The Evansville journal., 1866-06-27
SPEECH OF HON. FREDERICK HAS
SLUREK


his throne, they did not entrust the
reins of government to the Tories who
had sustained him. When the Low
Countries had succeeded in throwing
off the yoke of Spain, they did not in
vite Spaniards to rule over them. IF
the down n-trodden Venetians should
ever be liberated of Austrian rule and
united to free Italy of their fondest
hopes, they will not send Austrians or
partisans of Austria to represent them
in the parliament at Florence. And,
sir, the people of the North having
just succeeded in desperate struggle
to maintain the integrity OF our coun-
try, will not place into power party
which has done its best to break up
the Federal Union. 1t will not en-
trust the task of reconstruction to the
tender mercies of those who have
aided and abetted secession, treason,
and rebellion.
The task which the Union party
was called upon to perform in 1864 is
not yet completed. The struggle is
not yet over. During the war the
contest lay between those who be-
lieved in the ability of the American
people to maintain its national exis-
tence, and those who denounced our
greatest national effort as a most de-
pl0rable failure, clamoringf for an i'm
mediate cessation of hostilities." Now
IiIc cUHteSL, lies DuUrrUvr.-s 4l-~zrzey-s y1r0-
accept, and those who do not accept,
fheE5Sults of the war; The Demo
cratic party, Mr. President, does not
accept them. 1t has not recognized
them in single instance. 1t ignores
them in the resolutions ofits Conven-
tions, and it sneers at them through
its public organs. It sneers at the
great idea for which the best blood of
thecountry has been she'd. Itsneers
at the truth which has been sealed
with the lives of thousands of inn
mortal heroes-that we are a nation,
and not merely a loose and soulless
confederation of independent sover-
eighties. We are a nation, sir, in
spite OF the Democratic party, the
mother, protectress, and advocate of
secession, anarchy and dissolution.
The Democratic party had conjured
up secession by trucking subserviency
to the South. A Democratic Presi-
dent who might have crushed the
monster In It's infancy, nurtured into
full development by taking the ground
that the Constitution conferred no
power ON the Federal Government to
coerce seeding State. When war
was at last upon us, the leading
men of that party refused to
vote money or soldiers for its
prosecution; they sympathized
with the enemy; they discouraged
enlistments; they plotted against the
Government; they rejoiced over our
defeats; they opposed the war as use
less and, criminal, and clamored for
diplomatic negotiations, with those in
arms against the legitimate govern
ment of our country And now, hav-
ing come out of the long struggle
tl0nal existence, we are told by those
who fought us either on the battle
field or at the polls, that our claim to
be a nation, means nothing but a de-
spotic consolidation of power in the
Federal Government. This charge.
Mr.. President, is worse than false: It
is ridiculous. Those who stood by
the Union and its gallant defenders,
do not dream of subverting the legiti-
mate rights of States, or of super
seding local or municipal self-governI
ment by Federal dictation; the Union
party merely wishes those lately in
rebellion and their aiders and abet-
tors to understand that not one inch
of American soil can be taken out of
the Union without the consent of the
whole people of the United States.
INTEGRITY OF THE NATIONAL TERRI
TORY.
We maintain and cherish the
American system of local govern
ments for local purposes, and a Ma
tional Government for national nur-
poses; but the territory over which
the United States extend belongs to
the American nation, which enjoys
the right of eminent domain, and not
to those accidental or artificial geo
graphical subdivisions and organiza-
tions carried on and kept up for pur-
poses of local and municipal admins
tration, under the name and title of
States. Why, may be allowed to
ask, does not the Democratic party re-
cognlze or propose to maintain the in
tegrity of the national territory? Why
has not the late Democratic State
Convention pronounced against the
anarchial heresy of secession? Why
has it not said one word to indorse
the idea of an A n,arioan nationality
and a common country for all. indis-
soluble in its parts and destined to be
perpetual? The reason is obvious
Because the Democratic party-I
mean both its branches, Southern
rebels and Northern sympathizers-
have not yet accepted the results of
the war The Democratic party is not
yet satisfied with the issue of the
bloody contest. 1t proposes to regain
on the field of politics what it has lost
L q u ] r - :