Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-03-23

efumenL anu n portion OF our udlondi me- Hbu
is done contrary to that Constitution IS
no government at all, such as our fathers estab
Iished, but a wicked usurpation. lCheers.l Where
are we at the present dayI Ali the most valuable
rights OF the citizen, those especially that are set
forth in the twelve amendments of the Constltu-
ton, have been swept away by the men in power,
and to-day, / lament to have to be obliged to say
it. to-day we are living under a different form OF
from that which our fathers founded
and sealed with their blood. Our remedy for
present abuses is not in revolutionary proceedings,
buE in the exercise of the right of ballot OF which
| have just spoken.
Now. gentlemen, | see around me quite a NUN
Der OF naturalized citizens, and L wish to say a
few words to them. The time has come when
we may speak plainly to each other, ask you,
my friends, what induced you to this country
["To escape tyranny" Don't think me i'm
pertinent for asking the question and giving you
the answer TO it myself. Why did you leave the
Rhine and the Rhone and the borders of Like
Geneva2 Why did you leave Neulchatel and
Constance? Why did you leave the Elbe aud the
Scheldt and the Haguef Why did you leave
sunny Italy. the scene of civil strife for more
than a hundred wears. and why the vine clad hills
of France2 Why did you leave Caledonia.
s.stern and Wild and sweet lakes that nestle IN
the bosom of hills2 Why did YOU leave Kill
larney and Kilkenny, and those consecrated
places where Curran and Grattan Numbered
against oppression, and where Emme laid down
his life? Applause Why did you leave the
graves of your kindred in the Faiherland, 1.-THE
Gods acre" of Germany, and the church yards
of the United Kingdom3 Why did you leave the
historic scenes of the Old World, where the
Roman, the Workman, and the blue eyed Goth
have been, and where they have left the impress
of their moral power, or of brute force-scenes
where | have sometimes stood. as it were. en-
tranced, till l seemed To be incorporated with the
past, while the ages surged by met Why did
rou leave the bright, the beautiful, the tender,
the tou ching, the sublime-why did you leave all
these for the New WorldI Better. perhaps. |
have sometimes thought in these days of trial,
that the good ship in which you embarked had
been stranded on the French, the German. or the
Irish coast, ard you, plucked from the remorse-
less wave--HOt less cruel aud remorseless
than the wrath of men-have returned to your
native village, there 90 take up the burden of life
again; better this than that YOU should have come
here Just to taste the sweets of liberty, and all at
oace have the cup dashed from your lips. Zap
plause.
And now for my answer. You came here to
get rid of unjust law, or odious taxes ''that take
from the mouth of labor the bread WHICH it has
earned" to yet rid of large armies and na,ies
that eat oat the substance of the people, to get
rid of stamp acts and cOnscription acts. to he rid
of Provost Marshals, and game keepers, and
bum bailiffs, the instruments of the IRON rule.
[Great applause You came hither to get rid of
a vile system Of espionage for which our language
has no name, and TO get rid of the passport sys
TEN that stops you at every frontier town till your
passport can be uised and stamped. You came
where speech was free and the press free; where
there was trial by jury; where labor was hon
ored, and man, the lord of his little patch of
ground, or, it may be, of his acres. could take
| his children in his arms and thank God that he
was born in a land of freedom. TGreat cheering. |
This is what you came tor. And YOU came where
civil and religious liberty had found an asylum
and reared her temples to justice and to the wor-
ship of the living God. But, men of foreign
lands, you whom | have sometimes welcomed to
our shores, | am bound to tell you that in some
things YOU have been misled lately, deceived,
beguiled, and cast, as it were, into the horrible
pit. In the last year-a year which. for its viola
ton of personal rights and disregard of c%onstitu-
tional oblig tons, should be stricken from the
caiendar-ihe men in power, disregarding the
rights of The people under the Constitution, have
struck down, in IA succession of outrageous blows,
MANY of the rights which YOU had acquired here,
and the privileges which you had begun to enjoy
and have renewed here in our country some oil
the worst features of the rotten d~ynasties OF
European and Asiatic countries. And now. gen
tlemen. your remedy is in your own hands
United together. and firm in your purpose, you
may recover that which you have lost, aud
recover these inevitable privileges in a constitu
tional way.
Gentlemen of The different clubs--for / suppose
you are represented here-I see in your organi
cation the noble impulse, the patriotic purpose
the holy aspiration and the heroic resolve which
have characterized the true friends of liberty il
all ages of the world Your late convention wa;
a remarkable one. Every town in the State was
represented This is something which has never
occurred before. Nor is the explanation a diff
cult one. Every town has suffered more or les:
by the war. Every town has seen on the edge o
its horizon the shadow of some coming despotism
Every town has given something of the flower o.
It's youth to the cause Some have IeturneC
crippled for life: others have come back to tel
the story of how they were treated by those who
should have been to them friends and protectors
Every town is loaded with taxes. In all of then
there is more or less mourning. Rachel weeping
for her children, and refusing TO be con'forted be
cause they are not; and all of this misery, desc
lation. burden and oppression for the sake o
political Abolisionism. [Applause
Now. gentlemen, a word or two more and
have done What is the mission OF the hour
1t is to speak out. and speak plainly, aud no
only that. but to speak the whole truth; and j
you do this, you may say that we have gone ft
enough in an Improbable and cruel struggle. II
is time to sheaihe the sword and spare mankind
ALREADY have our quarrels filled the world will
widows and orphans" But perhaps you may sa,
to me-some of You've are TO gain by thi,
struggle, and therefore it should go on Gail
what? If you conquer the South, you have go
to keep an army there to hold them in subjuga
ton, and impoyerish yourselves to pay for it. /
you devastate the South and turn the Africal
loose, you destroy that portion of your countr,
which was once your best home market. ant
| onvarf IL itfn a desert l. IL liberty that yol
are to gaiu2 AIaSl my friends. YOU have vel
nigh lost your Liberties 10y perm.tting the militar,
tai override the civil power. Depend upon 1t, ii
such a contest "a this at the present time. thea
can be but one end, and that will be deSpotism f
yourselves and your children. The only hope
in IA return to peaceful counsels, and to secur
the return of those counsels the cry should g
forth from one end of the land to the other, "w
have bad enough of this death struggle"
But what j. TO he done. they may say, after yo
get q cess ,tion of hos ilities? We cannot, per
haps, penetrate the future and he able to see "A
this moment what can or should be done. Blu
alIay the D ,sSions which war ensenders. and W
shall he II no loss to inl q wa. God will bel
US lAaplause 1t Is not hy furce OF arms tina
we are To have another Union, but by force q
reason Reason hides herself in these DAYS,
poor, Iaked, shiveriue thing, amid the pelting @
the storm Go TO your army, and they viii te
you they have had enough of slaughter. BRAY
men will tell you this. There has not one battl
been fought since the war begun, whether in the
favor or against them, that doubts have not arise
in their minds as To the possibility of conQuerin
the South. Some of them remember what Chat
ham said of the rebellious colonies. They c1ul
not forget. either, nor should We forget, that th
men on the other side of the "inyidious line al
of our own kindred also. and, rejecting on theS
things. these men OF whom | am speaking, VIII