The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-27

The Constitution authorized nothing of the kind,
the Democrats said, and so hostile was the
average Democrat to this measure and this
money, that thousands of them refused to take
it for any article they had to SELL whether to a
neighbor or to the government, and Judge Per
kins, then a leading Democrat of In
diana, refused to receive it in payment
of his s.; larry as a Democratic Supreme Judge.
By and by, the Democrats in arms showing
more stubbornness than was expected at first,
and encouraged thereto by the aid and comfort
shown them by their brethren in the North
now in the form of secret armed organizations,
now as importers of fire arms marked SUNDAY
school Books now as an Indiana Legislature
refusing to receive the annual message of her
Governor, and refusing to make appropriations
Tor war expenses. and attempting to transfer
the command of the State militia from the Gov
ernor to subordinate State oficer-when for
these and other reasons the Republicans deter
mined to enlist colored men as soldiers, and
while yet the Democratic hostility in Indiana
was SO rampant that her colored eitlzens
had to 90 to Massachusetts to find q place OF en-
listment, that was called Republican blunder,
and Mr.. Hendricks in Congress, did what he
could to prevent it With him, and such as
him. it was white mans war, and if there were
not white men enough in the North to cultivate
the FARMS or leave them for the women to cul-
tiyate and yet whip the Southern Democrats in
arms, while their negroes made the crops, then
let us throw up the sponge and quit.
A little later when the Republican young
Democratic young men who loved their country
more than their party, and went to war in spite
of party managers. did not volunteer quite fast
enough the Republican party proposed
draft This was another mistake,
and Mr.. Hendricks, in Congress, and all his
Democratic associates did their best to preventit.
So palpable blunder was it that Democrats in
New York Instituted three days riot, burning
houses and killing negroes; and Democrats in
Indiana shot draft officers in cOld blOU0. Tins
the Republicans kept making one mistake after
another, in the face, at every step, of most de-
termlned hostility of the Democratic party. In
the classic language of Mr.. Lincoln, however,
they kept pegging away" and were still peg
ging away, with Grant more than half way
through the Wilderness and Sherman more than
half way to the sea, when the Democratic con-
ventlon-that is all who could get leave of alb
sence to attend, for the principal Democrats
had special engagements which they could not
abandon just then, being in the Democratic
army south of the line-but those who did at
tend the Chicago convention resolved that the
whole thing was failure, one huge blunder,
and that it ought to. stop; but it didn't stop
Meanwhile the Republican party had COM
mitted sundry and divers blunders too tedious
to mention. They had repealed the fugitive
slave law; they had emancipated the slaves,
and they provided that negroes testimony might
be received in the federal courts. This was such
an outrageous blunder that Mr.. Hendricks
spread himself against it in the Senate in set
speech on the Goth Of February, 1864. He said,
among good many other things of like Import:
For do not believe that the negroes are our
equal in the army in the courts anywhere else and
for thatreason voted against the bill proposing that
they should have the same pay in the army as white
gress placing the negro upon platform Of equality
with the white in the courts of the country the
sanctuary of our rights.
And the Indiana Democrats took up the argu-
colored men to testify in Indiana courts, or to
attend free schools in Indiana until the amended
national Constitution compelled them to recog-
nize the equal rights of all men, without regard
to race or color.
Among the huge blunders of the Republican
party may be mentioned that grand financial
measure known as our national banking system.
On their comirg into power there was not dol
lar of currency for the people that was not liable
to be utterly worthless without a moments
warning, and the best of it, while at its best,
was subject to a brokers shave Of 10 to %
per cent if it got hundred miles from home,
while of gold and silver, as a currency for the
people, there Was not dollar in America. 1t
was all a mere commodity of traffic in the dens
of the thousands of brokers who fattened by
buying and selling it. This financial scheme
was opposed as fraud by the Democrats at
every stage. AS late as the Democratic
convention of 1876 one of the reasons
for demanding change of administration
was the establishment Of sound currency,
meaning the destruction of the national cur
reney and substitution of the good old Demo
cratic currency of 1860 and earlier. But inst cad
of such currency, through this laundering Re
publican party we have ccrrency as good as
gold wherever found, and of which no man has
lost a cent in twenty years.
As early as 1868 the Republican party, in heir
national convention resolved that good faith to
the Nations creditors required the payment of
every bond and every greenback in specie OF its
equivalent. and few months afterward this
was embodied in solemn act of Congress, nver
the protest Of nearly every Democrat, if not
every Democrat in Congress This was huge
blunder, and upon 1t the Democrats started the
greenback craze, which at one time seemed Cor
midable, having made the Democratic canI ass
Of 1868 almost exclusively on the issue
of paying all bonds not specifically calling
for specie in greenbacks made for that purpose.
But in this, as in the war; the laundering Re-
publicans kept pegging away" in spite of the
perpetual annoyance and hostility of both Demo
Gratis and Greenbaekers who made common
cause against what they chose to call common
enemy until it seemed possible to fix the date,
not far distant, at which every bond and green
back should be redeemed in specie as fast as
presented. This was such blunder and such
an offense to Democratic honesty that in their
national convention at st. Louis, in 1876, they
declared it all wrong and
Resolved We denounce the RESUMPTION act of
1875 and demand its repeal
And then they nominated Tilden and Hen
bricks to see that it was done, which they never
did for they never got there
When these Republican blunderers took the
books Of the state they not only found the
Treasury empty, but they found q system Of re-
ceiving and disbursng the public moneys that
resulted in immense losses. These losses in
some administrations had amounted to SlI "a on
every 81. 900 handled, and they had averaged
from Washington to Buchanan inclusive S. IL
These blunderng Republicans at once set about
seeking honest men to handle the nu1lie
moneys, and an honest method Of keeping books
The result was that under Mr.. Lincoln, with all
the demoralizations of the war these losses were
only So 49, while under Mr.. Buchanan they had
been ST. 81 per 81, 900 From that day they have
kept pegging away until under Mr. Hayes it
was only two cents and three mills per 81, 900,
and thus far under Mr.. Arthur, it has been only
seven and eight-tenths mills on the 81 ,000 Turn
the laundering rascais out.
Early in the history Of these laundering Re-