The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-02-13

all" Thus, saturated with sympathy for
secession and selitious sentiments, Horace
Heffren was ready for any reasonable plot
that might present itself. By keeping this
fact in view, his brief and inglorious career
as a Federal soldier may be the better under
stood. With an Unborn hatred for the cause
of the North, this man stultlied himself by
enlsting as a Union soldier. His purpose,
if at any time a patriotic one, soon tagged,
and his dishonorable record as n soldier, as
revealed by the War Department
records, prove only too conclusively
that he was Joined to his Southern idols.
His instincts were all that way, and the
| fact that he disobeyed orders and voluntar-
| lily and unnecessarily sacrificed the soldiers
under him, while he escaped from danger on
| hand-car, goes to prove his utter lack of
sympathy with the cause whose uniform he
disgraced. Placed under arrest, his resigna-
ton was accepted, and he came back home,
the army being better and stronger by his
Democrat lent all his energies to weakening
the Union cause, brutally deriding the loved
and martyred President, and urging forward
reasonable organizations. But few months
had passed when Mr.. Heffren was chosen
grand commander in the Sons of Liberty, ev-
cry member of which order according to his
own testimony, was Democrat, and he him
sell held a regular commission, signed
hxr Taffa natsig +
general in the Southern army. In this
organization there was detail of
ten chosen to assassinate Governor Morton
and to raise the standard of rebellion in Indi-
ana, to be joined by the rebel prisoners at
Camp Morton and elsewhere and Southern
army to march through Cumberland Gap.
Two things prevented the consummat+" u |
this death deserving scheM' - i''ep'u y
cd s,,;u of ,ho.a charge of the Union
.,tlana, and the cowardice of Hef- |
va and his fellow conspirators. Indiana
was thus spared the horrors of civil war
But Horace Heffren was prepared to de-
scend to lower infamies. There was no limit
to his turpitude. The plots of the conspiracy |
exposed and its leaders arrested, it was
Heffren, then as now leading
and popular Democrat who was
despicable enough to give up his fellow
plotters in order to save himself. Escaping |
government, Heffren continued an arrogant, |
unrepentant rebel, and always popular with |
his party. Three years after the assassina-
ton of Abraham Lincoln this man, in cold |
blood, extoled the deed and regarded the
assassin as the instrument of God. And |
again, in 1880, still bitter at heart against the |
colored man, whom he would delight to see
returned to slavery, he opposed with all his
power the adoption OF an amendment to
strike out the word white" from the State
constitution. And last of all, when few of
his greater infamies were brought to his
attention last month, he arose in
insolently demanded what the people of In
diana were going to do about it.
Such is the record of Grand Commander |
and acknowledgement Horace Heffren, the
He was a representative Democrat in JAN
uary, 1861 when he drafted the rebel sympa |
thizing resolutions. lie was a representative |
Democrat in February, 1861 when he drafted
resolutions favoring the secession of the
South and sedtion in Indiana. He was a
representative Democrat in June, 1862, when |
as Federal officer he disobeyed orders, be.
trayed his command, and fled on a !
hand-car from danger. He was a repre-
sentative Democrat in 1868, when he Joined
Democratic conspiracy against the integrity
of the Union. He was representative |
Democrat in November, 1864, when he be-
trayed his co-conspirators to save his life. |
lie was a representative Democrat in May,
1868 when he eulogized Booth and cursed
the memory OF Lincoln. He was still a
representative Democrat in 1880. and gave
utterance to the Democratic implacable
hatred OF the colored man when he de-
nounced the amendment to strike the word
white" from the constitution. He was
recognized representative Democrat in
1882, when Democratic votes made him
one of our lawmakers, and to-
day, as he stands self-impeached
as a conspirator and apologst for murderers,
he is a representative Democrat, enjoying
the highest honors and confidence OF his
party. There is no doubt as to what the
people of Indiana will do about it when
occasion arrives. Individually, Horace Hef
rem is so buried in his own infamy that lie is
beneath contempt but as the leader of a
party and sustained in his dishonor by a