Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-07-26
Hendricks Record.
As REVIEWED BY Nh. Curtis EIGHT YEARS
AGO.

From Harper's Weekly for Sept 2, 1876.
During the war he was a copperhead.
Governor Morton. in his heroic contest with
the rebel legislature of Indiana, had no sup
port from Mr.. Hendricks, who was elected by
that legislature TO the Senate Of the United
States. He left his church when the minis
ter preached loyal sermon, exhOrtiDg his
people to sustain their government And
early in the war he said in speech: ''lf the
war, being prosecuted, shall have the effect
Of ab0lisbing our market IN the South, by
destroying the peculiar system OF labor IN
that section, then | would advise the North
west 10 look out for itself In February,
1863 at a meeting. he denounced Mr.. Lincoln
for making an abolition war II was the
anti-slayery men who were guilty. IF Con-
gress would take bundle of switches and
switch them ell out of the White House, it
would be well for the people; but until that
il done il will not be well. You may hear
the prayers in our churches; your sons may
go out TO the battlefield; but our country Is
not 10 be r. stored as iL was until Abolition
is buried. never 10 be resurrected."
Colored regiments had been authorized.
aud he exclaimed: 'sThe GROWING act OF in
Justice has been completed They have pass
ed bill in the House Of Representatives to
arm an army Of negroes. Every man
who voted for that bill, and the President
when he shall have signedi it, will have offered
direct insult to every white man and woman
in the United States-an insult that every
proud man will resent" Naturally the
audience responded xiii the niggers !"
He continued II am ready to compromise
at any time. | am ready to say to the people
of the South Come in again and we will
I secura IN you vour constitutional rIphts and.
if you desire them additional guarantees.
These were Mr.. Hendricks views and
words while his country was engaged in a
mortal struggle with slavery ard treason. Is
there any good reason why he should be Sc
lected from 100000 of people to be the
possible head Of a government which he did
his best to destroy? When the country that
he sought 10 destroy emerged victorious from
the war, Mr. Hendricks, as senator, denied
the power of Congress or of the people to
abolish slavery by a constitutional amend
ment. He voted against all the new amend
ments He one of the three senators
who voted for proposition that no colored
man should vote unless he was worth $3.50 in
his own right or in that Of his wife. Such
was his notorious opposition to the war and
to emancipation that the Indiana soldiers
would not suffer him to speak at a banquet
ans.
Last year Mr. Hendricks went into Ohio to
advocate the elect ton of Governor Allen upon
a platform of reputation. But he was So
evidently mindful of the nominations Of this
year that he dissatisfied both sides of his
party, and has been laughed at with a great
deal of contempt ever since for his desperate
struggles to sit on so sharp fence. But his
real sympathies were understood No mar
who is familiar with public affairs and men
would claim that Mr. Hendricks is in any
sense whatever a representative of the loyal
and sincere patriotism of the country, of
sound and wise and financial system, or of
Improvement in the civil service. He is no
more a representative of reform than Fernan-
do Wood, and no more stands for what the
democratic platform declares to be the car
dinal necessities of the time than any
other familiar democratic politician in the
country.