Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1879 — A Warning to Vipers and Copperheads. [ARTICLE]

A Warning to Vipers and Copperheads.

The debate upon the merits of Jefferson Davis’ loyalty,which was unwittingly precipitated upon the Senate by Gen. Shields’ amendment to pension all the Mexican volunteers during the rest of their lives, was only an incidental feature of the closing scenes—a sort of side-show to the principal performance—but it none the less serves to exhibit how boldly and brazenly the Confederate Brigadiers have come to the front, and with what malignant complacency they hurl their treasonable utterances into the face of the loyal North. If any Uniop man had predicted in 1865 that in 1879 an exRebel Would rise in the United States Senate, and not only eulogize Jefferson Davis, compare him with Washington, pronounce him a patriot and lover of his country, but declare he occupied the same position with him upon the rights of a State to secede, as did Mr. Lamar, and that a conservative Democrat would advocate placing him upon the roll of honor as a pensioner, as did Mr. Thurman, the prophet would have been laughed to scorn. But the event has happened and the disgraceful spectacle has been witnessed.

One after another the Southern Brigadiers rose* in their places, with the encouragement of Northern doughfaces, bidders for the vote of the •'Solid South,” and poured out a flood of passionate rhetoric in eulogy of the " Lost Cause,” justified the right of secession, reaffirmed it with -fresh malignity, cracked their whips at loyal men as they did before the war, and, with brazen audacity, began the old work of attempting to bully And browbeat the North. Their audacity, however, did not pass without rebuke. One old Hon was roused, and his savage reply dazed the Brigadiers, who, flushed with the possession of place and power, had evidently fancied that they could flaunt their treason with impunity, and that the old spirit of the North had cooled down in the long years that have followed the close of the war. The reply of old Zach Chandler to the bullying, roaring Rebels around him is one of those brief, vivid, terse, incisive utteiances which are only struck off at white heat, and contain volumes in sentences. It was like the sudden blast of a whirlwind or the crush of a thunderbolt, and its effect was best shown by the failure of the Rebels to reply to it. As a speech which ought to be preserved by every man in the North, we reproduce it Mr. Chandler rose and said:

• " Mh. Phwudent : Twenty years ago I, in company with Jeffenon Davia, stood up in thia chamber and with hiin swore by Almighty God that I would support the Constitution of the United Staten. Mr. Jefferson Davia came direct from the Cabinet of Franklin Pierce into the Senate of the United States and took the oath with me to be faithful to thia Government. Daring four years I sat in thia body with Jefferson Davin, and raw the preparation* going on from day to day for the overthrow of thia Government. With treason in his heart and perjury upon his lipa he took the oath to sustain the Government that he meant to overthrow. Sir, there wan method in thia madness. He, in co-operation with other men from hia acction. and in the Cabinetof Mr. Buchanan, made careful preparations for the event that was to follow. Your fleets were scattered wherever the winda blew and water wan found to float them, where they could not be used to put down a rebellion. Your armiea were scattered all oyer thia broad land where they could not be nacd in an emergency. Your Treasury wks depleted until your bonds bearing 6 per oent, interest, principal and interest payable in coin, were sola for eighty-eight cents on the dollar to pay current expenses, and no buyers. Preparations were carefully made. Your arms were sold under an apparently innocent clause iri an Army bill providing that the Secretary of War might in his discretion sell such arms as he deemed best for the interest of the Government to sell. Sir, eighteen years ago last month 1 sat in this hall and listened to Jefferson Davis delivering his farewell addrawtjl. in ferwuag tai what- our Constitutional duties to thia Government were, and then be left and entered into a rebellion to

overthrow the Government that ha had sworn to support. I remained here, sir, during the whole of that terrible Rebellion, I mw our brave soldiers by thousands, and I might almost sav millions, as they fmitted through here to the theater of war. I saw their shattered ranks returning. 1 saw steamboat after steamboat, and railroad train after railroad train, brintfiiw tack the wounded. I was with my friend from Rhode Island (Burnside) when he commanded the Army of the Botouuic, and saw oiks of legs and arms that made humanity shudder. 1 saw the widows and orphans made by this war. and heard them wail and mourn over the death of their dearest and best Mr. President. 1 little thought at that time that I should live to hear in the Senate of the United States eulogies Upon Jefferson Davis, living, a living rebel, on tbe floor of the Senate of the United States. Sir. I am amased to hear it; and 1 can tell the gentlemen on the other side that they little know the spirit of the North when they come here at this day, with hravado on their lips, uttering eulogies upon him whom every man, woman, and child ill' the North believes to have been a double-dyed traitor.” In this brief speech Mr. Chandler has compressed, in addition to his characterization of Jefferson Davis, the history of the treason which he championed; the conspiracy of the rebels; their infamous plots while in the Union and making protestations of loyalty; the progress of the rebellion and its close; and ho emphasizes it with no bluster, braggadocio or threat, but with the simple, significant warning that they do not know the spirit of *he North when they publicly bestow their eulogies upon a man whom “ every man, woman and child in the North knows to have been a double-dyed traitor.” The North is slow to move, but when it does move the result ought to be known to the South, if they can learn anything from bitter experience. The North is anxious for peace and a fraternal feeling between the two sections. Knowing its strength, it is ready to make concessions, and it has already conceded more for the sake of peace than has ever characterized any Power victorious over treason in the history of the world. After having pardoned the rebels, After having restored the right of self-government to them, after having readmitted them to office and allowed them to take their old places where they plotted the overthrow of the Government, after having withdrawn the army from their section upon their solemn pledges that all classes of people should have their rights under the laws of the States and the Constitution of the United States, it has seen them deliberately violate those pledges and disfranchise an entire race, and has only protested. It has seen them persecute and murder Republicans, and has only protested. It has seen them desecrate the ballot-box with open and unblushing frauds, and coolly and complacently defy the National Government to enforce the statutes protecting the elections, and it has only protested. It has seen Democratic Representatives taking seats to which they were never elected, by virtue of a partisan majority, and it has only protested. And now, in quick succession, the South has poured in its claims demanding compensation for its effort to destroy the Government; has attacked the army with the intention of crippling it, if it cannot destroy it; has assailed the few remaining safeguards of the ballot; has threatened to stop the necessary supplies for running the Government; and finally has the effrontery to proclaim and reaffirm the right of secession in Congressional debates. Mr. Chandler’s warning is a timely one. It represents the sentiment of a majority of the Northern people—not alone of Radical Republicans, but of thousands of Liberals, many of whom have voted with the Democrats for the sake of conciliation and harmony. The South is treading upon dangerous ground. It mistakes the temper of our people. It may raise a storm if it crowds too closely.— Chicago Tribune.