try that such a letter should be suppressed. The only wonder is that it was not destroyed, and that the prisoner was not left in ignorance of what became of it. But the letter was returned, and I have it in my possession; an evidence of the tyranny of Lincoln's Administration, and of the despotism which reigned over the Old Capitol. No sooner was this letter returned than I resolved to send out another surreptitiously, addressed to my fellow-citizens of the Third Congressional District, Iowa. This was accomplished, by what means and how it is unnecessary to say. As copies of this address have been solicited for preservation, by the prisoners who heard it read in the Old Capitol, and by several others, it is republished here, with the hope that it contains matter worthy of consideration, and that it embodies doctrines in which the great body of the American people believe, sentiments which they approve, and contains statements of fact which they know to be true in relation to the existing rebellion: ADDRESS OF D. A. MAHONY, TO THE CITIZENS OF THE THIRD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, IOWA: OLD CAPITOL OF THE UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON, D. C., Aug. 25th, 1862. Fellow-Citizens of the Third Congressional District of Iowa: I have been informed to-day of my nomination as a candidate for Representative in Congress by a convention representing such of you as believe that the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of this Nation, a law which is designed to af ford security and protection to life and property, and to be a restraint on evil doers, as well on those invested with attributes of authority in the State as those who are merely citizens of this once happy Republic. I have signified my acceptance of the nomination referred to, and promised, if an opportunity were offered, to address you more at length. This opportunity has now presented itself, not with the consent of those who have arrested and brought me here, but despite their determination that I should not be afforded the privilege which every American freeman has been taught to believe it was his right to exercise. As I am taken from among you by an arbitrary and illegal decree of some minion of the ruling powers and thus prevented from addressing you in person, I am obliged to have recourse to such means as this prison affords, a scanty portion of ink and paper, to appeal to your manhood, to your intelligence, to your patriotism, and to your interests, to rebuke the arbitrary, illegal, and outrageous course of the Administration and its partisan supporters who have converted this building, consecrated by the patriotism of other days, into a prison in which loyal citizens are immured for our devotion and fidelity to the Constitution of our fathers. Rebuke these outrages by transferring me to the Capitol, as your representative, from this Abolition Bastile to which I, among others, have been consigned for pleading the cause of the people and a conformity to the Constitution by the Executive and Legislative Branches of the Government. Your relations to the Government, your interests in the future, your rights as citizens, your all that you value as freemen, are as much at stake as are my rights and interests. Whatever arbitrary action of the Administration or of Congress affects one portion of the people will af fect us all. One portion of us cannot be outraged without affecting the other. One portion of us cannot be affected injuriously by the violation of the Constitution or by a subversion of the Government without affecting us all. The outrages inflicted upon me to-day might be the fate of some of you to-morrow, should arbitrary power be suffered or encouraged to usurp the place of law. Reflect, therefore, on your condition and act accordingly. Many of you know my sentiments already on the principles of Government and on the questions of the day. Many others of you know my sentiments only through the misrepresentations of my personal enemies and political adversaries, while there may be some who have not heard one way or another of what my political opinions are, and what course I would take if I had an opportunity to act as your Representative in Congress. It is due to all of those whom I address on this occasion that my sentiments and views in relation to Government affairs and the state of the country, be fairly, distinctly, and unequivocally set forth, and this I propose to do, re minding the reader that being debarred of all means to consult records or to make references to well known facts, I shall have to depend entirely upon iny memory in referring to such matters as I introduce as testimony to the truth and as facts of history. Let me dispose first of the misrepresentations of my political adversaries who, for nearly two years past, have diligently and perseveringly belied and maligned me. Accused of being a Secessionist. I am accused by these partisan malignants, and I am in this Abolition Bastile on the accusations, that I am a Secessionist, a sympathizer with Rebellion, a disloyalist, in a word a traitor. No proofs of these accusations have ever been presented or will ever be presented. The files of the Dubuque HERALD will prove the negative of these charges. They will prove that I was the first person in Iowa who declared that a State could not constitutionally secede from the Union, an opinion which I have ever held and in which I am more than ever confirmed by the longer study of the question. I not only believe that it is unconstitutional for a State to secede from the Union, as I have ever and always believed and maintained, but I am opposed to making the right of secession a constitutional right. This does not deny the right of revolution, which is held by most persons of all parties, but revolution is quite different from secession. Mr. Lincoln and his party admit and advocate the right of revolution, but deny the exercise of the right; but it is needless to argue this question. I refer to it merely for the purpose of correcting misrepresentations, and misapprehensions of my position.. Accused of Disloyalty. I am accused by my adversaries of being disloyal to the Government. What is a disloyalist? Disloyalty consists in being unfaithful to the Government. What has been my course? I have ever and always advocated a compliance with and conformity to the Constitution, which is the Supreme law, both over the Government, Administrators of the Government, and individual citizens. Is this disloyalty? Is it disloyalty to believe and to say that the President of the United States has no more right to trample on the Constitution and to subvert the Government than any other citizen has? The President is obliged to take a special oath to support the Constitution. Is it treason in me or you, fellow-citizens, to say that that oath ought to be kept by the President inviolate? If this be treason we are all traitors. Opposed to the War. To a I am accused of being opposed to the war. certain extent this is true. I believe that the war in which the country is engaged should have never been commenced; that it never would have been commenced were it not for the determination of the Abolitionists and some Republicans to divide the Union, to kick the South out of the Union whether it would go or not. What else but this was the meaning of the "Irrepressible conflict?" Did not the Abolitionists and Republicans proclaim that the North and South could not live together in peace under the same Government, and believing that they could not live in peace, these Northern sentimentalists determined that there should be war. Did they not refuse to settle the questions of difficulty between the North and South by a vote in Congress? There would have been no war had the Abolitionists and Republicans so desired. But they desired war, not to save the Union, but to destroy it. To effect this object they passed Personal Liberty bills, resisted the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, and provoked the "Irrepressible Conflict." They forced the South into war. To save the Union, think you? Not at all. Peaceful and conciliatory measures must be adopted by the North and South. The only way to preserve the Union when re-formed is to have recourse to the same means as did our fathers when the Union was first established. Hence I am opposed to war except as it might be made a means of an early restoration of peace, Union, prosperity and happiness. A vindictive war a war of subjugation, a war of spoliation, a |