Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-03-20
| 0bllo(). .. State:ssrl,rIalrlr, 4 IN
rr. SPEECH OF IN ...
HON. DANIEL W. VOORHEES,,
At the Indiana Democratic state Con-
VentiOn, March IS, 1856. ...r r.
[FrOm the Indians.pOlls Herald.l

Mr., Voorhees, said that, under the circum-
stances attending his return to Indiana,
this warm and hearty welcome extended to
him was peculiarly gratifying. He was
not vain enough to attribute this spontan-
eous outburst of enthusiasm to his own
personal merit, but looked upon it as a
simple recognition of the integrity and
fidelity with which he had fought the fight
aud kept the faith. He thought this Con-
Vention and the Democracy of the State had
reason to feel grateful to Almighty God for
the marked change which had taken place
in the situation since the last Convention he
had attended in this city. Now no hostile
bayonets glistened in the sunlight, and the
muzzles of no frowning cannon were point
ed at the Convention. Then the skies were
overcast with dark clouds, but now the glO-
rious sunlight warmed and illumined the
prospect. We ought to thank God that He
had inspired our hearts with the courage,
the manliness, and the perseverance neces-
sary to 90 through those terrible scenes
without faltering or proving recreant to
our trust. He congratulated the Democ-
racy of Indiana on their fidelity to the
Union, the Constitution, and the princi-
pies of free Government. lie believed that
a terrible crisis in the life of the nation
was approaching. The enemy that the
Democracy must meet and overthrow Is no
new one. 1t is. the same foe to free Gov
ernment which rose up thirty years ago--a
party of disunion, of higher law, of dis
ruption and anarchy. The union of these
States, SO far as official power can recog-
nize it, is now embodied in Andrew John
son, the President of the United States.
| The Republican Convention which met in
this city on the 22d of February, had pass
| ed resolution which was positively in
a.. yl,s n, - ss,lo
the leaders in Congress who are doing all
in their power to thwart his efforts for the
restoration of peace and harmony. The
party which now controls the action of
Congress rose thirty years ago as disunion
party. To the party which derives its in
| spiration from the Summers and the
| Stevenses we are in good measure indebted
| for the terrible civil war which has devast-
ated and impoverished our country. The
| Southern secessionists, unaided by the dis
union party of the North, could never have
effected it, The real disunion party was to
j be found in the North. Witness the teach
| ings of the IndiaRaDoliS Journal and the
| Cihcinhdti Commercial in 1860. They told
the Southern States to go; whereas, every
| Democratic speaker reiterated the principle
that the Union must be preserved. The
disunionists of the North, though at first
anxious for adissolution of the Union, saw
visions of hate, revenge, plunder and spo-
| liation in the war, and suddenly became very
anxious to preserve the Union they had la
bored to destroy. But they were all along
the real disunionists. Even now they con-
tinue Clisunionists, and refuse to permit the
restoration of peace and harmony, when it
might so easily be effected. They will tell
you that they refuse to admit Southern
members to their seats in Congress, because
! there are no loyal people in the South, but
tits false. He had seen Colonel johnson,
of Arkansas "a loyal man, who had been
scourged from head to foot under the Fed
eral tlag-refused the ordinary courtesy of
admission to the floor of Congress. The
bureau men-the treasury agents-the cot
ton thieves, and the vultures who prey up
{. on the distracted condition of the country,
may fill the North with false and sland-
erOus- charges against the people of the
!, South, but everybO knows that that peo-
s pie are not only willing, but anxious to re-
sumo their allegiance in good faith.
He asked if this scene of desolation was
to be prolonged indefinitely, What does
the Christian pray for, but that the memory
OF this bitterness shall pass away? No one
but the party whose cardinal principle was
hate wished to perpetUate it. For himself,
he hated nobody. Hate was not in the
Gospel which he had been taught.
He believed in holdingup and strengthen
ing the hands of the President in this his
hour of triai. When he heard the Presi-
dent urging unanswerable reasons for the
restoration of peace and harmony, and at
the same time saw the vultures of radical
ism hungering and thirsting for more blood
more plumber, he could not hesitate for a
moment. He would stand by the man who
now has his grasp upon the throat Of the
fanatical and traitorous organization. The
President would smash them or they would
smash the President.
He had no personal feeling against Con-
gress. He regarded it as acompliment that
they had remitted him to the society OF de-
cent people, and allowed him to choose his
own company.
The programme of the Republicans is to
distranchise the whites OF the South, and
enfranchise the blacks. There was some-
thing more than mere love for the negro in
this. They proposed to cOntiscate the
property of Southern citizens, so that the
bloated manufacturing aristocrats of New
England, who had been sucking the life
blood of the West might go down there,
buy up the plantations, and, with their
thousands of black voters. cOmbineto form
an oligarchy such as the South never
dreamed Of. BY the enfranchised negro
and dictate the future policy OF the Govern
ment. This is no chimera-no bugbear
He had.heard 1t from their own lips.
Negro suffrage in the District of Colum-
bia meant nothing in itself. 1t was but a
beginning. The Republican leaders in
Congress contend for absolute equality be-
fore the law, and the Republican Conven-
J ton of Indiana had indorsed Sumner.
Stevens, aud the rest of them. r. He called
upon the Orths and the Julians, who had
voted for negro suffragein the District, to
come home and make the issue hereto
force negro suffrage upon the people OF
Indiana, as they had forced it upon the
I District of Columbia. 1t was not manly to
cram the loathsome pill down the throat:
of a helpless community thousand miles
away, which they were afraid to offer to
their own constituents. li99sr nssd 5.ilf So,
Mr.. Voorhees, then proceeded to discus:
the Freedmer's Bureau bill, SO righteously
vetoed by the President. 1t was a militia
ry bill, enacting thatallathe United States
North as well as South, should be divided
into twelve districts-the ominous number
into which Cromwell divided England
when he subverted her libertles--with q
. military officer to rule over each district
| bv means of petty subordinates, appointed
, by himself, Independent ofevery power OF
earth, except the War Department. They
could walk the streets like autocrats, ant
snap their fingers at civil law. If a whit
, man kicks negro, or has suit with ne
prbI the military power steps In and take
: the cease. Never lxasSal law so perfectly
franned for the subyersion Ot, liberty. i