 and of our human nature, Atnen. In the name of God, Aimen. 
 " But what can be done with the slaves made free ? What 
 can be done ! cannot a race which, when slaves, have so long 
 supported, both themselves and their masters, do something 
 for themselves when free? Give them the right of liberty 
 and the protection (as well as the restraints) of law, and in 
 their new and untried estate, assist them but a little while, 
 and it will soon be found that they will not only do for them- 
 selves, but will also contribute more than they have ever done 
 to the nation's wealth. Do you ask how ? we answer by 
 work — yes sirs, it is work which contributes to a nation's 
 wealth. Did you not know that.? Good people, you who 
 are shocked at the thought of emancipation, if any such there 
 are, give us your attention for a moment longer. If among 
 the errors of our political system, it happened that a tvrong 
 came to be recognized as a rights let it not be our error to 
 
II 
 
 defend that wrong in this precious time when justice and 
 policy and necessiiy, all demand that we should renounce it 
 forever. Tell us, if you can, what are the rights of these 
 traitors whose murderous aim is at a nation's life ? Are they 
 not criminals whose whole bill of rights is summed up in this 
 simple item, namely, ignominous penally for their enormous 
 crime ? Or is it claimed that we are such a power that we 
 can generously afford to yield to them again all that they 
 have ever claimed as righis, and that therefore the word of 
 emancipation shall be annulled ? Ah, it may be an easy 
 thing, and we may call it generous to give back the s-lave to 
 his traiior-m-jsler, and to rivet again the chains of the op- 
 pressed. But lake care, take care we say, for while thus 
 generoiis with the liberly of others, we may find ourselves in 
 fearful danger of losing our own. And think how shall we 
 answer it when the nations of the world shall hoot at us in 
 our downfall, when they shall shake the head at us and say, 
 there is a nation for whom God opened the way to a glorious 
 life, and wailed for it to improve its golden opportunity. But 
 it refused to do juslice ; it turned again and oppressed the 
 poor and needy, and rivetted chains for the oppressor. And 
 now behold it ! the despised among the nations — broken into 
 miserable factions, ils power gone, its glory departed, and 
 none so poor as to do it reverence ! We undertake not to say 
 by what particular agencies our great nation may thus come 
 to be a bye-word and reproach. But we do believe that if, 
 in this great crisis, we allow ourselves to slight an i ignore the 
 grand claims cf judgment and justice and mercy, presented 
 to us as ihey now are, and under the combined sanction of 
 moi-al and religious duty, of political right and expediency, 
 and of military necessiiy, that we shall be destined from thia 
 bad hour to sink into insignificance as no longer a power 
 ainong the naiions. We will not prophecy of the direct 
 agencies by which all this may come to pass; but we warn 
 
12 
 
 that political faction which is thinking to crush the weak that 
 il may make itself strong ; which is willing and ready o hand 
 over, in chains of despair again, the millions of a race which 
 is now almost jubilant with hope. O, ye misnamed democrats, 
 remember that you cannot prove yourselves thus reckless of 
 the rights of another race, but upon the condition of imminent 
 and deadly peril to your own. VVhether you think this ought 
 to be so or not, it is so. That pro-slavery madness which 
 shackles the bodies of colored men, works like a demoniacal 
 possession to the ruin of the while race also. Why will ye 
 not see the truth — look at it for yourselves ! Have you never 
 heard from the slave-lords about their '■^ poor xchile trash of 
 the Sot/7/t?" (and well do they call il theirs). And are you 
 willing that your children shall inherit the same reproach .'' — 
 that in future years (not many years either) your own sons 
 and daughters, reaping the ripe fruits of your miserable 
 doings, shall in their turn, be pointed at by the scornful finger 
 of the slave-mongers as (V;^ ^'^ their poor ivhite (rash of the 
 North P'' Remember that there is a High Providence which 
 can well arrange the princij)les of compensation in these our 
 human affairs ! 
 
