The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-13
MR.. BLAINE AND INDIANA SOLDIERS

SOA@A|NA@N~S'
The Journal has trustworthy information
that the next though scarcely the last, lie to
be brought out against Mr.. Blaine is to be
garbled account, quoted from the record Of the
first session of the Forty ninth Congress- of
debate between Senator Blaine and Senators
Mcdonald and Voorhees,, in which the gentle
man from Maine excoriated the Indiana SEN
ators in a manner that they have never forgot
ten nor forgiven. In the progress of the
debate, reported on pages 2O79 to 2122, the
latter charged Mr. Blaine with having reflected
upon the valor of Indiana troops at the battle
of Buena Vista, in the Mexican war. Reply
ing to the insinuation (page 21lO), Mr.. Blaine
said:
''The senator was impatient at the slightest
idea that somebody rejecting upon the
loyalty of Indiana and on the bravery and the
character of Indiana's troops. l certainly IN
tended nothing of the sort. do not believe
any State sent to the war better class of
troops than Indiana sent. They do not need
my poor approval at this late day; their heroic
deeds on the battlefield speak for them, and
world was rejecting upon them until got
hold of a school book from the South, one Of
those which we had the assurance from that
side did not exist at all. l hold in my
hand a school book, in the form of a
reader that is calculated and adapted
entirely to Southern latitudes;' and to what it
says, not of the late war, but of the war with
Mexico, l beg the attention of the honorable
senator from Indiana l read this. 1t is the
only arraignment of the gallantry of Indiana
troops that have ever read This reader is
published in Baltimore, and the authors are
Mr.. J. S. Blackburn, principal of high-school
in Virginia. and Mr.. W. N. Mcdonald, prin-
cipal Of high-school in Louisville, Ky. In
giving the account of the Mexican war this
school-book, which is intended to be put in
the hands of the rising generation in the
South to cultivate a spirit of amity and re-
spect for all the States, says, in describing
the battle of Buena Vista;
1.-The Mexcans, knowing that they had nearly five
men to one fought more bravely than they had ever
done before AT one time they broke General Taylor
left flank completely routing the Second Indiana Regi-
ment which rallied during the progress of the
battle Colonel Jefferson Davis commanded Missis-
sipp regiment Just in of the Indiana regiment.
When the latter broke and fled Davis ordered his men
open their ranks and let the runaways through and
then closed their line to meet the enemy
THAT is the stuff, the miserable slanderous
stuff, that is taught to Southern children.
Davis's bold and untamable regiment from
Mississippi opened their ranks to let the runa-
ways from Indiana get off the field, and then
they closed their ranks and behaved, of course,
with the prowess that belongs to them. just
think of i'll
II have here modern school book which l
got from the library, with the imprint of 1879.
GThe year in which the debate took place. |
The honorable senator from North Carolina
was good enough to assure me that any books
of that character belonged to past day and
had faded out
Again, in the course of the same debate, as
reported on page. 2114, Mr.. Voorhees, said:
''The senator from Maine has seen fit to
resurect an old, stale, and exploded charge
against an Indiana regiment on the field of
Buena Vista"
To this Mr.. Blaine replied:
mo, sir. One moment. l disclaim the
charge. 1t was a scandal against the Indiana
regiment, and | showed that the Southern
friends of the senator from Indiana were per-
petrating that and teaching it to their
children"
And this is the basis for the next document
to be issued by the independents and Demo
Gratis to excite prejudice against the man
whom they dare not face in fair field and
stand up fight. MIR. Blaine, as usual struck
back harder than he was hit, and put it upon
record that a school textbook had been issued
that very year for use in the South, and ira
ducing the valor of Indiana soldiers to eulo
gize Jeff Davis by contrast, for the purpose of
pleasing Southern Democratic readers, the
political friends and associates of Senator
Voorhees,. The attempt to use this lie, that
Blaine ever reflected upon the soldiers of In
diana will defeat its purpose, and harm only
its authors and the Democratic party in whose
interests it is perpetrated.