The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-05-25

saw, one which has no parallel in his
| tory. and we are now upon the com
mencement of new era In the history
4 of our government; and the great
question of to-day, and the greatest
question ever submitted to any people
upon earth-far greater than were
| those questions which excited the
minds of our fathers at the formation
! of our institutions now to be decl-.
ded by US. tits: Upon what terms,
upon what conditions are these people
| who have been so recently in rebellion
to be restored to their practical rela-
tons to the government? Is 1t not
wonderful that people should differ
about such question as that, because
In the history of the world 1t has no
parallel. It. is new to us; there Is
nothing in our past history when
throws any light upon it-nothlng
which enables us to adjust 1t IN the
light of experience. 1t is an entirely
new question to be met and Judged
of by the wisdom and patriotlsni OF
| the people Now, one OF the great
difficulties in my mind-and l propose
to be very practical In what / am to
say, and toaddress myself to this ques-
ton In such way as to furnish mate
rial for present and future reflection
one of the great difficulties to my mind
in the adjustment of this question is,
that we do not go quite far enough
back in our history to understand pre-
leisely the relation which these men
have in the past borne, and now bear,
to the nation and the Constitution.
General Kimball has told you, in a
manner so clear and distinct, plain
and emphatic, that nobody need have
any difficulty in understanding it, that
this great Southern party, or these
/ Southern secessionists who sought to
break up and destroy the Union, are
members of the Democratic party. Ii
/ is unauestionably true-they We're, to
all intents and purposes, Democrats.
4 They were enabled to furnish large
majority of votes in Congress by which
Democratic measures were passed.
/ They furnished large majority, OF
votes at the public elections by which
| Democratic Presidents were elected
and they were, emphatically. members
of the Democratic party. Has it ever
occurred to you to inquire what the
| principle of agreement or alliance be-
/ tween the Democrats North and South
1 was. previous to the beginning OF this
war? - for there lies the whole secret
| of this contest. o1s
/ Don't you all remember that, pre-
vious to the compromise of 1850, the
great question of controversy In this
country was the Wilmot Proviso? and
don't you remember that, at the ses-
sion of the Indiana Legislature of
! 1913, the Democrats had majority !;
and don't you remember that they
elected Democratic Senator? They
Intercepted every one of the leading
candidates for that office, including
Robert Dale Owen, Jesse ID. Bright,
i j. B. Hendricks, and others, upon the
question of the Wilmot Proyiso, and
j every single man, save one or two,
were in favor of 1t.
EHan J oe lM9 D efa N asfffgt686 t vas vas
removed from slave into free soil, he
would be in favor of hitching chain
to it and dragging it to free soil. In
/ asmnch as there was a strong antago-
nism In the minds of the people of.
the North against slavery, that the
Democratic party of this country
could not succeed in electing a Presi--
dent without the aid of those men at
the South, so in the election of
/ President, when they came together
/ in Baltimore In 1862. The Democracy
i from the North, the Democracy from
the South, were there, and the great
question for them to decide was How
I shallwe remain together2 Have you
forgotten that history--how the Demo-
Gratis of the South said to the Demo-
Gratis of the North; We will not vote
with you, unless you will consent to
make the Virginia and Kentucky
resolutions of IS and 80 part of our
platform? Because they intended
ultimately to succeed in breaking up
this Union, and they wanted the
Democratic party as means of ac-
.complishing it. There stood the love
of party and self-interest ON one side,
and the love of country on the other,
and these Northern Democrats had to
decide between the two, and they
chose the former.
These Democrats introduced these
Virginia and Kentucky resolutions
into the platform of. 1852. / do not
wish to be understood that the great
sDOug Vi NOftHerH DeHlOcTdtS dSSenL6u
to this. There were hundreds and
thousands of Democrats in the North
who, if they could have believed that
they We're to be used by their party
leaders for such purpose, would
have willingly thrown them off ; but
theywere misled and deceived, because
this whole scheme, though perfectly
+ well understood by the politicians.
! was concealed from the people, and
5 they were 5duped by this cunning of
these political trafickers,r who thus
laid the foundation of the secession of
the Southern States. / will show you
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