 Patriot men and true (of whatever party name in other 
 days) we turn to you. You do not believe that the owning 
 of slaves, nor that the lordling's habit of feeling that he is a 
 master, can justify the crimes of rebellion and treason. 
 Patriot men and true (of whatever party name) as we turn 
 from the Jannes and Jambres of political faciion, we know 
 that no motive of interest nor of fear is needed to persuade 
 you. Il is enough for you that a cause is good and just and 
 right. You will declare for it, you will stand by it, you will 
 believe in it, though earlh and hell should rage against it. 
 Though kings and lords, and aristocracies and sham demo- 
 cracies despise it, you are the men who will stand by it, and 
 maintain it evermore. Good men and irue, all the world 
 
13 
 
 over, hail you as brothers. Partakers with us, are they, in 
 the inspiring faith of a better time conning. And in this hour 
 of trial, we send to them, wherever they are, all around the 
 world, and of whatever nationality, we send to them our 
 greeting, and tell them that Liberty yet lives in our Republic 
 — that the great American heart shall leap forward to meet 
 the day, at its coming, when all men everywhere (who are 
 not guilty of crime) shall be vindicated in their right to the 
 blessings of liberty, and lo the protection of law. 
 
 THE TWO DEMOCRACIES. 
 
 In this year 1863 we have in our free States two democra- 
 cies. The one is brave, patriotic, true. The other is false, 
 abject, base. 
 
 Of the first named democracy there comes a voice from 
 our armies in the field. Listen ; — 
 
 "The South, by the act of rebellion, put themselves outside the pale 
 of law, and invited war ; and while we would hail with rapture the 
 return of an honorable peace, we can see no path to it save through a 
 most persistent and vigorous prosecution of the war. To this end, we 
 would uphold the Administration in all the measures it has adopted for 
 suppressing the rebellion. 
 
 " I am amazed that any one can think of ' peace on any terms.' He 
 who entertains this sentiment is fit only to be a .slave ; he who utters it 
 at this time, is, moreover, a traitor to his country, who deserves the 
 ecoi D and contempt of all honorable men." 
 2 
 
14 
 
 This is a passage in a letter from Rosecrans, the true and 
 the brave. And we could read to you the like sentiment 
 from hundreds of thousands of our brave men as their voice 
 comes lo us borne on every breeze from all our armies. 
 Thus speaks the true democracy. 
 
 And now turn and look at some sample-sentiments of the 
 other sort of democracy ; namely, the sham, the base^ the 
 misnamed "democracy.'" Take, for an example, the words 
 of one of our own Connecticut specimens — ;one T. H. Sey- 
 mour, once a copperhead candidate for Governor. A letter 
 from this " T. H. S." \s found on a captured rebel spy [.') who 
 was going with it from Charleston to Richmond. " 1 abhor," 
 says that letter, " the scheme of Southern invasion" (of 
 course he does, and so do Beauregard and Davis and their 
 brother traitors). " Depend upon it," he says, " Heaven will 
 frown upon such a cause as this." A likely candidate for 
 governor this ! writing letters to traitors, and telling them that 
 Heaven will frown upon the cause of our common country. 
 Behold then the difference between a true and a false, a 
 a base, and misnamed democracy. And this base misnamed 
 democracy is not represented by merely a little group of 
 such creatures as this T. H. S. ; but here stands a political 
 party led on by Ahithophels and treason mongers, (a brother- 
 hood of serpents), here with its newspaper press, and its 
 nominating conventions, stealing the name of democracy, 
 full of all subtility and deceit, incapable of an honest purpose, 
 corrupt, and working to corrupt the patriotism of the country. 
 This is the democracy which is in sympathy with the slave- 
 holder's rebellion. It is the democracy of treason — treason 
 for the sake of slavery, and slavery for the sake of gain. 
 For so much trash as may be grasped thus the leaders of this 
 wretched faction are ready to do, and to submit to, anything. 
 Willing to be spit upon by slaveholders : ready to sell them- 
 selves, and wear a dog's collar with the inscription " free 
 
15 
 
 state men, with slave state principles." They are ready to 
 sell the country. Their miserable hope is that they may 
 some day get back into power and office through the patron- 
 age of their masters, the slaveholders. This it is which 
 makes our sham democrats plead and beg to spare the in- 
 famous system ; as much as to say (for this is what they 
 wish) " let the slaves labor and supply the rebel armies, while 
 their masters, with their non-slaveholding dupes, shall over- 
 throw ihe great republic — then we will be in at the death, 
 and rattlesnake and copperhead will make common cause 
 and share the spoils." 
 
