Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1875-02-05
Senator Conkling's Great Speeck

cred on the floor of the Senate last
Friday. 1t was the speech Of the de
bate, and is crushing in it's demolish-
ment Of the arguments and pleas OF
Thurman, Gordon, and the other
Democratic Senators who have spo-
ken on the subject:
Mr.. Conkling said that in the pres
ence of all the turbulence, disorder,
and din which ruled the hour in the
Louisiana Legislature on January 4,
the Senators said that everything was
peaceable; said that the Governor
and all others should have remained
silent spectators. The Republican
party, the President of the United
States, and much of the residue OF
mankind had been threatened with
destruction, because those whom
Governor Kellogg summoned, and
who responded, were soldicrs-sol-
diers of the United States; hirclings
they were called by the honorable
Senator from Maryland Hamilton).
He said they were hirelings, and
withered them by saying they receiy-
ed only eight dollars a month. Hire
lings! But for such hirelings there
might not now be Senate Chamber
to revcrberate with the eloquence OF
the honorable Senator from Mary
land. But for these hirelings we
might not be now permitted to
breathe the free air of a Republic
But for these hirelings it is certain
we would not be permitted to breathe
the air Of free republic. This rem
nant of our army must remain some
where, but if found south of Mason's
and Dixon's line somebody's nobility
was offended. The soldiers OF the
nation found in that section were
buried under the anathemas of the
Democratic party, branded with cpl
thets of carpct-bagger, scalawag,
white niger, and the like. Their
lot was Il hard one. One political
party never called soldiers hirelings
until they were summoned to trample
down rebellion which lifted its
bloody hands to stab the republic to
the heart. 1t was not always so; the
Democratic party was once the sol
diers' party and the war party. 1t
applauded the soldier in former war,
and sighed for new wars, for Cuba,
and for conquest; but this was i'll
what was once free America. He
borrowed the words from the honor
able Senator from Ohio (Thurman).
This was once when slavery needed
room to expand. In 1914, when An
drew Jackson set Il military guard
over both houses of the Louisiana
Legislature and imprisoned judge,
the Democratic party gloritied him
and made him President of the Uni
ted States. When the Democratic
Executive and Democratic Secretary
Of War dispersed and Inundated both
houses of Il State Legislature, Con-
gress and the country rang with
Democratic plaudits. That was one
page in one of the most revolving
chapters in the history of human tyr
amy and wrong. Those who occu-
pied seats around him remembered
the occurrence. When violence, in
trusion, and outrage, carrying the
banner Of human slavery, stalked
with high head on Kansas, trampling
law and right under foot, did The
Democratic party apologize for it,
Did the predecessors of these Sena-
tors apologize for it? No; they only
sought to laugh it out Of court; they
only sought to smoke it under with
ridicule. "Blecding Kansas" He
remembered how that cant flew at the
masthead Of the Democratic papers.
There was no apology. Oh, no! Dor
der rutfianism in Kansas was denied
in this chamber Just as Southern out
RACES are now. The Honorable Sen
ator from Ohio (Thurman), astute as
he is, would not make an apology for
these outrages.
Mr.. Conkling here read from the
report of the committee which inves-
tigated the Kansas troubles, and said
when General Sumner, commanding
the men whose bayonets flashed i'll
the sun, entered the Legislative hall
Of that State, he declared the duty
was the most painful of his life, and
by force he compelled the retirement
of the Legislature. Again, at the
municipal election at Washington in
1856, under Democratic administra-
ton, the United States marines fired
upon the crowd, killing tive men and
wounding seventeen; yet there was
not even an investigation by the
Democrats in Congress. Again, in
1869, General George b. Mcclellan,
through General Banks, arrested us
many members of the Maryland leg
islature as he could, Maryland not
being in secession at the time; yet the
Democratic party at the fist oppor-
tunity atterward strove to make Nc
Clellan President on peace platform
"A platform devised by a convention
which bought out the whole constitu-
tional army which pelted Lincoln
with all their arrows, and heaped up
on him all the denunciation Of their
brilliant vocabulary. The Democrat
ic party always was the keeper Of the
Constitution, and during the war it
was in charge of the Democracy
North and South. The Northern
wing and Southern wing We'd with
each other in their zeal to guard and
protect that sacred instrument.
He next referred to the arrest of
Burns, in 1851, in Boston, and said
he was arrested for the crime of be-
ing a black man. The army and
navy under 4 Democratic President,
gathered about the spot, and Federal
bayonets were thick. John Brown
was tried in court in n sovereign
State, and the giblet upon which he
died quaked with the tramp Of Fed
eral regiments and the rumble of
Federal artillery. Yes, soldiers arc
hirelings. Senators are hirelings.-
a great many Of the American people
are hirelings; but no man forfeits his
citizenship or his rights in this coun-
try by Being Il hircling. Soldiers are
citizens; their uniform does not de
prive them of this attribute, nor does