Daily State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-08-19
speech of Hon. VIM " ucCsrty at the
Democratic Convention IA shelby
Comfy.

speech of Hon. W I'm. " Wcrsrty at the
Democratic Convention sn shelby
Comfy.
judge McCarty said. lie Lad gloomy fore
bodiags for the future Of the country. The or
deal Of this civil war is to test the stability OF
our Government, aud the htness of our people
for selfgovernment. III with wise and salutary
laws-securiiy for life and property-~ith com
merce, agriculture. and the arts all hourizhing-
with every element Of wealth and prosperity
around us--a part of society thus blessed shall
attempt TO reverse this picture, and crumble TO a
heap Of ruins our Institutions, VIC may well have
ground for doubt III the demons of diseord and
hate too potent for fraternal love-if bigotry
l. 70 master tolerancc-if frenzied madness i 10
rule over reason and statesmanship-if conserya-
tism Is 70 Weld TO fanaticism-anarchy be substi-
tu;ed for law-mobs 10 not in licentiousness, the
DAYS Of the republic are then numbered. We all
have n common stake in the future destiny of
our Governmental owe the military duty Of
crushing treason against II, 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 republic
can; and he who would become the slavish echo
of power. or would abdicaie his political rights
and duties, or suffer them to be wrested from
And here. "a Democratic loyalty has been i'm
peached and libelled let me run parallel be-
tween Democratic loyalty and the loyalty Of
others-not 10 eriminaie Others. but to yindlcate
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
ercign in a republic, no allegiance to Mr..
Lincoln-we owe it to his constitutional preroga-
tives only. The annulment of the whole Con-
H.. 4 L - Il 4.
loyalty; but the annullment of any part of it is
equally an act of disloyaliy. Aboliiionists have
advocated higher law than the Constitution,
and one at war with it, When have Democrats
done it! Abolitionists, in many localities, have
annuled the fugitive slave law and wrested from
the custody of the law fugiives from labor, AMI
armed posses have been required to enforce the
laws. When has Democracy done so!
Slavery is guaranteed and protected in and by
the Constitution. Abolitionists have waged n
crusade against it. When has Democracy done
so!
Mr.. Summers bill proposed to blot out State
sovereignty, and degrade it 10 territorial yassal-
age. When did Democracy urge such revolu-
tionary measures!
During the reign of Know NothineiSm and
Plug Uglyism at Louisville, Baltimore and else
where, the sceptre of sovereigny-te 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 a speedy trial to man deprived
of his liberty: When has Democracy suppressed
pressesl when struck down the liberty of speech?
and when denied speedy trial to q prisoner!
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 ibellers 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 rccoilect, fellow citizens when Web
ser voted for the compromise measures of 1850,
to avert the calamites 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 as
right, but duty lin times of peace and in
times of war, as 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 sediton law, was for the
freedom of speech.
plundered. piracy on the high seas inauaurated
our capital threatened felt that L was a co-heir
of This Government. one of the guardians of its
liberties with stake in its future destinies and
All oath of allegiance on 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 abdication of my pOliti
cal rights duties that Democracy and loyal
" were so in conflict that they could not CO.
exist.
If men believe that Democracy SO palsies their
souls with cowardice that they can not fight, it
is an argument against it; If il 50 imp0yerishes
their purse that they aid with money, it
Is an argument against it; If il So benumbs their
faculties aud units them for legislation, it is an
argument against it. Does IA war destroy the
immutability ofprincple! Does it make truth a
liari Is the head robbed of Its wisdom or the
heart of its patriotism! if then this selfstult-
tcaton and the remuneration of Democracy is
a duty But / fear me such were never moe
uated with genuine Democratic matter.
True Democracy nerves the heart to battle for
the great chart of our liberties, the Constitution,
in the battlefield, and also in the political arena
the motive is as hallowed, the duty as impera-
tive, i'm the one case as in :hc other. Now the
protection of slavery was the price Of the Union,
and is essential TO its presevationaS il 70 lis
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 South
offs guarantees-men whose aims to arouse pub
lie sentiment into furious hostility to slavery and
if they do not mean its extirpaion what do they
mean! Men North who put slavery above the
Constitution, above law, above peace. above
evcrythIng-whO persecute it with a fanatic :
zeal and imperil all our liberties for the triumph
oftheir doctrines; and men South Who pui slave.
~ above law. above Constitution. above peace.
above the safety of our liberties, arc alike dis
turhers of society. It is not, ellow-citizcns in
parchment Constitutions that your liberties are
cmbalmed. but in the spirit of the people the
tolerance of equal rights. a. political communi-
ties. or as men, but the absence of that dog
matte Inability which arrogates superior wis
dom virtue to neighbor, and firm an
chorage to laws which are or ought to be- the
potential guarantees of all our rights.
Nv fellow countTymen the logic Of passing
events have burned into my brain the impression
that the conservatives of the country must save IT.
if it is saved. II i not party triuInphs as such
tina. | seek, but the triumph of truth over er-
ror. of the Constitution over its enemies every
where, patriotism over sectionalism. Nv Re-
publican friends in Indiana are not generally
AbolitiouS,S, indeed many Of them deem il an
insult to be called an Abolifionist Let me ask
them If their forces are not united and if the
triumphs of Abolitionism is not due TO their
aida