Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1845-05-22

practice, could have resulted from the addition The
added works would doubtless, have been placed in
remote class the expediency Of commencing which
would have been a question for descendants to
determine. 1t was generally supposed also that the
passage Of the :" calf bill" would compel clasSfca-
ton: and that, in all probability, would, in effect
have been Its consequence If so, how much OF good
to the State might have sprung from that bill
Beyond all this, it must be admitted, we then en-
poyed the argument, the great injustice of system
of Internal Improvement was, the unequal advantages
it bestowed particular sections; and that the State
would better and more cheerfully bear system cost
ing twelve millions and satifying all sections than
partial system costing ten. And am free confess
that with my present experience, think that argu-
ment faulty one. No system of Internal Improve
ment satisfy whole State; and that is chief
reason why State should not engage in any SUCH
But in Justice to myself and to those who voted as
did, it is proper to say, that offered, at that very
time, to give up all claims to any works for
sections of country, if the Internal improvement
party would but cut down their system to half its
dimensions And this brings me to speak of the
extract from a speech of mine, as given by you and
purporting be from the Indiana Journal of December
n, 1886.
No such consecutive extract occurs in any speech
of mine. No such extracts even disiointed can all
have been copied from the Indiana Journal of Dec 81
For they are not only cut of so as to garble ard
destroy the sense, but actually from two different
speeches; both Of which, know, never appeared in
any paper. The two first paragraphs occur rear the
beginning of one speech the six next lines near the
end Of that speech the eight lines following are from
another speech altogether, and the two concluding
paragraphs are still from different part of that other
speech. And yet these are all strung together be you
without asterisk any other indication that they
are not an extract cut fairly from single speech.
But this Is the least part of the injustice The
eight lines of which have said that they occur in
second speech, are to be found in that speech, inne
I'll Al
which have above referred, and indeed are actually
dependent for their their intimate connection
with that proposal; yet the proposal itself you have
wholly omitted. 1t reads follows:
:" Does the voice of the people-that voice which
has been called the voice of God-does tEat voice
indeed call out to us throughout the land, $50 back
If this be true if this warning voice does indeed SO
call to us, let us obey it. Let us go back. Let us
repent in sackcloth and ashes. If do altogether
give up our ten millions scheme, let us. at least prune
it, cut it down, lop off the Central Canal at White
river the Wabash and Erie Canal at Tippecanoe and
so on. Are you prepared to make these curailments
to cut dorn the plan, sag 10 five milionSl II you
for one, sciu rest satisfied arthot additional
dollar satisfied, at least, to have taken from the
shoulders of my constituents, one half the burden
they now called upon, unidentified, to bear"
And then went on to say, you have quoted, that
did not believe the voice of the people was for going
back, but that their feeling was: Since you have
began, &C on and prosper" This was unfortunately
but too true. The people had become infected with
the infatuaton Of the day The popular vote elected
Wallace, the system candidate, over Dumont, the
advocate of classification. The facts and figures to
which others of the opposition party as well as myself
invited their attention. disbelievcd disregard
ed our warnings avaied nothing. Clearer views
came too late and before we succeeded In locking
the stable, the best horses were stolen therefrom
pray you here TO observe, that | am LAYING no
claim to especial merit for my opposition to this sys-
TEN, however confident am, that classification reform
would have saved from reproach and temporary inso-
yency our State. | resided in county not immedi-
aely benefited by that syseni and therefore to some
extent, out of the binding atmosphere If any merit
have, it is, that | may have examined with more
strictness and industry, perhaps, than some of my
colleagues, the statistical details which disclosed our
actual conditions and may thus have been enabled to
predict In what then seemed the tone of extrava
giant aarmis but is now acknowledged be the voice
of sober reality the embarrasSWentS that have since
overtaken State.
/ beg you also to remark, that, in the communion
ton to which the Suns paragraph alluded, scrupu-
lousy absaired, net only from making personal but
party capital and this did, lest, in that case
the suggestions therein contained might by some be
viewed through a distorted medium. Yet YOU cannot
be ignorant that there material in abundance at
my command, for such purpose. You must know
well, that, during the entire period through which the
Internal Improvement mania prevailed, State
Government, through all Its departments was Wing
that threeourtbS at the very least CT all the leading
supporters of 50 the system, the whole system and
nothing but the system l." were Wings; that every
member but two, of the Board of Internal Improve
ment, were Wings; and that every member, without
single exception, Of the Board Of Fund Commits
soners Through whose extreme imprudence the State
lost three millions Of dollars) were Wings. You
cannot imagine, that had either forgotten
looked such facts these And your political expe-
rence must convince you, that half that evidence
is sufficient at any time, to fasten dominant
party the responsibility of a particular policy, no
matter whether, in all votes the details of that
policy, the party lines have been drawn with uniform
I strictness or not.
| But it was not es party man, it was as citizen
of Indiana, that desired TO speak of her debt and
her conduct, and the of restoring her credit.
1t seems to me of far less importance decide, who
brought her into her difficulties, than to determine,
how she shall Get ont Of them. r.
That party and those men who shall oheerfully
bestir themselves to bring about her honorable exri
cation, under some plan that shall not badly burden
her citizens will and receive the confidence and
gratitude of the State. And if any suggestions of
mine, now or hereafter, may chance to Contribute,
how remotely soever, towards an object so vitally
important, it will be to subject of lasting graft
j fcation am, Sir,
Your fellow citizen,
i ROBERT DALE OWEN.
MURDER.-On the evening of the 23d Of April al
St. Louis, dabolical act was perpetrafed BY