The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1866-08-30
TO THE SOLDlDRS AND SAILORS
OF INDIANA. 5

importance than that in which for near
ly five years you were prominent actors.
1t is contest involving the same issues
which one year ago You thought were
finally closed. You are called upon to
make one more battle for the cause Of
box the questions which are raised here
on behalf of those you often defeated on
Southern fields. You know that while
you were fighting the battles of your
country az ainst open enemies a secret and
more dangerous foe was in your rear
You remember how discouragiug to your
hopes and your cause was any success
of that foe at home, and how yonr suf
ferings were prolonged, and the blood
and lives Of brave men wasted by every
victory it Glanced to win at the polls.
No disaster at the hands of open and
brave enemies in front, ever did so much
to demoralize the Union Army, as an
election carried by the Democratic party
in the rear. You are now appealed to
by that same party for support. Only two
years ago that party resolved and voted
the war failure and the rebellion a sue
cess; it denied your patriotism, it called
you merceniaries and hirelings of a des
pot; it could find nothing too bitter. no
outrage too distardly, no crime too wick
ed to charge upon you; it could see moth
ing mournful in your defeats, nothing
cheering il your victories; it refused
you another man or another dollar; it
conspired to set free, and arm in the
midst of your families, the thousands of
rebel soldiers captured by your, valor,
and in your absence, to carry the hor-
rers Of war to the homes you had left in
peace; it denied you, while absent fight
ing your country's battles, any voice in
the elections. And now, in the face of
all this, this same Democratic party. be-
fore its ISLANDERS are cold, appeals to you
to save it by your votes from an in2lor
ious and deserved defeat. 1t asks you,
Soldiers and Sailors of Indiana, to throw
yourselves into its arms. 1t promises
you rich reward if you will forget its
abuse, its falsity. and its treason,-the
rich reward Of committing your interests
to men who have once proved false to
their own oaths. who have fought you on
bloody fields aud starved you III prison
pens, and whom it propose to ADMIT at
once, without guarantees, into the coun-
ellis of the nation. Ifyou will now de-
sert the cause for which you have suffer
ed. if you will repent your glorious deeds
if you will falsify your record, and stul
ify and dishonor yourselves, that party
will receive you with open arms and
admit YOU to share in its own infamy.
On the other side, is the great and
glorious Union party which stood by you
and sustained you in the darkest hours
of the war, which maintained against Sc
cret and conspiring enemies at home,
the same cause you so nobly maintain
ed abroad. On the success of this party
depends your honorable name and the
integrity of your country. If it is de-
feated now. all is lost which you fought
to gain. What is at issue now, is no
question Of taxation, or tariff, or negro
suffrage, as the Democratic party would
falsely persuade you. The question is
the permanence of your victories Your
old enemies, with their Northern sym.
pathizers, would now win by fraud what
your valor KEEP. them from winning by
force The energies of treason are be-
ing transferred to the political contest
here. To retain your glory, you must
act with the same vigilance, concert and
vigor with which you won it. The de-
cision of this contest against the Union
men who have so long sustained TIE Gov
ernment, will make it better that war had
never been waged against rebellion. If
your names are then retained upon the
Pension Rolls, it will be alongside those
of your Southern brethren who foupbt
you with such desperation. Rebels will
be honored as patriots, while you will be
disgraced as hirelings. Already, before
the grass is green over the graves of
your dead comrades, the men who de-
nounced and conspired against you, have
fraternized with avowed rebels yet un-
purged Of treason. Secretly working
for traitors during the war, Northern
Democrats now openly affiliate with
Southern rebels At Philadelphia At last
they have drawn aside the curtain and
show themselves conspiring together for
division in the North, ~ they have done
for five years past. With q united South
and divided North, they threaten to
sweep away every vestige Of your vic
tories, and destroy every trophy Of your
valor, and even ask your aid to achieve
il. - Cc
We appeal to you with whom We have
fought, to stand arm to the principles
for which You risked your lives and she'd
sac ssiJ s htsa0 1e2S -
sFs0c aaE2s Ns