The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1868-06-25

ply TO tho strongest arguments yet alduc-
ed IN favor Of a southern vote for the So
called amendment.
1t may not be Inappropriate pow for us
to consider who we are, and of what race
descended, to whom this question is put.
We, southern white people, though tenn
porariy enslaved in bondage, cannot, with
out being oblivious of all history, be blind
to the fact that We come of a stock rot
ignoble, nor mean, nor cowardly, nor slave
born. The Washingtons and Jeffersons
and Madisons, the Marshalls and Rutledg-
es and Pickneys, the Patrick Henrys,
whose speech was of molten lava, the An
drew Jacksons and Stonewall Jacksons,
whose swords were swords of fire, all
sprung indigenous from the loved land of
our birth and adoption, and were of that
lofty blood and lineage which we claim as
our own. Nor can we forget that Hamp-
den's and Hale's and Bacou's and Burke's
and Chatham's and VOLTS, great names,
are all compatriot with our own, and
Shakspeare's language is our mother
tongue. OF us, of this Caucasian race,
of this lofty lineage, and heroic language
Lineage and language of the free born,
the free spoken, and the dauntless-it is
demanded Of US to vote, that the venera-
bic sire shall be able in his last death ag-
ony to recolect that it was his
own petted boy whose vote stig-
matized his hitherto honored gray
hairs; so to vote that the young and ar
dent genius, eager in the pursuits of hon.
orable ambition, shall feel with poignant
modification that it was his own father,
whose vote stigmatized the child he had
landed on his knoe, as too infamous to
receive the appropriate reward of his
bright mind.
| In all history, We know of no demand
by victors made upon the vanquished, So
cruel. SO Infamous so stupid |! The
white people of Alabama have once re-
sponded in that expressive and loathsome
silence appropriate to such disgusting
theme. They may again be called upon
to respond in louder tones, and we explic-
itly and distinctly declare that, however
the question may be guided, VIC @;H, with
one voice, answer, No! no thousand
times no. We will not ourselves become
he executiOners of our own brethren.
We will not degrade our temples of JUS
tice. We we will rot ourselves debase
our whole social life. Nor will we with
our own hands trace obscene imagery, ID
place of what the august fathers wrote on
the stately edifce of the federal constitu.
ton. If the dirty work has to be done
let it be done by those who love, not by
those who loathe, such vile obscdrity.
The atrocity of the proposed act ough
to be our justification to the whole world
E for our not acceding to it; but further
reason may be found in the fact that those
who would Force this proposition through
by the aid of the bayonct, must be O.
that class whom no treaty and no pledge
can bind. Sordid selfinterest alone car
govern them, and our acceptance of thes,
degrading terms would be ouly the neces
safy preludes to ilnpositions not NOR,
morally degrading (for that were impossi
+. ble) but more physically oncrous Eve
attendant on the mongrel republics, as OF
4 the mongrel royalties, would be the hire
ling bayonct and the saucy rufian: I
. might be peace, but it would be sucl
peace as Russia gives to the Poles, for still
!. "silence reigns at Warsaw" 1t nigh
. be content tmeht, as the English Crow
d gives to the Emerald Isle, for still tn
i Irish convict mounts the scaffold: crying
4 GLOW sweet it is to die for ones country.
y No; outside of the United States con
. stitution dwell the outlaws and pirates
enemies of humanity and Of refnemen
and of justice Inside of the constitutio,
alone, if anywhere, is safety to be found
!. Honor, truth and virtue are there, withir
those sacred boundaries. We have grea
= reason to believe that large majority o
the American people are still attached t.
that sacred instrument, and are willing t
. wrest it from the robber bands who woul
, destroy it.
And here, while desirous of doing Jus,
t. ice to all men, and freeing ourselves of a
s. old party divisions, truth and candor CON
9 pei from us the grateful admission, that i
n the north and great northwest the bar
a ners Of civil and constitutional liberty an
IS of humanity. and Of civilization, aud {
, heartfelt reconstruction, are chiefly uphel
u by strong and patriotic hands who hay
L u