 *' Let slavery alone" say they, "do anything else, let the 
 wayward states depart in peace, take the land with them, and 
 anything they will, but do not touch the sacred institution.'* 
 Now reader we ask is it not nnost right and proper to enquire 
 what that system is for which we are expected to surrender 
 so much? Well, in order to understand what it is we must 
 notice what it does. First, it supports a class of filibusters, 
 who, instead of earning an honest living in the world, are 
 always seeking wealth and dominion by conquest, and fraud. 
 Their system teaches them to scoff at labor as fit only for 
 slaves, and to honor themselves as the breeders of those slaves. 
 In brief, it is a system which advertises itself, so that every- 
 body may know what it is, by seeing what it does. In the 
 mingled complexions of races it has written its own certificate 
 of degradation, both for the master, and for the slave. Look 
 at it, and appreciate it clearly say we, for it is surely reason- 
 able that we should realize what that is for which we are 
 called on to surrender government and nationality. If it is 
 truly a good and lovely thing, then honor it; but if it is a 
 leprous and revolting thing, then leave it to the "killing and 
 damning" embraces of that brotherhood of wretches, Bill 
 Eaion, T. H. Seymour dt Co. 
 
 We affirm that it is this system which has, for many years, 
 
1§ 
 
 multiplied servile polilicians and toad-eaters in our free states 
 — which has filled our southern country with a boasting and 
 nasty " chivalry ;" with slave-lordlings, and vvomen-whippers, 
 with chains, and scourges, and auction-blocks, and concu- 
 binage, and family debaucheries — and finally, with nnurder- 
 ers, and traitors, blacker than their slaves. Is such a system 
 a good one to build our republic upon ? But such is the 
 system which the matured rascality of the 19th century is 
 trying to establish as the foundation of empire. — The rebels 
 themselves have proclaimed it as their corner stone. But 
 mark this feature of their foul conspiracy, namely, that it is 
 not as the corner stone of a free republic ; this is not their 
 meaning. Their purpose is to establish a very diflierent kind 
 of empire. And it becomes every true American patriot to 
 enquire what peace or safely there can be to our republic, if 
 we shall permit upon one half of our territory the establish- 
 ment of a barbaric empire upon the corner stone of human 
 slavery. This is their meaning — their corner stone idea 
 means the perpetual enslavement of a race, which shall be 
 compelled by their toil to earn subsistence for filibustering 
 armies. It means the establishment of an empire which shall 
 ignore all culture of the arts, and the civilizations of peace ; 
 which shall build itself up by conquest ; which shall, if it can, 
 make you and your children, reader, its vassals and its 
 "mudsills;" which shall raise up, in the midst of us, their 
 allies of copperhead-guerrillas; seizing upon your wealth 
 (if you have it) or upon the earnings of your labor, upon 
 your resources, upon your inventions, and the avails of all 
 our industries, until the slave-lords shall have made us, (as 
 they have already made those who might have been better 
 men than themselves) "their poor white trash." — Are we 
 ready for this.? Better that we should be dogs, and bay the 
 moon, than to be such Romans. Do you say you see no 
 danger? But there is danger — and herein lies our peril, 
 
17 
 
 namely, that there are scheming, mousing politicians among 
 us, and even conventions of such men, who are eager to sell 
 us bodily to rebeldom, and hoping to count themselves in, 
 among the lords of the ascendant, when treason shall have 
 triumphed. Tell us, shall we confer on such rascals the 
 honor of any office 7 
 
 We have spoken of the disgrace more than of the danger 
 of such a vote. But lot the timid take notice that the danger 
 is as great as the disgrace. For the Seymour party have 
 only to carry out their threats of resistance to the govern- 
 merii and we shall have civil war in Connecticut. And 
 shall we risk that for the sake of such miserables as T. H. 
 Seymour & Co. .'' 
 
