The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1863-04-13

for acts which / have done, and answer
/ ing, too, every charge of inconsistency
or of wrong. Wrong in Judgment may
have been; but wrong in intention or in
consistent never. Applause And on
the same theory felt obliged, as loyal
to the constitution and laws to put down
insurrection in Maryland, whether by
black or white, as by the same law l felt
myself compelled TO confscate all slave
property in the rebellious State of Vir-
ginia. l am an old Andrew jackson
Democrat, of twenty years standing.
Applause and three cheers for the old
hero of New Orleans. And so far as 1
know | have never swerved from his
teachings. Applause
! Up to the time when disunion took
place, l went as far as the farthest in
support of the constitutional rights of the
South, however bitter or distastful to me
were the obligations which my fathers
assumed for me in the compromises of
the constitution. They made them all,
and it was not for me to reject the bitter.
took them all Applause. Fellow
Democrats, ! took every one because
+ they were constitutional obligations
[applause and taking each and all l
stood by the South and by Southern
rights under the Constitution, until ad-
vanced and looked into the pit of dis
union, and not liking the prospect qui-
etly Withdrew. Laughter and APP
plause, We went apart from that
hour, and we are forever apart You
may judge Of this when l say that on the
2Sth of December, 1860, shook hands
on terms of friendship with Jefferson Da-
Wis, and on the 2Sth of December, 1862,
/ had the pleasure of reading his procla-
nation that l was to be hanged at sight.
Laughter and applause. And now my
friends, if you will allow me this line of
thought moment, as We come up to the
point of time when these men laid down
their constitutional obligations, will in
quire what were my rights and what were
theirs? At that hour they repudiated
the Constitution of the United States by
solemn vote, under the forms of law, in
solemn convention. And not only that,
but they took arms in their hands and j
undertook by force to rend from under !
the Constitution what seemed to them the !
tairest portion of the heritage which my
fathers had given to me and my children !
as a rich legacy; and when they did that
| concluded, from every fact, that they
had derogated and forfeited every consti- !
tutional right, and had relieved me from
every constitutional obligation to them. |
Loud and long continued applause.
And when | was called upca to say what |
should be my action in regard to slavery, |
| was left to the natural instincts of nv |
heart, as prompted by Christian educa-
ton in New England applause land |
| dealt with it accordingly, for | was no !
longer bound by constitutional oblga-
tions. Applause. Then 1 undertake to
claim, respectfully but earnestly, that the
same sense of duty to my constitutional
obligations, and to the rights of the |
States, which require me, so long as they |
remain loyal, to support the system Of |
slavery-that same sense of duty and of |
right, | say, after they had gone out from |
under the Constitution, caused me to fol-
low the dictates of my own conscience,
untrammeled as had been heretofore. |
[Applause. And so, my friends, how
ever misjudging | may have been-and
speak to my old Democratic friends-I
claim that we went along step by step
together up to that point, and we shall
still go along step by step Ifthe sacred
obligations that bound US together had
not been broken, l would not thus have
been left to follow the dictates of Gods
law and of humanity. Loud applause ]
HIS ADMINISTRATION OF NEW ORLEANS.
By the exigencies of the public service,
| being once more removed to another
sphere Of action in New Orleans, l found
this problem to come up in another form,
which led me to examine and see how
far we had progressed with the settle
ment of the question. | found that un-
der our complex system of States, with
independent governments, and the United
States Government covering all, there
could be treason to a State and not to
the United States; that there could be
revolution in State without there being
revolution in regard to the United States;
that there might be loyalty to State
and disloyalty to the Union, and loyalty
to the Union and disloyalty to the organ
lied government of the States In Lou
isiana found that the State government
had entirely changed its form, and had
completely revolutionized itself 1t had
erected courts, imposed taxes, and made
every kind of governmental organiza-
ton; and / found that that State was
revolutionized, so far as its
State government was concerned; and
that it was no longer, and of itself, one
of the United States Of America. 1t had
by solemn act seeded from the United
States of America, and had attempted to
join the Confederate States of America,
taking that portion of the United States
of America in which its government was
established. Now, on what basis shall
deal with the people, organized into
under the forms of law. and
in hostility to the United States? / re-
spectfully submit that l must deal with
it as with alien enemies [Applause.
l submit that those people had passed
the boundaries of wayward sisters" or
Of "erring brethren laughter; they
had passed beyond and outside of the
and had seized upon our
erritory-territory which the Govern
ment Of the United States had bought
and paid for, and therefore l dealt with
them as alien enemies Applause.
And what are the rights of alien enc.
mics? In time of war they have the
right, so 'ong as they behave themselves,
and are iot in insubordination, to be