The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1868-09-28
VOL. XXXVHI.l

to tip the music of the brogue for the
Democracy's grand dance over tho
graves Of the three hundred thousand
dead. f.s.., .-e.r ...r.
This is no mere flourish, of rhetoric,
but plain, sober truth. There is not
man in the United States, knowing any
thing of its last thirty years history, who
does not know that the men who led the
rebellion were the very same that led
the Democracy about with a ring in its
nose for many year before that. There
is lot one such who does not know, that
through the four bloody years of the
rebellion, almost the universal heart of
the Democracy yearned for the triumph
of its Southern ring-leaders over the
country. There is not one such who
does not remember that from the out
burst Of the war at Charleston, to its
close Ut Appomatox, the Democracy
ihowled, Unconstitutional! Unconsti.u-
tional over almost every measure taken
by q patriot President and Congress to
save the country, and denounced in mea-
1sureless terms every really effective ex.
ercise of power against the rebellion,
when the very life of the nation hung
upon its putting forth every power,
named or unnamed in the Constitution,
to the furthest limi: of its largest capac-
ity. There is not man in the land who
does not still hear ringing down the
line Of years the ebel-Democratic cry,
in 1864, at Chicago-Horatio Seymour's
cry, too, remember--s.Four years of fail
ure to restore the Union by the expert
ment Of war !" and their aud his coward
ly and traitorous demand there "that i'm !.
mediate efforts be made for cessation
Of hostilities;" though all depended at
that moment upon pressing the rebellion
to extremity, swiftly and finally. And
the whole land still resounds with the
rebel yell, sent up in Tammany Hall
from thousands of Democratic and rebel
throats, and repeated from day to day
in the South, as it was for years heard
by our Boys in Blue from the opposing
in arms for their country's destruction.
The Democratic lines diverged in 1861
for the fight; but they came together
again in 1865, when the fight was ended.
Before they diverged it was all Demo
cracy now that they. have again con-
verged it is rebel Democracy the rebel
ahead, Democracy behind, still meekly
obeying the rebel ring in its noss, and
ready to follow it anywhere, only 50 it
lead to-5fodder. Applause.
CONGRESS DEFENDED.
After recapitulating the progress Of
reconstruction, Mr.. Drake continued:
Of.the eleven rebel States, all but
three have been reconstructed and re-
admitted to representation in Congress.
In all of there constructed Statesthe ballot
was secured to the negro; in Tennessee,
by the action of its own people; in the
others through the interposition Of Con-
gress In all Of them he is enfranchis-
ed, as well as free. The race that had
been nearly three hundred years, not
only disfranchised but brutally enslaved,
is now, for the first time, permitted to
breathe the air of freedom and taste its
precious fruits. Thus far Republican
principles and the rights of man have
triumphed. How joyous and wonderful
a change it was for the negro 70 white
can ever know, for none such was ever
slave. Could every white man in the
country but half comprehend it, there
would not be an enemy of negro free
dom and enfranchisement among them.
Let US try to get some proper concep,
ton Of it. To be one day a mere chat
tel slave, and the next an Independent
freeman; to be one day voiceless as
dumb dog in tho Government which
held him in its iron grip, and the next
one of its sovereigns, with a voice po-
tential to be one day incompetent to
testify in any court in any case in which
q white man was concerned, and the
next q competent witness in any court
for or against any man; to be one day
disqualified as juror, even in case
where both parties were Of his own race,
and the next to sit as such in way case,
whether whites or blacks were concern
ed; to one day be incapable Of holding
property, even so much as a poor straw
bed to rest his weary limbs upon, and
the next capable of owning a princely
plantation If able to acquire it; to be
one day disabled to contract marriage
valid in law, and liable to have her call
ed his wife rudely snatched from his
arms and sold away from him in slavery
and perhaps, for uses worse than slavery,
lawful welded wife, his in law, his in
morals. bis in Gods sight and in mems,