 Political reptiles creeping, in their slime, through the col- 
 umns of a corrupt newspaper press, are soliciting votes for 
 the men whose infamous politics, in such a time as this, ought 
 to sink them lower than deepest ocean soundings. They 
 would sacrifice every behest of patriotism, every interest of 
 the Republic to promote their own ascendancy, to gratify 
 their miserable greed for office. We warn our citizens when 
 we say, look behind the mask of their assumed democracy, 
 and you shall see the very features of those rebels, and 
 traitors who have posted their emissaries beyond the seas, 
 begging for help from the worst enemies of all free govern- 
 ments, and of all true democracies. — When we hear such 
 men prating of democracy, we know what theirs is made of 
 — it is of that stuff which is in favor with traitors at home, 
 with kings and aristocracies abroad, and with liberty-haters 
 everywhere. 
 
 2* 
 
18: 
 
 FAMILY TRAITS. 
 
 {The Trail of the Serpent) 
 
 The serpent family have always been essentially evil. An 
 old writer refers to one of their traits where he says " The 
 Crelians are always liars," etc. Another record, yet more 
 ancient, reads thus : " Now Cain rose up against his brother 
 Abel and slew him." It may be that the reader would like 
 to know what sort of a comment the copperhead serpents of 
 our day would make upon that old text. Well, it would run 
 somewhat in this wise: "Cain did right. Why.'* Well, 
 plain enough. That same Abel was a meddler, an abolition- 
 ist, and he provoked his brother ; whereas Cain was a chiv- 
 alrous gentleman, altogether superior to the fellow Abel, who 
 was, no doubt, a mudsill, or a Yankee, or something. Cain, 
 you see, was a generous, high-minded gentleman. Abel had 
 no right to provoke him. In fact, Abel was all the same as 
 a suicide ; he knew that Cain could not brook reproof. Cain 
 was not the first murderer — Abel was." Now, every reader 
 will see at once in this admirable strain of reasoning a strik- 
 ing resemblance to the copperhead traits of our own day. 
 Cain was the father of the copperhead family. 
 
 And now let us take a stride over a great space and scan 
 the traits of an eminent copperhead in another era of the 
 world's history. We will take one of whom a great apostle 
 of truth has given us, as it were, a photograph, in words fol- 
 lowing, to wit: "Ofull of all subtlety, and all mischief, child 
 of the devil, enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease 
 to pervert?" The individual thus addressed has long ago 
 
19 
 
 gone from this stage of human action, but the like of him 
 are not all dead yet, or, if they died, the times we live in 
 have brought them up again, just as the seventeen years lo- 
 cust will come again though they bide their time, or just as 
 an evil seed of pestilent weeds and thorns and thistles may 
 lie buried in ihe dirt for centuries, and then spring up to curse 
 the earth again. Just so we behold the vile race of copper- 
 heads in this our day. Think of it, O shade of Elymas, the 
 sorcerer! Nineteen hundred years have circled away since 
 you stood up, a model copperhead, scathed and confounded 
 by those words of trulh and soberness. Nineteen hundred 
 years ! And yet to-day behold your offspring here, in this 
 Western world, where man had hoped for better things. Be- 
 hold your progeny with every lineament of your inner soul, 
 as given by unerring photograph. Not that for so many 
 years has earth entirely lost thy pattern, O Elymas, for spe- 
 cimens and breeders there have been here and there. But 
 now, in this last half of our 19lh century, we awake to dis- 
 cover thy evil progeny, which has been creeping along down 
 to us all through the slime and slough of these long centu- 
 ries, have grown prolific beyond all precedent, have multi- 
 plied among us till on every hand we see thy very self, thy 
 thief-like look, thy sinister and lying leer. O, Elymas, thou 
 subtle sophist! How would it delight thy mean and recre- 
 ant soul couldst thou leap these nineteen hundred years and 
 stand here to-day among thy scaly children ! — to behold them, 
 with all the facilities of our advanced age, forging fallacies 
 and flashing them off by electric power; leading off armies 
 to vindicate a lie, cheating Stales into treason, and rejoicing 
 with all the slimy spirits of the pit in the hoped-for triumph 
 of a slaveholder'' s rebellion. And O how delightful if thou 
 mightest dispense winning eloquence before admiring rioters, 
 whose vocation it is to persecute and murder harmless nay- 
 gers. Couldst thou not show them first how righteous a thing 
 
