Indiana American. [volume] (Brookville, Ind.) 1865-1872, 1867-03-22


ton is as boundless rs our continent and
deserved as 1t is soul.inspiring, l should
be destitute Of proper self-appreciation ii
did not feel embarrassment In attempt.
ing to entertain you, even but for q few
moments. The occasion, therefore, war.
rants, and will, ! trust, admit on my part,
without subjecting me to the charge Of
'egotism, some personal illusions and ex-
plantations. was born in the adjoining
State Of Maryland, but, thank God, under
the auspices Of Friends, who taught me to
hate slavery and iovc liberty. Tho broad
prairies and fertile valleys of the West,
among whose people for thirty odd years
/ have lived, have not abated zone jot or
title" Of those early impressions. One
of the most pleasing "reminiscences of my
life is a successful effort, when but youth,
in the very centre Of slavery's hot. bed, and
within sixty miles of yonder city, the cap
ital Of this great nation, piloted the foot
steps Of poor slave girl, fleeing from an
inluman master to one Of those "eagle's $
nests of freedom" so eloquently described
by your distinguished guest, DR.. Sunder-
land. No interest has ever induced me
to sverve from the early teachings of those
plain, sincere, honest, philanthropic an
cestors. have, on all occasions and un-
der all circumstances, been the humble
adrocate of freedom and denuncidfor of
slavery. The only vote Of my life, in
volying the interests OF freedmen, to which
exception may be taken, was that cast
against the District franchise bill Of the
first session of the Thirty-Ninth Congress.
No act Of my life was more unseIfsh or
consistent with what believed to bo my
solemn duty Of The hour. regarded the
measure as right per Sc, but premature,
and its adoption at that time as fatal to
the success OF the great Union party, on
which depended the destiny of the Re-
public, the cause Of the freedmen, aud
permanent elevation Of your race. What
was the Insignificant privilege Of voting
for n "mayor and common council" of The
city Of Washington compared with the
success Of the men and meas
ures that represent the three hundred
thousand martyrs whose bodies moulder
and bones bleach on Southern battlefelds,
and who willingly died that you and |
and their posterity might be free? When
that measure came up at the present ses-
sion, | was absent from the House; but
W hen il comes back from the other end Of
the avenue, with the edict IL forbid"
overriding the expressed voice of the peo-
pies representatives, God being my help
er. my feeble voice aud vote shall bear
testimony to the right aud acknowledg.
ment Of your great services In the hour
Df the nations extremity.
II was my good fortune TO muster into
The United States service the 6rst conpa-
nv of colored recruits organized in the
State of Indiana, and am glad to bear
testimony to their gallantry, heroism, and
Devotion TO the cause Of freedom and the
Union. Under their 9trepid leader, the
gallant Colonel Charlie Russell, the 2sth
regiment United States colorcd troops did
noble and invaluable service in the Army
IF the james. IL was at this critical Pc
rod of the rebellion that you successfully
amidst the smoke and car
mage Of battle, that, as race, you "had
rights that white men were bound TO res
pect." Without the aid of the tic0 haRd-
red thousand strong arms aud stalwart
forms Of colored soldiers, who threw them.
selves into the breach at the most oppor-
tune moment, God alone knows whether
VIC could have assembled thus peaceably
here to-day, under the protecting folds OF
that old flag, the banner Of beauty and
glory" which now "in triumph waves o'er
the land Of the free aud the home OF the
brave" The distinguished gentleman
who preceded me has alluded in very CON-
plimentary terms to the Chief Justice OF
the United States aud his associates of the
Of the court. and their opinion
in the MiHigan treason conspiracy cases
from Indiana, my own State. Ii is not
nv purpose to pluck one flower from the
wreath that adorns the brow of Mr.. Chase,
or detract in the least from the just merits
Of that veneratcd court. But when | see
the majority of the court travelling dehors
the record before them to illuminate u ju-
dicial ball. calculated, il not designed, to
bolster up and give character to an abor
tive effort ofafaithless Executive to destroy
the great party that made him and saved
the nation, il would be criminal in me to
seal my lips aud smother the emotions that
loom up from the peyusal Of their opinion,
when discharging from just punishment
men convicted Of the highest crime
against God and humanity. Ii the die.
tan Of tho court and its logical sequences
prevail, am ready to vote an immediate
adjournment Of tho Thirty Ninth Con.
gress; and temporarily turn over the coun-
try and those newly made citizens to the
untried mercy Of Andrew johnson and
the Supreme Court Of the United States,
and 90 again TO the sovereign people on
the issue Joined, confident Of triumph
unequaled in the history Of the Republic.
The opinion to which | refer was deliver
ed by a distinguished member Of the court,
who was born across the Potomac on the
Eastern Shore Of Maryland, in densely
populated slave district, but has resided
for thirty years in the great West, and
long enough, we hoped, to throw off the
antiquated, fossilized, slavery -begotten,
and God forbidden notions of State SOW
ereignty. Ii has, however, become an ad-
age in the West, that man born in Ma.
ryland or Virginia Of the first families
is so imbued with the false theories grow.
ing out Of and connected with human
slavery, that he becomes judicially blind
to every principle Of modern progression,
and utterly unified for official position.
While am not prepared to judge him
by that rule, and concedo his eminent per
sonal worth. cannot but deplore the ten