The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-13

i
words of the Indianapolis Sentnel-to elect
Thomas A. Hendricks 20 the United States SEN
ate
Three weeks after his election twenty-t two
regiments of Indiana infantry and four batteries
of artillery assembled at Murfreesboro and
adopted the following resolution regarding that
body: eve calmly and firmly say, beware of
the terrible retribution that is falling upon your
oadjutors in the South, and as your crime Is
ten-fold blacker, so will it smiJe you with ten
fold more horror should YOU persist in your
damnable deeds of treason
This is the Endorsement which the Union
soldiers of Indiana gave to the Legislature that
elected Mr. Hendricks to the United States
Senate.
Do you ask who Thomas Hendricks isl Let
the slave speak. He will tell you that in 1850 at
a constitutional convention held In this State,
Mr.. Hendricks made speech against permit
ting free negroes to come into Indiana.
In 1853 he made a speech at Shelbyville in
which he denounced the enlistment of negroes as
a browning act of infamy,' at time when the
services of those men were needed for the preser-
walton of the Union. In 1864 he made speech
in the United States Senate in which he said:
That it was great outrage that negroes
should be permitted to ride in the street cars in
the District of Columbia. In 1867 he was VIC
lently opposed to allowing negroes to hold office
or serve on juries. He spoke and voted against
the thirteenth amendment. Think of it, A man
who, mendcant like, is asking to be elevated to
the vice-presidency Iof this Republic, actually
voted to deny 100000 people their freedom.
He spoke and voted against the fourteenth
amendment which pledged the honor of the Ma
ton to the payment of its national debt; its
promised pensions and bouuties to the soldiers,
and which forbade payment for slaves Suppose
that the United States had threatened repudia-
ton, which Mr.. Hendrickss vote would imply;
the Southern Confederaey would have been
again in arms, and the United States could not
have borrowed a dollar Rebellion would have
become revolution. Mr. Hendricks spoke and
ted aoain OF fha nptb oDnnn HDnan xVh 10
gave TO the negro that great scepter which now
Sways empreS-that great protection under the
Constitution of the United States-the ballot.
And yet he and his party profess to be the
friends of free labor. Such is Mr. Hendricks
man who, posing a reformer, never con
voted for the 80, 000, 900 land grant to the
Northern Pacific railroad, which the Democratic
platform denounces so vigorously man who,
as Commissioner of Public Lands, levied polt-
ical assessments in his own office; man who
voted for the salary grab of 1867; a who
betrayed Mr.. Pendleton at the Democratic con
vention in 1868, when at a critical moment the
Indiana delegation withdrew its support and cast
its vote for Mr. Hendricks man who prevented
Mr. Mcdonald from obtaining the nomination in
1880; man who. going to Chicago last June,
under the vulgar and hypocritical pretenSe of
assisting Mr.. McDonaldS nomination, knitted
him politically, and nearly o aimed the nomina-
ton himself; man who was the bitter foe of
abolition and the Union; man who said in 1863
Il did not advise anybody to enlist because
was not going myself, and l would not recon-
mend any one to DO thing / would not do my
self" man who said that the emancipation
proclamation wicked thing" and that he
was going to vote the first opportunity he got to
take it back: a man who was the friend and fol-
lower of Nallandigham, the supreme grand com
mander of the Sons of Liberty of the North,
and offered a resolution that called him gal
liant tribune of the people," man whose friends
differed and controlled the Knights of the
Golden Circle and Sons of Liberty; a
man who was the friend, attorney and
apologist of the traitor Milligan; a
man who voted against the Freedmen's Bureau
and civilrights bill; who left the First
Presbyterian congregation of this city because
the minister preached loyal sermon: a man
whom the Union soldiers threatened to hang at
a meeting called to deplore the death of Presi
dent Lincoln; man who laid the cornerstone of
the Indiana State-house and said not one word
about the war; a man whom Jefferson Davis said,
this year, he would like 10 see President of the
Uniter States man who never contributed a
dollar to the Sanitary Commission. In fine,
Thomas a. Hendricks is a man whose political
record is a blotch on civilization, and who has
favored every measure which the enlightenment
and patriotism of this age have pronounced as
infamous
But some one said to me the other day, what is
all this to young menl You were not in the war.
No we were not in the At that time we
were dependent the heroism of Union sol
diers, who were falling the field OF battle like
autumn leaves, crimsoned with blood, in order
that we might grow up in a united country and
in State uncontaminated with slavery, where
labor was free and honorable. We who have
ever occupied the position of degraded whites
in the South, lower than the serf, can scarcely
realize the blessed privilege that is ours or the
terrible price our fathers paid to attain Z. Let
that hand wither which refuses to wreatile the
grave of the soldier dead; let that tongue palsy
which refuses its need of gratitude and praise.
But to those who betrayed us, those who, too
craven to fight our protectors in the front, used
the stilletto at home, what shall we sayi We
shall say, that we have reached manhOod's
estate, we will not pursue you for your evil
deeds in the past but should you ever pose as
candidates for franchises we shall never
consent to insult the memory of the dead hero
by paying tribute to the living traitor.
UNION SOLDIERS.
The Union soldiers We shall never cease to
honor them! When they were fighting for their
country we children, but we have learned
from their lips and lips that are now silent the
dangers, sorrows and suffering that they en-
dured in their efforts to prevent our countrys
dissolution, to preserve our nationality. They
risked home, happiness-life itself, the grea est
sacrifice that man can make, the hottest offering
he can lay upon the altar of his country.
They went down deep to the eternal rock, and
there they reared monument TO the great prin-
ciples of equal rights and human liberty that will
stand forever A great consolation to bereaved
wives and mothers is the knowledge that the
spent blood Of their husbands and sons insured
and sanctifed a nations existence. Rust now is
on the chains of slavery, and the world may seek
in vain their scattered links. An oppressed
race is free, vitalized the justice of the Al
mighty God is indicated, and the crown of
glory is theirs.
But the war is long since over. Grass is grow
ing where the infantry formerly trod and where
the batteries stood, and flowers adorn the graves
of the dead-a symbol of immortality They
have lived to see their country in renewed life
and beauty, the giant wheels of industry in
motion, and their children in the enjoyment of
that happiness which they secured for them.
The prattling child of war days has grown into
manhood. They, the heroes and veterans Of
a hundred battles, meet again and tell us that
they do not forget. We, the succeeding genera
ton, come forward TO greet them and say they
will never be forgotten. They have given to
posterity a lesson Grand in its teaching. They