90 
 
 it is to enslave (for didn't righteous Paul, himself, say " Send 
 back the Slave !"") and, second, that, therefore, it is right to 
 kill the naygersl Indade, (for thou wouldst assume the 
 winning brogue) and what right has any body to be a nayger 
 at all, or, as the damn Yankees call him, a colored man ? O 
 Elymas ! these times do call for thee. Thou shouldst pos- 
 sess some south-side pulpit, and pitching thy tent towards 
 Sodom, no brass of thine should ever jingle for our Union 
 victories. Aye, but thou shouldst spread thyself out in the 
 newspapers, shouldst mince thy logic in the N. Y. World and 
 the Express, and flavor up the Herald, and then — 
 
 But come, O thou shade of the great Elymas ! Come, tell 
 thy scaly offspring what thou knowest too well — the truth — 
 for once. Tell them, " Hell from beneath is moved for them 
 to meet them at their coming — it slirreih up its dead for them." 
 
 THE MISERABLESo 
 
 When the miserables prate of " reconstruction," when they 
 cry out for the " Union as it was," when they jabber about 
 " the constitution" — what do they mean ? They mean them- 
 selves back into office as they were ; they mean the recon- 
 struction of the Breckinridge Democracy ; they mean what- 
 ever constitutes a copperhead, for that is their constitution. 
 Aye, what do they care for the Constitution, or for the country 
 — they who are glad for the success of our enemies, and 
 
21 
 
 saddened when they hear of our victories — they whose every 
 sympathy is against our Government, and against those who 
 are administering it to the very best of their ability ? Do 
 ihey care for the country, who are ever ready lo sell it, and 
 their very souls, to the devil and the slaveholders, for the con- 
 sideration of getting a treasonable faction back again into our 
 national councils, to help these miserables again into office 
 and power ? In proof of what we are charging, we refer to 
 the past, and to the daily issues of the copperhead press — 
 issues which are as running sores, offensive and disgusting lo 
 every patriot man. Their whole purpose has been to aid 
 rebels and traitors, hoping to receive their reward when 
 rebels and traitors shall reconstruct their party. They began 
 with the cry of " no coercion," and when that absurdity 
 seemed like the gibberings of an idiot, even to themselves, 
 then, to the extent of their daring, they threatened to coerce 
 the Government. The walls of Lafayette frowned upon 
 them, but our too lenient Executives stayed the arm of 
 justice; and then, again, these miserables plotted for the 
 rebellion, instigating their more brutal followers to resist 
 the Government authority. When volunteering was the way 
 of raising our armies, they clamored for a draft. When 
 drafting was ordered, they cried out for enlistments. Hard 
 and long did they work to instigate a mob, and they finally 
 succeeded. It was part of the joint programme of rebel and 
 of copperhead. They stirred the prejudice of their vilest 
 fellows up to the crimes of robbery and murder — the murder 
 of unarmed and harmless men. The wretches who did it 
 sat in their editorial chairs. They meant to do it again, but 
 the strong arm of Government was lifted, and patriotic men 
 were ready. Then the misei^ibles grew conservative ! .Mean 
 and craven souls, traitors in heart, and openly traitors, if they 
 dared to be, let honorable and patriotic men mark them till 
 they shall have been damned with the infamy which they 
 
deserve. The cool judgment of history shall pass its verdict 
 upon such wretches, and true men shall remember them with 
 reproaches such as are due from patriots to traitors. 
 
 Benedict Arnold lived in the birth time of our republic. 
 He saw not its rising glory. But the traitors and copperheads 
 of our time have lived in the light of our advancing day ; 
 they have seen our banners in the bright sunshine of the 
 nineteenth century, floating over every sea, and our nation- 
 ality respected by every people, with only one reproach 
 resting upon it, and that the very one which copperhead con- 
 servatism would bring back upon us " as it was," and retain 
 it as a shame forever ! 
 
 Judas Iscariot lived beyond the dark ages, and scarcely 
 saw the dawn of the Christian era. But the traitors and the 
 copperheads of our time stand where they can review the 
 teachings of 1800 years since their less guilty brother, Judas, 
 betrayed and sold his glorious Lord, whose disciples the 
 copperhead democracy to-day stand ready to betray and to 
 sell into slavery and to death. " And inasmuch as they 
 do it unto one of the least of his disciples, they do it untjo 
 him." 
 
