The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1875-06-09

expenses, as shown by tho record,
$50, ,259, $40, and this does not embrace
contributions made by private indi-
viduals of money and property for
sanitary purposes, of which we can
give no accurate estimate, but the
computation has been made by the
Adjuntant-General. who had the best
sources of information, that not less
than $50, 600, 900 would thus cover the
voluntary contributions OF the people
of Indiana
[ claim for her nothing above other
States, but claim for her as much.
I do not claim that her troops were
braver OF better than the troops OF
other States, but do claim with just
pride that they were as brave and
fought as we'll, and were everywhere
as much distinguished as the troops
of other States. That is all that these
brave men would ask, and that they
claim. When I first began the ap-
pointment of officers during the war,
not understanding the business, it
was all new to me as it was to most Of
you [ tried to please everybody and
would not do. found that out al
most Immediately. and then ] determ-
ined that would follow the dictates
of my own judgment, without fear or
favor; that I would do the best /
could. I did not know whether I
would come out of the war with q
that point where [ felt that it would
make no difference. I sometimes
made mistakes, sometimes appointed
the wrong man, but do congratulate
myself that the officers from Indiana,
with the officers of any other State,
and that SO few Of them disgraced the
flag, disgraced the State, or dishonor-
ed their commission. OF
THE PRIVATE SOLDIERS
from Indiana l need speak no ecomi-
um. Their record is written on every
annal of the war; their praise was on
every tongue, and whatever might
have been said of Indiana before that
time about the misfortune of the Sec
ond Regiment in Mexico, for which
that regiment was in no wise to blame,
since the last war nothing Las been
said, and no State in the Union stands
higher than does the State of Indiana.
Every regiment to me has a separate
and a solemn history from the time it
was first projected and the first re-
cruiting officer appointed until it was
organized and took its departure for
the field; its losses in battle, its vic
tories, its disasters, it's final return
with thinned ranks, with a compare
lively few stern and solemn men, who
had left many of their comrades in
far distant and unmarked graves. /
say each regiment has distinct and
specific history with me, and as many
of you will remember. it was my GUS
tom when a regiment left a camp at
Indianapolis to take its departure for
the field [ always marched at the
head of it, and while the boys went
cheering down the streets, as if they
were going to festival. / was op.
pressed with the sad thought how
many of these gallant men will never,
never return, and could not help
feeling my own responsibility in thus
sending them into the jaws of death.
[ could only resolve to do all in my
power to provide for their comfort in
the field and to bring them safely
back.
Time does not permit me to dwell
longer on this subject, although it is
full of such deep and touching recol-
lectious
The war is Overland gone, and here
we are, ten years afterwards, peace
ably assembled in a country united,
growing stronger day by day, month
by month, full of prosperity, and with
unbounded prospects tor the future
If we are to value what we have
gained by what it cost us in blood and
treasure, then we can never compute
the value and that which is gained;
and yet when we ,lo compute the value
of that which was gained we reflect
how cheaply; after all, it was pur-
chased. Although the flower Of the
youth of Indiana went to the field.
and although the most courageous
aud generous blood of the State was
shed. yet we feel that the cost of lib
erty and the country preserved and
united was worth all that and all that
was lost from other States.
WHAT CAUSED THE REBELLION.
Now. my friends, csme to ask you
another question. These consider
ations are all above the selfish consid-
erations OF the hour. They are ques-
tions that lift themselves far above
all parties and sects and periods, that
dominate all parties and all times.
Let me call your attention to one
question which Is important for you
and for your children to think about;
and that is the great question, what
was it that made the rebellion posi-
BILE? What made it possible in Eve
months to organize new corfederacy
embracing eleven States and ten mill
ions of peOple, that required us four
years to conquer, with all the sacri-
fees that have named? What was
it that made it possible to organize
this hostile confederacy? 1t was not
slavery alone; that was the great stim-
ulus, it was the great motive; it fur
nished the passion, but that of itself
was wholly inadequate. Slavery left
to itself would have created a dis
turbed condition of things in a num-
Der Of States. /. might even have
caused insurrection here aud there;
but it could not have organized that
cohfederacy, that hostile power.
What was the grand instrumentality
by which it was accomplished 1t
was the absence of the sentiment of
nationality in eleven States of this
Union; the absence of the idea that
we are one people, that we are one
nation. 1t was the prevalence of that
doctrine that each State was a nation;
that instead of being one nation we
were thirty-seven nations, and that
our government was compact be-
tween sovereign and independent
States; that thoee States were distinct
and separate from each other in their
nationality, as France from England,
as Germany from Spain. 1t was the
idea that our constitution was a mere
compact between sovereign and indie