The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-09-28
MIR. VOORHEES, SPEECH,

The difference between the speech of Sen
ator Harrison and the speech of Senator
Voorhees, is the difference between reason and
rant. In some way or other the Democratic
Republican convention arraignment and plat
form, and we find State organ and United
States Senator in fearful frame of mind
about what is there stated. If Mr.. Voorhees,
speech were to be condensed, it could
be all expressed in the phrase:
You're another" From beginning to end
there is nothing more in it. When the Re-
publican platform denounces the suppression
of the ballot and asks for free and fair suf-
frage, the Senator trots out that gibbering
skeleton Of 1876. and puts the ''cipner' sage
through the weary PAGES he has travelled for
ten years. and which, for mercys sake, consid-
ering that he is dead, he should now be re-
lieved from. When the Republican platform
denounces frauds, and corruptons, and bad
appointments in the civil service, Mr.. Voor-
hees falls back on Belknap and the whisky
statesmen to Office. For obvious reasons we
should suppose the Senator would not talk
much about the whisky ring; and it would be
becoming in him to say very little about sound
money, remembering his record for an un-
limited issue of irredeemable greenbacks, and
the payment of the public debt in that kind
of money The ''gerrymander" by which the
Democratic party hopes to steal the Legis-
lature, and which Mr.. Voorhees, himself said
would enable the Democracy to hold the Gen
eral Assembly, though the State should
60 ten thousand or fifteen thousand against
them, is offset by the assertion that the Re-
publicans 'tgerrymandered' in 1867 and 1873,
although by the latter apportionment the Dem
ocrats carried the Legislature and returned
Mcdonald to the Senate, so that it could not
have been much of "gerrymander." Now,
Mr.. Voorhees, suppose all this to be true that
you say about the Republicans. twas a we'll
known poet who said. "There are no birds in
last years nests" You nowhere and
in instance question the truth
of what the Republican platform says
about the Democratic party, and
we suggest that the 'you're another" argu-
ment is not worthy United States Senator
of your standing and ability, and it will not
be acceptable to and conclusive with the peo-
pie. The Republican party purified itself; it
responded to the best instincts Of its own
membership. 1t drove Belknap out of the
Cabinet, and it put the whisky-ring thieves
in the penitentiary. What do the Democrats
do9 Is Mr.. Pan-electric Garland out Of the
CabinetG He is still the trusted adviser of
the great "reform" President, and, with few
notable exceptions, the entire Democratic
party stands for his defense, as they do for
all the frauds, corruptions, abuses and crimes
which the Republican platform charges. Mr..
Voorhees, denies that the civil service has
been degraded, and particularly defends the
appointments III 1uuldHds here nave
been some good selections made from Indiana
Democrats, but the general record was so scan
dalous that even the Sentinel, the State organ,
was forced to call upon the administration to stop
appointing thieves, deadbeats and peniten-
tiary convicts. Mr.. Voorhees, himself is re-
sponsible for appointments that could not pass
the scrutiny of the Senate, and which called
forth the strongest opposition from self-re-
specting and respected Democrats. This Mr.
Voorhees, will not deny. The entire speech
is keyed on low note, and will not bring a
vote to the party from doubling and thought
full men, however much it may satisfy the
rock ribbed and mast-fed Democracy f~r
whose consumption it was evidently prepared.