 Arise, O, bones of Judas and of Benedict! arise in judg- 
 ment, and whiten by the side of living men more wicked than 
 yourselves. And yet such men of treachery and deceit do 
 not even blush. They look upon each other, and thus coun- 
 tenance themselves. Their thought is, " see how many there 
 are of us," and they parade it, as a virtue, that they are true 
 to party. And pity 'tis 'tis true that they are true to nothing 
 but party, and to the serpent that is within them. Accom- 
 plices to the old rebel faction, they despise even the name of 
 loyalty, and they charge upon loyal men that they have 
 brought on the war by their irritation of the slaveholders. 
 Yet all the world knows that it is a slaveholders' war, and 
 the product of a slaveholders' conspiracy — that slaveholders 
 
23 
 
 stole the march upon the careless and secure patriotism of 
 the country, and they stole a great deal else besides. Yes, 
 and considering their advantages, it is a wonder they had 
 not stolen the Government also. Let us thank God more 
 than ourselves. Their whole bad enterprise began, and ha3 
 been carried on for the express purpose of establishing their 
 thief and robber system, and of binding it as a curse upon 
 the nation. Did ever a greater curse afflict any people since 
 the world began, than a system which could generate such 
 a war ? 
 
 But thank God that the nation is aroused. True it is that 
 treasure is poured forth as water, and precious life is lavished. 
 Through our streets the solemn march, the muffled drum, 
 and mournful dirge, are telling, day after day, that another 
 and another of our dear, brave soldiers have fallen, by a war 
 which was instigated and inaugurated by slaveholders, and 
 their subservient accomplices. True it is that thousands of 
 brave men have fallen a sacrifice to this Moloch of human 
 slavery, yet shall we, therefore, give up our Republic, and 
 hand it over to the architects of ruin ? Never. But by how 
 much it has cost, by so much the more shall it be prized ; 
 and whether the war shall be for one year or for a century, 
 yet will we rally around the flag which our fathers raised, in 
 defiance of an oppression infinitely less than that which 
 threatens us. We believe that it is the will of God that no 
 fear of consequences, nor of death itself, should hold us back 
 from this war. 
 
 For all the dead yet living are — 
 Dying is but a change of sphnre. 
 
 And we will rally around the old flag of liberty, while we 
 live, "shouting the battle cry of freedom," and when we die, 
 even then, we hope to behold, from afar, the battle and the 
 victory, and to welcome every patriot soul, as they come up, 
 
24 
 
 released from hospital, and from battle field, " shouting the 
 battle cry of freedom !" 
 
 Till peace can come with victory 
 Of Liberty and Law, 
 God guide our nation's destiny, 
 And carry on this war. 
 
 Let Rulers in this trial-hour, 
 
 Rule as with iron rod, 
 
 Till, like our cause, so be our power, 
 
 Strong as the will of God. 
 
 u 
 
 NIGGER." 
 
 The slang of rebel slaveholders and their copperhead al- 
 lies, is meant to slur our soldiers and the war. VVe know 
 what is talking when we hear such stuff. Aye, and we shall 
 long remember the reptile hiss here among us, even from tl)e 
 beginning, and all the way through. 
 
 Reader, please recall it. It was all in aid of traitors. 
 First, it was " no coercion'' — " coercion unconstitutional ;" 
 next, "a wicked war against our Southern brethren;" next, 
 the cry of " peace on any terms," and finally, full of hate, 
 and hoping to fasten an old odium upon the patriotism of the 
 
25 
 
 country, they sneeringly tell us we are " fighting for the 
 nigger." 
 
 And now, what shall we think of a faction which, in a cri- 
 sis like ours, can so crawl upon its belly, and lend itself as 
 auxiliary to a traitorous conspiracy of slaveholders ? Ah, 
 the truth is, tt^ the copperhead democracy is a misbegotten 
 thing ; it is such a compound of meanness and rascality as 
 never before disgraced any nation. If the spirit of evil, in 
 any future age, shall inquire how to make a political copper- 
 head party, we who are living witnesses can tell them. Go 
 rake up and concentrate all the meannesses and rascality 
 which have ever existed in all the world through all time, and 
 you have got the essential materials for a modern copperhead 
 party — a democratic party with all the democracy left out ; 
 a democratic party which has no one principle in sympathy 
 with the cause of justice and the rights of man ; a wretched 
 faction which would be content to bend the knee in homage 
 to oppressors and slave-breeders even in the act of treason, 
 and while their hands are red with the dear blood of our sol- 
 diers, our friends, our brothers, and our sons, fallen in de- 
 fence of our country, our government, and our homes. Oh! 
 is there no infamy in store for a faction such as this ? no 
 curse to blight the shameless purpose of creatures misnamed 
 men, who are even to-day in sympathy with such a rebellion ? 
 
