Benjamin F. Gue

“ The Democratic State Convention of Iowa, on the 24th of July, adopted the following resolution:
“Resolved, That our Union was formed in peace and can never be perpetuated by force of arms, and that a republican government held together by the sword becomes a military despotism.” As the Rebellion grew in magnitude and the Union army met with repeated defeats, those in the North opposed to the suppression of the insurrection by force, became more outspoken and bitter in denunciation of the National Administration and its energetic prosecution of the war. ”

“ The most notable arrest of a citizen of Iowa, was that of Ex-Senator George W. Jones, who was the American Minister to Bogota, when the Rebellion began. As a delegate in Congress from Wisconsin, he had secured the establishment of the Territory of Iowa and was one of the first United States Senators chosen from the State of Iowa after its admission into the Union, serving until 1859. He was always faithful and untiring in his work for the interests of our State and was as widely known to its citizens as any man within its limits. ”

“ They would leave the ranks at every available opportunity, re-enlist several times, take bounties and share the spoils liberally with their delinquent commanders. This mercenary spirit spread throughout every part of the army like a contagion. The soldiers caught the infection until the army became a reckless, mercenary mob of unfortunate conscripts driven to the slaughter. The degradation of society was consummate. Parent might be seen selling their children in the conscript market and walking complacently away with the price of their own blood in their pocket. ”

“ They appealed to the people to fly to arms in defense of their homes—to fight for liberty. The manufacturers closed up their mills and sold their operatives to the recruiting sergeant; merchants refused credit to the poor to drive them into the army; every manner of argument was used, and every kind of bait held out as an inducement to the poor to rush to the army to fight the battles of plunder for the rich. ”

“ Promptly, on the 1st of January, President Lincoln issued his proclamation declaring all slaves in the rebellious States FREE, and that the Executive, the naval and the military authorities of the United States would recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons. He also declared that such persons of suitable condition, would be received into the military service of the United States. Far-seeing statesmen had long believed that the emancipation of the slaves and their employment in our armies would be the death blow to the Rebellion, and so it proved. ”

“ The citizens, having heard of the threat, armed themselves. On his way to the mass meeting Tally, with a disloyal badge prominently displayed, passed through South English and became engaged in an altercation with some of the citizens. He was the chief speaker at the meeting, and by his fervid eloquence in denunciation of the Government and the war, his hearers were wrought up to a state of wild excitement. A large crowd of Union men had gathered on the streets, and, as the armed procession made its way among them, it was greeted with cries of “Copperheads,” “cowards,” “why don’t you shoot?” ”

“ Henry Clay Dean was the most prominent leader of this faction in Iowa, and a few extracts from his speeches and writing will give the reader a clear understanding of the views and teaching of the “Copperheads” during the War of the Rebellion.
“The war between the States of the Union was not a riot. It was deliberate, systematic and orderly, upon the part of the Southern States. It was not an insurrection or rebellion; everything was done in subordination to the law and sovereign power of the States in which it transpired, with no more violence than is common to warfare. ”

“ Davis County is not the place to punish men for such crimes. The disloyal men among us have banded themselves together to resist the law and authority of those in power. At a recent peace meeting in our county, resolutions were unanimously adopted, in which they pledged themselves to resist to the death all attempts to draft any of our citizens into the army, and that they would permit no arbitrary arrests to be made among them by the minions of the Administration. ”

“ He had been very bitter in denunciation of the Administration through his paper, the Dubuque Herald, charging it with gross violations of the Constitution, charging civil and military officers with infamous crimes. He was utterly fearless in his publications, which greatly exasperated the soldiers, who at times were with great difficulty restrained from acts of violence against him and his establishment. ”

“ It changed none of the organic laws of the States; the people armed themselves according to law to repel a threatened invasion of their country, overthrow of their Government and violation of their political, legal and social rights. “The pretext for war was the preservation of the Union—an organized Union fighting against organized States. ”

“ I think it extremely probable that there are in this and other Northern States paid agents of the Rebels, who are organizing machinery and using the means to effect the purpose herein attributed to the ‘Knights of the Golden Circle,’ and there is real danger that the efforts of these men may so operate on the minds of their honest but deluded followers in some localities as to cause a collision among our people. ”

“ The census of 1860 showed the population of Iowa to be sufficient to entitle the State to an increase of Representatives in Congress from two to six, and the Ninth General Assembly therefore apportioned the State into six Congressional Districts. The first election under this act was in October, 1862. ”

“ A draft had been made in September in Poweshiek County. The time for some of the drafted men to report had expired. In Sugar Creek township was a settlement of the disloyal, who had harbored deserters, and had a strong lodge of the “Knights of the Golden Circle.” On the 30th of September, James Mathews, the provost marshal, sent two officers—captain John L. Bashore and Josiah M. Woodruff—into that vicinity to arrest deserters from the draft. They had nearly reached the residence of one of the deserters, fourteen miles south of Grinnell, when they were fired upon by a number of armed men. ”

“ Captain H. B. Horn, in command of a company in the Southern Border Brigade, stationed in Davis County, in March, 1863, reported to the Adjutant-General the doings of the disloyal citizens in that county. On the 9th of February, a force of armed men seized a negro and carried him into Missouri to slavery. ”