Our Country Before Party

16 of every right dear to us as American citizens, and requires the united efforts of all good, true, and loyal men in its behalf; and Whereas we have beheld with feelings of sadness and deep regret the bitter partisan feeling that is becoming dangerously vindictive and malicious in our State, the tendency of which is to paralyze and frustrate the plans of the Federal and State authorities in their efforts to suppress this infamous rebellion ; therefore, 1. Resolved, That having pledged our most cherished earthly interests to the service of our common country, in this hour of national peril, we ask our friends and neighbors’at home to lay aside all petty jealousies and party animosities, and,* as one man, stand by us in upholding the President in his war measures, in maintaining the authority and dignity of the Government, and in unfurling again the glorious emblem of our nationally over every city and town of rebeldom. ******** 3. Resolved, That we have watched the traitorous conduct of those members of the Legislature of the State of Illinois who, misrepresenting their constituencies, have been proposing a cessation of the war, avowedly to arrange terms of peace, but really to give time to the nearly exhausted rebels to recovertheir strength, and plotting to divest Governor Yates of the rights and authority vested in him by our State constitution and laws, and to them we calmly and firmly say: "Beware of the terrible retribution that is falling upon your coadjutors at the South, and that, as your crime is tenfold blacker, will swiftly smite you with tenfold horror, should you persist in your damnable deeds of treason.” 4. Resolved, That in tendering our thanks to Governor Yates, and assuring him of our cordial support in his efforts to crush this inhuman rebellion, we are deeply and feelingly in earnest. We have left to the protection of the laws he is to enforce all that is dear to men—our wives, our children, our parents, our homes; and should the loathsome treason of the madmen who are trying to wrest from him a portion of his just authority render it necessary, in his opinion, for us to return and crush out treason there, we will promptly obey a proper order so to do, for we despise a sneaking traitor in the rear much more than an open rebel in front. 5. Resolved, That we hold in detestation and will execrate any man, who in this struggle for our national life offers factious opposition to either the Federal or State authorities, in their efforts for the vigorous prosecution of the war, for the suppression of this Godless rebellion. 6. Resolved, That we are opposed to all propositions for a cessation of hostilities, or a compromise, other than those propositions -which the Government has constantly offered: “Return to loyalty, and obedience to the laws, on a common level with other States of the Union, under the Constitution as our fathers made it” Lieutenant Colonel Morrill, of the Sixth Illinois, not being able to attend, sent the following dispatch, which the meeting decided to have inserted in the proceedings : Glendale, Miss., January 30, 1863.—To Colonel Chetlain:—Colonel: I am sorry to say that indisposition makes it impossible for me to attend on the committee, but I will authorize the committee to sign my name to any resolutions expressive of our utter abhorrence of the treasonable sympathy shown to southern traitors at the North, and especially those who may have found their way into the legislative halls of our noble State. Respectfully, John Morrill, Lieutenant Colonel Commanding Glendale. Colonel Bane, Fiftieth Illinois; Lieutenant Colonel Philips, Ninth Illinois; Lieutenant Wilcox, Fifty-second Illinois; and other officers present, then addressed the meeting. On motion, it was decided to have a copy of the resolutions sent to the commanding officer of each Illinois regiment in this district, to be read on dress parade to-morrow evening, and be voted upon by the men of each regiment; also, that copies of the proceedings be sent to Governor Yates, the Speaker of the Senate and House of Representatives of the Legislature of Illinois, and to the Chicago and Springfield papers. Three rousing cheers were then given for our National and State Government, three for our old flag, and three for the army and navy, after which the meeting adjourned sine die.

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