Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1876-12-14

| ton was adopted abolishing slavery: when
the Fourteenth amendment was adopted,
| securing equal rights. protection, and I'M
munites in all the States and prohibiting
| the payment for slaves and the rebel war
| debt; when the Fifteenth amendment was
| adopted, providing that no person should be
denied the right of suffrage on account Of
race, color, or previous condition OF servi-
| tude, and he spoke and voted against all.
| He not only voted against the Thirteenth
Amendment aboishng slavery. but IN an
| excited speech declared to an astonished
Senate that the people of the United States
had no power to abolish slavery by an
| amendment to the constitution.
at lie enough to know, says he. that this con-
stitution existed before the revolution in the
| Colonies: that it continued during the revolu-
| ton; that IT came with the Colonies into their
| state of Independence and separate sovereignty,
and when the Colonies came into the Federal
compact they did not submit that institution. or
| the Federal Government The Federal Govern
ment has had nothing to do with the Institution
protected and respected. and fugitive escaping
from one State to another shall be returned with
out respect to the law Of the State into which hs
escapes"
This was spoken of slavery in April, 1864,
| in the last year of the war, when slavery was
| in fact already dead, having beeeD killed by
the Emancipation Proclamation, but he
still carried the putrescent corpse about in
| his arms and entertained the vain hope of
| calling 1t back to life.
He opposed the enlistment Of negro SOL
| diers, and in a speech at Sbelbyville, Indi-
ana, in February, 1868, just after his election
to the Senate. said:
THE last and browning act of infamy on the
part Of this Congress is to be the enactment OF
msnts.. me BIZ has passed the House. and BE-
Mr.. Lincoln. Three Republican members voted
against IT. Their names should be preserved in
Il it that the 20 O0O COO white men TAT the North
cannot cope with the 100000 white men at the
soldier than the white man?'
Further on he said:
"Can it be possible that the safety, the honor,
| and the glory of my country is to rest upon the
! shoulders of negro regiments? In church poetry
Upon what slender cord
| Hang everlasting things
IF our country's fortune depends upon negro
vaior, then may we sing:
| pom what slender cord
Hang earthly things.
THE men will be marked who have done this.
The people whose sons and brothers are in the
field will not forgive the insult"
Looking at these remarks in the light of
the past we would question the sanity of the
| author did we not know that bis opposition
| TO negro soldiers was because he was opposed
to the use Of any means for putting down the
rebellion.
As a member of the House of Represents
yves In lcof, ne voteu lOr the Tepeal OF the
| Missouri Compromise, that slavery might 90
into Kansas and Nebraska. As member Of
the Indiana Constitutional Convention in
1850 he made but one speech, which ives
against permitting free negroes TO come into
the State.
GRAND OPPORTUNITIES.
With grand opportunities for useful
ness, and connecting his name with the
greatest reforms of the century, he was
blind to the time and place and remained
bigoted adherent to slavery. His political
record, extending over a period of nearly
thirty years. is u dull, monotonous page Of
weary commonplace diversified only with
blots, and recording no act to which his
friends can point with pride or pleasure.
His unbroken record Of blunders unre-
deemed by any good measure, presents the
question whether he is promising material
; for great reformer. Reform should be the
, normal condition of every political party.
, being discovered now improvements in adj
! ministration are necessary. Reform should
be steadily made. as daily business and not
merely by fits and starts just before cleo
ton.
THE WORD DIsHoNoRED
The very word reform" becomes odious
when it is used mask to conceal the re-
pulsive features of men who have cham
poned every great abuse in the past, who
have been unfaith ul to their country; who
have Numbered continually; who have
brought upon the country its chief misfor-
tunes, and whose names are indissolubly
connected with the greatest political crimes
of the age.
WHO ARE THE REFoRMzRs.
Think OF il. the lea ers OF the rebellion. the
Kuklux and White Leaguers. the organizers
, ofmurder, the plundering hacks and humbugs
, TINT have come down to us from twenty
| years of Democratic misrule before the war;
, the broken-d down fugitives from the Repub-
: lican party who had been kicked out for in
capacity and fraud, and, in short, all the
( authors of the great misfortunes that have
3 fallen upon our country for the last quarter
{ of a century. uniting together and shouting
} themselves hoarse with the cry of reform.
/ With such men plumber is the purpose and
, reform the pretence. They are ne incapable
, of reform as they are of making reparation
and atonement to the country for the inEu-
merable crimes they have committed. Many
: of them are bankrupt from the rebellion.
1 lank. starving, fierce, and ravenous as fam
4 ished wolves. and at the first opportunity
4 will bury themselves in the public treasure
r re vulture does Its head in the newly
| found carcass
These relies of the rebellion these linger-
, ing remains of the Sons OF Liberty. these
connecting links with former generations of
: frauds, robberies and shams, these putrescent
: "reminiscences Of slavery, congregated at st.
; Louis and dubbed themselves retormers.
! Remember that they are the men who
brought the war upon the country, who have
, buried half million of soldiers, who have
piled up billions OF debt, and who nave p PC
! pied the land with widows and orphans.
What think you of such reformers? With
them we may say of reform as was once said
2 of patriotism, that it is the last refuge OF
scSundrels. What think We when the wreck
er OF afiroads who has amassed his millions
, , taken from ruined stockholders. when the
{, Immigrant statesmen. the voter ~ ~ subsidies,
: are put forward as the champions of reform
and the protectors of the people. It would
be another illustration of the fable of the
wolves who procured themselves to be elected
guardians Of the sheep whom they after
wards devoured.
DEMOCRATIC IDEA OF REFORM.
1t is Democratic idea that the relics and
debris of a rebellion, the pardoned traitors
OF an in human civil war who were reared in
, | the lap of slavery; that the graduates from