Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1875-09-22
senator Morton and General Sher.
man Mt the SOldIers' 4e.uuiOn i'm
Rockville. Ind

There has just transpired in Parke
county, Ind, one Of the most success
full reunions of soldiers in the histo-
tory of the country. The crowd pres
ent was estimated at from 10000 to
10000. We find in the Washington
Chronicle All account al the eproeeesl@
ings, containing a brief portion of
Senator Morton's remarks, and also
the brief speech of General Sherman.
The words of Senator Morton are so
pertinent to the subject treated, so over
whelmingly important TO the Ameri-
can people, and his positions SO crit
ically correct. that we cannot do
better than reproduce the extract
given from his speech:
We are on the threshold of the CEN
tennial OF our nations birth, and /
say to you that the only safe thing to
do now, is to educate our youth in
correct principles, for at the end of
the long lane OF false teachings. is war
and cruelty and bloodshed. What
! was il that made rebellion possible |?
Slavery itself could not make war.
4 There was a doctrine in the South
that was mischievous, that Indiana or
any other State was n separate nation !;
that we had thirty-seven nations.
General Lee was indoctrinated with
that belief, and hence, when the State
of Virginia left the Union, he said he
II must go with Virginia. And now.
after this terrible war, we hope that
\ this doctrine is destroyed. This doc
trine, it is said, was invented for the
support of slavery, and now that
I, slavery has gone down forever, the
history is different. Ii originated in
SsI798 in Connecticut and Virginia, to
put down the alien and sedition, and
counterfeiting laws, but its first ap-
plication was when certain States
were called upon to furnish their part
of militia; they declared that they
were sovereign States, and amenable
{ to their own laws. So in Pennsylva-
mia, and later in New York, i'm the
matter of the collections of the ton
mage lien laws, and later, the nulifi-
cation of South Carolina. / adduce
these to prove that this doctrine was
not adopted first to foster slavery.
s# In regard to my action as Governor
xsof the State, in calling the brave boys
stto the front i'm the army, felt before
God that ] was doing right. and
never saw regiment march to the
Union depot, that | was not sadden-
Il ed at the reflection that many ofthem
4 might never return. But l felt that
they We're engaging i'm one of the
holiest Of causes, that we We're right
and the enemy We're wrong, and
want you, my fellow citizens, to teach
your children to believe it to the
farthest generation. We cannot be-
lieve that they were right. We were
fighting for country, for human lib
erty, for the rebuilding OF the best
institutions that the world ever saw.
4 1t is true that we may forgive them,
but they were fighting for the re-
building of slavery and the destruc-
ton of the best government on earth.
but it is not right to say they We're
honest and right, because they be-
loved they were right. That is not
right philosophy.
Let the people Of the South UNDER
stand that we We're honest and that
n1hs cause of human slavery was not
The will of God, l want the whole
nation to believe that the great doc
trine ennnciated nearly one hundred
years ago, "that all men were created
equal is the true, the noble, the on
ly safe doctrine. There is power In
the conviction that we belong to the
most noble, the most powerful nation
in the world. We cannot 90 to the
South, they must come to us. r see
that Jefferson Davis has been invited
to come to the Northern States To
speak to them. think this Is dis.
eased state of public feeling. He was
more than President of the Confeder-
acy. He sat in his chamber in view
of the Libby prison, and other Of the
terrible places where our soldiers
We're inhumanly incarcerated, vet |
sent, as Governor, hundreds of thous-
ands of dollars worth of provisions
and clothing to our soldiers, suffer.
ing IN prison, and in only one in.
stance did they reach the brave. suf.
fering boys. II was taken by those
who We're outside in that region. II
is the worst charge, the most terrible
accusation against him, that he let ou,
boys suffer and die loathsome deaths
when they might have been helped
and relieved He did not do his duty
as a man and an officer,