The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1872-02-29
SENATOR THURMAN.

u Il y
aaiJErEai ---g.l 3asstsifEq rs
= HIS REPLY TO MORTON
Il On the Issues of the Campaign.
Inequalities of Representation IN
the United States Senate.
i In the Emitted States Senate on the
I23d ult., Senator Morton, of Indians,
/ in debate on the amnesty bill, made
4 another of those wonderful ':key-note''
I'speeches for which he is famous, op-
4 posing amnesty, that if tho Democrat
lie party, succeeded to power it would
re-enslave the Blacks. repudia,e the
/ national debt and pay the rebel debt
i pension the rebel soldiers. 1t is not
from ignorance Morton talks this way.
1t is downright-knavish lying. Sena-
4 tor Thurman took partiin the debate
in reply to Morton. After discussing
I the inconsistency of the Senator's OPP
position Judge Thurman took up
the falsehoods of the Indiana Senator
as to the purposes of tho Democratic
party, should it acquire power. We
quote some portion of Judge Thur
mans speech: g u l'2HoAi ~
It has become the custom, am in-
clined to think, for the Senator from
Indiana, at the beginning of each po-
litical campaign. to make a speech
which the lesser lights of the Repub-
lican party and the Republican press
generally announce as the key note OF
/ each campaign-that function has been
devolved upon him or assumed by
him until it has passed into part OF
the common law of the Radical party.
And now at the beginning of this
great campaign OF 1872, the Senator
has sounded his note again, and l on
~ regret that in all the years he has
been studying this music he has found
no new tune, or even single new
no te. 1t is the same old tune again
it is the same old horrors of the rebel
lion: it is the same old wickedness OF
the instigators of the rebellion, it is
the same old suffering that that rebel
! lion en- allied on the country and il
is the 5 me frightfuli array OF ghosts,
| found nowhere except in the Senator'S
|
country of the Democratic party get
| ting into power. dnTaA sNA
Mr.. Blair Will the Senator permit
me to interrupt him? This is not the
note the Senator from Indiana sound
ed in 1865, when he made speech in
favor of Johnson's policy. Laugh
ter. ssg o 9ha1 w s1ei
Mr.. Thurman--Well, leave that to
be settled between. the Senator from
Indiana, and the Senator from Mis-
souri,. 'Paulo majora candamus" !
speak of the present note. 1t rs the
same old cry of payment of the rebel !
debt; payment of pensions to rebel
soldiers reinstitution of slavery; re-
fusal to pay our own debt; refusal to
pension our own soldiers; and so on
to the end of the tune. These are the
charges that the Senator believes, or
he would not make them, for no one
is authorized to charge Senator, es-
pecially when speaking from his place
in this chamber, with asserting what
he does not believe. They are char
ges which the Senator undoubtedly
believes; apprehensions which his
lively Imagination conjures up in his
fertile brain, which say no other hu-
man being in the whole length and
breadth of the Republic, in his senses
and intelligent enough to form an
opinion: does believe for one single
instant.
Why, how is IL? Payment of the |
rebel debt ? How is it to. be paid in
the face of your fourteenth amend
ment, which prohibits State from
making any payment oft Payment |
of pensions to rebel soldiers! Posi-
lively prohibited by your fourteenth
amendment. Reputation of your
own debt! 1t is positively prohibit
ed by your Constitution and by the
Constitution of every State in the Un-
ion. And yet Senator, a .distin-
guished Senator, Senator who is
looked upon, perhaps, as the leader of
his party, and the particular mouth
piece, of the administration, has the
boldness to get up i'll the American
Senate, before it and the American
people, and sounding the keynote OF
the campaign to hold up these prepos-
ferrous pictures to frighten the credu-
lous out of their propriety! Sir it
may do very well on the stump in
some swamp lin Indiana; it may do
well before an ignorant audience who
do not know or have the ability to
&
what is not, and who are accustomed
to take the assertions of the Senator
from Indiana as part of the law OF
this land, as sacred and true as Holy
Writ; but with men accustomed to
reflect and dealing fairly with the SUBJ
ject, it is not too much to say-and l
speak without disrespect to the Sena-
tor-that all the apprehensions he has
expressed are simply ridiculous.
so much for that, Mr.. President.
But must confess that am again at
q loss to comprehend the course OF
the Senator. My Radical friends, 1
begin to think, will have to go in tor
a new election of what in the German
infantry is called fugleman, Some
one to take the lead, and show how
the thing is to be done. The Senator
from Indiana speaks here this morn !!
ing the Keynote OF the Campaign, but
10! and behold, that keynote is in Ell
feet denunciation of the President
and the Presidents message which
substantially recommends this very
bill.
Here is the President saying that I
the time for Amnesty has come. "Let
us have peace" "I4et us have peace" !
but we find no peace. There were !
some of us who Thought he had not
lived mp to that declaration. He was q
in March, 1869, and 1869
passed away, and if we credit Radical !
we had no peace. And {
certainly we saw very little on the
part af the President that tended to '
promote an era of peace and good !
will. The year 1870 passed away with 9
out any act or recommendation of the !
President to encourage the hope that !
we were at last to have peace, Then
came 1871; and finally at the close of 7
that year in his annual message to 5
Congress, for the first time we have I
practical in the. way of
'Let us have peace" 1t was contain
I'd in the Presidents recommendation a