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Letter from Ex-Governor Reynolds.
BELLEVILLE, Jan. 9, 1863.
GENTLEMAN: The noble and glorious stand which the legislature of the state has taken against tyranny and military oppression will be sustained by the people. The democracy throughout the entire southern part of the state are excited, and happy to see the state wrested from the abolition party that has caused the present war, and all the consequent distresses of the country and the slaughter of almost half a million of people in the various battlefields. And what is this war for? To destroy the consitution of the United States, state rights, and the emancipation of the southern slaves.
It seems to me this quasi religious war that is at present raging through the country, has made many of the high dignitaries of the abolition party insane. No man is fit for governor of a state who will deliver such a message to the general assembly as Gov. Yates has done. This public document breathes a wickedness of purpose and a malignity of heart that better becomes a demon than the governor of a state.
The country must again be governed by the old democratic party, and then the constitution will be saved, and the Union also, as it was in the palmiest days of the republic. The abolition party must be beaten back by the ballot-box to their northern dens, where they will desecrate religion by preaching politics and singing hypocritical psalms.
The democratic party has commenced its glorious new life in the general assemble of Illinois, and the country will sustain it against the policy of the abolition party in the hands of Abraham Lincoln.
The writ of habeas corpus must be restored, and the arrest of persons for difference of opinion abandoned. The war must be arrested and peace restored to the country.
The members in the Illinois legislature who will labor with sincerity of purpose to accomplish the above great objects, will be bailed in after-days as the great and glorious fathers and saviors of the country. Your friend,
JOHN REYNOLDS.