Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-02-09
INp1ANAroL1s. Jam. "a. Is6s.

MEssRs. BEACH AND DoDD-GeRtieBaeR: En-
closed transmit a copy of the address as deliv.
cred. Thanking you for the favorable opinion
of it you express, regretting that that opinion i;
not better merited, and hoping that the influence
of the address, if it may have any, shall be fol
the country's good,
With great respect, 1 am, gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
S. e. PERKINS.
1Lr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen.
have turned aside from my usual avocation
to meet with you tonight and spend a few min
utes in considering the state of the nation.
oLDEN TIME.
We meet with anxious, heavy hearts; with q
sadness upon US, lightened somewhat indeed by
the happy result of the late elections. but still
weighing us down TO the borders of despair.
We, the Democracy, have been in the habit OF
meeting to consult upon the affairs of our be-
loved country in DAYS that are past under differ
ent auspices. We met, then, joyous, jubilant
and free. We looked abroad upon happy peo.
pie and prosperous land. Over it extended
the broad shield of a Constitution reverenced
and obeyed by the ruling Democracy, and re-
spectcd and administered with scrupulous eau
ton and religious regard for all its provisions by
the National Administration. Thus did the De
mocracy, in their primary councils, advise, teach
and direct.
THE OLD GOD AND THE NEW GOD.
The God of Heaven was pleased to appreciate
our course by Els continuous smile; mean the
old God the God of our fathers; the God whom
the Democracy worShiped the God who made
and rules the world, but temporarily turned from
us His face at the advent of Lincoln; the God OF
law, and order, and peace; the God who leaving
the question of slavery to the owners issued no
Ill
times, from the DAYS of that good and sensible
Abraham o. old to the time of his last direct
command through the Apostles to man on earth,
enjoined that slaves as it is in the original Ian
guage) should be obedient to their masters, and
that the citizens should submit themselves to all
legally enacted laws and ordinances of regularly
established governments, rendering to Cesar the
things that were Caesars, and to God the things
that were His.
] make no referenceto to thenew God so earnestly
looked for some years ago by Burlngame; the
God first revealed in the modern Republican
Bible, and first worshiped by the modern Repub-
lican party; the God of the second Abraham
(who in no manner resembles the first, but is, in
fact, simply an anecdote;) the God of anarchy
and confusion, of strife and bloodShed; the God
who tells slaves not to obey their masters, and
the citizens not to submit TO the Constitution of
the Government but to act upon a "higher law" !"
and encourages slaves to desert their masters,
and convert their homes and their lands into a
waste of blood and ashes. by indiscriminate and
ruthless Arson and Slauehtcr. This God, the
Democracy never did and yer will worship. 1t
is to be hoped that hi, reign viii be short; that,
like Lucter. his grca. prototype he viii speedily
be hurled like lightning down 70 that pit which
has no bottom.
coNDIrIox OF THE couxTRY UNDER REPuB-
And what now lei ask IS the condition of
our country in les than two years from the in
auguraiion of modern Re ublican rule! Bad
enou III sulcly, with worsc coming. The ma
ton Is severed into belligeTent fragments;
million and half of our people arc engaged in
cutting each Others throatS, and destroying the
property, ,encumbering the future acquisitions and
blasting the hopes OF all the balance widows
weep in the solitude of their desoate homes; the
wall of orphans Is borne sad and mournful upon
every breeze mutiated living bodies go about
the streets the belt of graves of the patriot dead
extends from the Potomac 10 tho setting sun; the
mingled blood and flesh and bones of the North
ern and the Southern soldiers are fattening the
soil of our Southern brcthern; and, if reports be
true, many of their unurned fingers now point
upward to the God of Heaven; and their CHASTITY
uncovered visages look imploringly to Him for
vengeance on the authors of our terrible calami-
ties; industry is palsicd by the loss of laborers
commerce is crippled by the loss OF exports and
the obstruction of rivers and harbors; necessaries
of life rising in price beyond the reach of the
poor; gold and silver are displaced as currency
by shinplastcrs; loaded cannon, if reports say
true, stand near the halls of Justice and legis-
lation; armed soldiers patrol the public ave-
nues; the sighs of political prisoners die away
unheard, upon the walls of their dismal cells;
the liberty of the citizen is gone for it is enjoyed
not as a right but at the will of arbitrary power;
and liberty without right is nothing; and right
without guarantees for its enjoyment is nothing;
and guarantees for its enjoyment are nothing
without the means of enforcing them; and so the
Barons of England found it in case of Magma
Charta; your government is now one of proc
lamations, edicts and pronunciamentos of a
dwelling joker
WHO HAS DONE ALL THIS.
We might forbear to tell who has, but it is due
that we should declare who has not been guilty of
these enormities; these calamities have not been
brought upon the country by the Democra-
cy. The skirts of that great patriotic party, as
party, are unstained with the blood of the Re-
public 1t warned and demonstrated against the
course that has resulted in this devastating and
unnatural strife, but the warnings, like those of
Casandra of old, were despised. AS the unwel
come ghosts of our murdered Constitution and
Union stalk in our midst, they do not shake
their CORY locks at us; they do not, cannot, say
to the Democratic party: You did it.
HOW THIS THING HAS BEEN DONE.
We have now arrived at point where it will
be necessary TO 90 more into particulars, and
we fear be both dry and tedious. But it is desira
bic that definite and precise statement of the
origin of the war, ''and what they kill each other
for" should be made The great leading but
melancholy fact of the day, that to which all
others are but incidents, is, that the United
States, formerly under one common government
are now, de fIcio, divided and under two; and the
question in the mind of every one, the question
which il is due to the truth of history should be
fairly and fully answered, is, how came this dis
solution to take place; what causes produced it
answer, generally, that it was provoked by
bad faith on the part of the North, and accom-.
plished in bad faith on the part of the South
but that the first wrong was perpetrated by the
Abolition or Republican party of the North
They made the first assault.
In attempting to establish this thesis or propo
sition, shall necessarily be brief but shall en-
deavor to be truthful.
The United States was formed by an associa
ton or union of free and slave States. TIL,
Union was voluntary, and upon specified term
and conditions, evidenced by a written Compac
or Constitution. That Compact created a com
mon government, with a few granted powers TO
specified purposes and no other, and all power
not granted were retained by the States and th
people.
No power was granted to the General Govern
ment to interfere with slavery in the States AM