 Look a moment again at our affairs.'' Behold red-handed 
 traitors at the courts of European kings, offering to sell the 
 Great Republic. Behold, at home, infuriated rebel armies 
 struggling to throttle this Republic, that they may hand it 
 over, bound and helpless, to its enemies abroad ! And then 
 turn to behold this miserable faction, here right among us, de- 
 nouncing Government for its efforts to protect itself, and 
 sneering at -every patriotic endeavor to crush down the re- 
 bellion ! Then inquire what would this faction have ? What 
 great aim have they ? What their grand endeavor ? Nothing, 
 3 
 
26 
 
 not anytJiing, but to maintaio their miserabfe party, plotting 
 to give it office if God shall curse the nation with its rule. . 
 
 Let the nation battle for its life, and struggle on ; these 
 " democrats" have no heart in such a war — they have a 
 greater work to do, they are battling for their party, holding 
 their contemptible party conventions, and meting around for 
 political advantage. What care they for the tolling bell 
 which tells of our heroes fallen in this war! It wakes no 
 sympathy in copperhead " democrats." Others may fight 
 for government, for national life, for liberty, and righteous 
 law ; but they will fight for parly, for pocket, and for office. 
 Oh, ye scamps ! And yet ye are the creatures who boast of 
 the word democracy, and fling at us that miserable sneer, 
 " fighting for the nigger." Oh, if there is an object upon 
 earth, or under the earth, which is too mean to fight for, it is 
 such a " democracy" as yours ! 
 
 But here let us hall a moment to explain what they mean 
 by "the nigger." They mean a race of men held for gen- 
 erations in rigorous bondage, raised, and bought and sold as 
 cattle are bought and sold, and by the strong arm of arbitrary 
 power compelled to unpaid toil, doomed by cruel and un- 
 righteous law to abject slavery forever ! And when this 
 cheated and oppressed race has heard the sound of the trum- 
 pet, and begins to feel that it means liberty to the captive, 
 then what do we hear from these base-born caitiffs, these po- 
 litical thieves, who have stolen the name of " democracy." 
 We have heard them prate in high-flown eloquence for their 
 birthright to freedom, and against the " arbitrary arrests" of 
 their more pestilent brethren ; but who ever heard, from the 
 open throat of these whited sepulchres, one word of courage 
 for a poor and needy race bound in affliction and iron .'' What 
 though rebel masters, by their own act, have broken every 
 bond by which they claimed to hold us as partakers with them 
 in their crime against humanity ? What though the provi- 
 
27 
 
 dence of God, without our help, hath set before us an open 
 door which no man can shut — a glorious opportunity for the 
 emancipation of a race, and for the disenthralment of a con- 
 tinent from its greatest curse ! What of all this, if it bring not 
 votes, nor influence, nor power in any form ? The bastard de- 
 mocracy, of which we write, may fawn at the feet of kings 
 or of mobs, but it has no one feeling or desire in sympathy 
 with the bare and naked principle of justice and of right. 
 
 " Fighting for the nigger," amen. Amen, I say, for when 
 the negro is fighting for liberty, for government and law, 
 against despotism, rebellion and treason, ours is a good fight 
 when we are fighting for the negro. This world is wide 
 enough, this continent is broad enough for all the races which 
 inhabit it. But if it may be the will of God that the copper- 
 head democrats shall become extinct, we may thank Him for 
 His goodness. We are willing to live in a world which pro- 
 duces toads, and beetles, and snakes, but we do desire that 
 this entire continent of North America, and this whole world, 
 shall be speedily delivered from that meanest of ail created 
 things, a copperhead democracy. And if there be not virtue 
 and patriotism in the people to prevent such a party from 
 rising into power, and to inflict upon that party its original 
 curse, keeping it down — down on its belly in the dust where 
 il belongs — then indeed may we tremble for our country 
 when we remember that God is just. 
 
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