Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-08-25
SeIrtteO gllstrllanp.
Speech of Hon. W mn. W. McCarty at the
Democratic Convention In shelby

speech OIL FtOns " III. VI. NlcCHEty ~ thc
Democratic Convention In shelby
County.
Judge McCarty said He had gloomy fore
bodings for the future of the country. The or
deal of this civil war is TO test the stability of
our Government, and the fitness Of our people
fOT self-goVernment. If with wise and salutary
laws-security for life and property-with com
merce agriculture and the arts all fourishing-
with every element of wealth and prosperity
around us-a part of society thus blessed shall
attempt to reverse this picture, and crumbe to a
heap of ruins our Institutions, may we'll have
ground for doubt If the demons of discord and
hate are too potent for fraternal love-if bigotry
is to master tOlerance-if frenzied madness is to
rule over reason and statesmanship-if conServa-
tism is to yield to fanaticism-anarchy be substi-
tuted for law-mObs TO riot in licentiousness, the
days of the republic are then numbered. We all
have a common stake in the future destiny of
our Governmental owe the military duty Of
crushing treason against it, and all owe the po-
litical duty of preserving and maintaining it.
And here let me say he who would exclude his
co-sovereign from his voice and weight in the
legislation and policy of the country, exhibits
the spirit of the despot and not of the republi-
can; and he who would become the slavish echo
of power, or would abdicate his political rights
and duties, or suffer them TO be wrested from
him. is not free man, but slave and coward.
peached and hbelled, let me run a parallel be-
tween Democratic loyalty and the loyalty Of
others-not to criminate others, but to vindicate
the Democratic party of the Northwest 10y
atty is but fidelity to the Constitution and the
laws. This is the test, as law is the only SOW
ereign in a republic, we no allegiance to Mr.
LincOln-we owe it to his constitutional preroga-
tives only. The annullment of the whole Con-
stitution (as done by the South) are acts of dis
H,,x fIa Of orfO ~ ic
equally an act of disloyalty. Abolitionists have
advocated higher law than the Constitution,
and one at war with it. When have Democrats
done itl Abolitionists, in many localities, have
annulled the fugitive slave law, and wrested from
the custody of the law fugitives from labor, and
armed posses have been required to enforce the
laws. When has Democracy done sos
Slavery is guaranteed and protected in and by
the Constitution. AbOlitiOnists have waged a
crusade against it. When has Democracy done
sOl
Mr.. Summers bill proposed to blot out State
sovereignty, and degrade it territorial vassal-
age. Whensdid Democracy urge such revolu-
tiOnary measures!
During the reign of Know Nothingism and
Plug Uglyism at Louisville, Baltimore and else
where, the sceptre of sovereignty-the elective
franchise-was wrested from the people. When
have the Democracy thus outraged the elective
franchise and law!
The Constitution forbids the abridgement of
the liberty of the press, and the liberty of speech,
and guarantees speedy trial to a man deprived
of his liberty: When has Democracy suppressed
presses! when struck down the liberty of speechl
and when denied a speedy trial to a prisoners
Measure these acts by the legal test Of dislOy-
atty, by the standard of fidelity to law, and apply
it to Democracy and the enemies and libellers of
Democracy.
WHY my fellow citizens, the great Burke once
said that he who set up his will against law, was
alike the enemy of society and the enemy of
God. Who are in this Observation-Disclosures
or Democrats!
You all recollect, fellow citizens, when Web
ster voted for the compromise measures of 1850,
TO avert the calamities of civil war; that Faneuil
Hall the cradle of liberty, was closed to his elo-
quent lips by the fanatics of Boston; and how
nobly he vindicated the liberty Of speech, not
right but as a duty ''in times of peace and in
times Of war;" as a legacy which, if he left no
other he would bequeath his children. And you
also know that Jefferson, the great Apostle OF
Liberty once knelt and swore eternal hostility 10
every fetter upon human thought and human
conscience and his great battle against, and vic
tory over, the alien and sedition law was for the
freedom of speech.
When our forts were seized and our mints
plundered, piracy on the high seas naugurated
our capital threatened, / felt that was q co-heiE
of this Government, one of the guardians Of It's
liberties. with a stake in it, future destines, and
an oath of allegiance my conscience to up
hold the Constitution, enforce the laws and pre-
serve the Union, and my voice was raised for the
war. But / never dreamed that this one duty OF
the warrior required an abdicaton Of my politi
cal rights or duties or that Democracy and loyal
ty were so in conflict that they could not CO.
exist.
If men believe that Democracy so palsies theil
souls with cowardice that they can not fight, il
is an argument against it; if il so impoverishes
their purse that they can not aid with money, /
is an argument against il; if it so benumbs theil
faculties and units them for legislation, ii is an
argument against it, Does war destroy the
immutabiitv of principle! Does it make truth .
Iiars Is the head robbed of it, wisdom or the
heart Of is patriotism! il so then this selfstulh
fcation and the renunciation Of Democracy i
duty. But / fear me such were never inoc
ulated with genuine Democratic matter.
True Democracy nerves the heart to battle FOL
the great chart Of our liberties, the Constitution
in the battlefield and also in the political arens
the motive is as hallowed, the duty as impera
tive, in the one case as in the other. Now thu
protection Of slavery was the price Of the Union
and is as essential 20 its preservation as it to Ia
formation. Yet there Is a class of men who
would take the benefits of the Constitution and
reject its conditions men who would rob the Souff
ofifs euarantecs--men whose aimis 10 arouse pub
lie sentiment into furious hostility to slavery and
II they do not mean It's extirpation what do the,
meanl Men North who put slavery above IN,
Constitution, above law, above peace aboy,
everything-who persecufe IL with fanatic'