The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-05-31

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feel it my duty to repeat on this.
X gu will recOllect also what | told
you you might expect of the ultimate
policy of those who overthrow our
Government, sacrificed upon the altar
of their vicious prejudices, the vital
interests and dearest rights of the
people.
WICKEDNESS OF PURITANISM.
Take one grand survey around you,
and behold the ruin | then predicted.
[ ask, to-day, have not our forebod-
ings been fully realized yea, more
than realized? 1t was not possible
| then for the human mind to conceive
of the wickedness of the human heart,
Especially of the wicked heart of Pu-
ritanism. then told you that the res
| toration Of the Union to its primitive
glory was not their object; for in adj
dition to the madness and folly of
Abolition, was the lust of power of
the old Federahsts, with a like ire
sistible lust for plumber on the part of
the Yankee people. 90
These unholy elements, fercely
tempered with malice, fired their
hearts till their ambition knew no
bounds. determination and spoils-
ever the watchword of Puritanism,
whether with their original adversary,
or with the Indians on the Atlantic
border, whose corn, without price, had
saved them from famine, aud whose
kindness they returned at the dead of
night by numbering their unarmed
men and defenseless women and sleep
ing babes-clad in the armor of fury
they became terrible. They could
murder our people, but restore
peace they could not. [ told you
that the Union would not be re-
stored in five years. 1t yet lacks few
weeks of five years, and the Union is
not restored; and so far as the action
or wish of the dominant party is con-
cerned, it is no nearer restoration than
it was then. On the contrary, the
breach seems to widen. New condi-
tons are interposed, showing conclu-
sively that they neither intend or de-
sire to restore the Union, but organize
an oligarchy more cruel than that of
the East India Company, that taxed
the people with want and suffering,
that made your leaden souls shed
drops of boiling blood. 80
[ warned you then that one object
they had in view was to expunge from
the map of the political world all lines
circumscribing the sovereignty, or
separate existence, of the States of the
Union. Was / right? At that day
the vast majority of the people of this
country wanted no change in our Gov
eminent. They had lived in peace
and happiness under that Union, and
were satisfied to maintain it, pure and
unaltered as it came from our fathers.
Had | said less or done less, / would
not have been myself; and instead of
this day being the recipient of so
magnificent an ovation, / would have
deserved to be spit upon with detesta-
ton. s. asIa5ao ss.es. ase.
REvoLJTToN-A SLAP AT THE PREsI-
e 1-oi DENT. 4a.f l4i5yF ff
[ maintain the same views now, and
hold that the foundation of all good
government is laid In the habits and,
pecuharities of the people; and no
form of government not sustained by
or resting upon such a foundation can
have any stability or reliable security.
They are the teachings of the nursery,
the school and the pulpit. Self inter
est, passion and hate are not the ele-.
ments of peace and good order. These
are the passions that prevail in the
dominant party, and under their poll
sonous influence you can not hope for
the present Congress to reconstruct
the Federal Government In such a.
way as to meet the hopes and aspira-
tons of the toiling millions of the
Mississippi Valley. We need no revo7
luton. Even the so called revolution
of 1888 was no revolution in the. COM
mon acceptations of the term, but a
recurrence to first principles. Why
did they depose the king? Because
they were opposed to a monarchy ?
No: there never was a people more
devoted to their form of government.
They said the king had invaded the
province of the Legislature. And
here make yoir osen oppticdtiops: i
haze not named any king. Is not man
kind the same at this day? There
upon the King was deposed, and they
asserted the ancient rights and liber-
ties of the people, and declared that
| the, powers. assumed by the king had
no legal existence. IS
THE PROVINCE OF CONGRESS. -6g
These fathers were not prone to get
up new theories of government wholly
at variance with the wants of the peo-
! pie, as the Pulitans are now doing.
They were content with the assertion
| of their ancient rights. It is not the
business of any legislative body, not
even a Congress, to revolutionize a
government. Their office is to give
expression to the will of the people
already expressed, not to enunciate
principles of government. They sell
dom have the ability, and certainly
net the right, to do SO.