The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1860-07-18

Georgia, a leader of the Democratic party
in the House of Representatives for several
Congresses prior to the present one; Hon.
Thomas Butler King, of Georgia, now a
Democratic member of the Senate of thu
State; Hon. Daniel NJ. Barringer, of North
Carolina, late Minister to Spain, now Dem
ocrat and Hon. Robert TOombs, the pres
ent able and distinguished Senator from
/ Georgia, all OF whom served with Mr.. lin
coin in the Thirtieth Congress-with whom
Mr.. Toombs says, in late speech, he had
an agreeable acquaintance, and all of
whom voted precisely as Lincoln did, tor
this amendment of Mr.. Ashmun- -
In regard to this vote, | prefer to let Mr..
Lincoln speak for himself. In replying to
/ a speech of Judge Douglas, in the celebrated
campaign in our State in 1858, Mr.. Lincoln
! said ....
And so think my friend, the Judge,
is equally at fault. when he charges me, at
the time when was in Congress, of having
/ opposed our soldiers who were fighting, in
| the Mexican war. The Judge did not make
/ his charge very distinctly /; but l can tell
/ you what he can prove by referring to the
I record. You remember l was an old Wing,
! and whenever the Democratic party tried 10
get me to vote that the war had been right
| eoasy begun by the President, would not
| do it. But whenever they asked for any
money, or land warrants, or anything to pay
the soldiers there, during all that time,
gave the same vote that Judge Douglas did.
! You can think as you please rs to whether
that was consistent. Such is the truth and
the Judge has the right to make all he can
out of it. But when he by general charge
conveys the idea that l withheld supplies
from the soldiers who were fighting in the
Mexican war; or did anything else to him
der the soldiers, he is, to say the least, gross
ly and altogether mistaken, as a consulta-
ton of the records will prove to him. =
\ Lincoln and Douglas Debates, page rs.
In speech in this House, on the 9th day
Of July, 1848, Mr.. Lincoln, referring to the
same matter, spoke in the following Ian
guage of truth, eloquence, and patriotism
"If when the war had begun, and had
become the cause of the country, the giving
of our money and our blood, in common
with yours, was support of the war, then it
is not true that we have always opposed the
war. With few individual exceptions, you
have constantly had our votes here for all
the necessary supplies. And, more than
this, you have had the services, the blood,
and the lives, of our political brethren, in
every trial, and on every field. The beard
less boy and the mature man, the humble
y
Through suffering and death, by disease and
in battle, they have endured and fought and
fell with you. Clay and Webster each gave
a son, never to be returned. From the State
of my own residence, besides other worthy
but less known Wing names, we sent Mar
shall, Morrison, Baker, and Hardin they
all fought, and one fell, and in the fall of
that one we lost our best W big man.
Nor were the Wings few in number, or
laggard in the day of danger. In that fear
full bloody, breathless struggle at Buena
Vista, where each mans hard task was to
beat back FIVE foes or die himself of the FIVE
high officers who persisted, four were Wings.
Z" In speaking of this, | mean no odious
comparison between the lion-hearted Wings
and Democrats who fought there. On other
occasions; and among the lower officers and
privates on that OCCASION l doubt not the
proportion was different. l wish to do JUS
tice to ALL | think of all those brave men
as Americans, in whose proud fame, as an
American, | too have a share. Many of
them, Wings and Democrats, are my con-
stituents and personal friends and thank
them-nore than thank them-one and all,
for the high, imperishable honor they have
conferred on our common State."-( Con-
gressionab Globe, Voy l9, page l042.)
Such being the patriotic and consistent
position of Mr.. Lincoln on tho war, when
the bill for supplies for our army in Mexico
came up on the 9Th day of March, 1913, his
vote is of course found recorded in favor Of
the 6iI.-( Congressional Globe, voI. IS, page
445.)
(To BE CONTINUED TOMORROW