The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-10-10
LEW WALLACE ONTHEG.O.P.
SPEECH BY HARRIsoNs BIoeRAPHER.
The Republican Party Denounced as .
Know Nothing Organixation-A Violent
and Profaoe Fro-SIavery Harangue
By the Author of ssBen-Hur"


rally of the season in this section" They call it
veterans day" and propose to have couple
of thousand Chicago men to help swell the
procession. They are working every imaginable
scheme to get every soldier in the county to
turn out, and will have as attractions Hovey,
James T. Johnston and Corporal Tanner, and
everything will be done that can be thought of
to incite the feelings of sectional hate in the
bosOms of the honest soldier element. They
have failed on the tariff issue and have fallen
back on dead issues twenty-five years buried.
They have prevailed on Lew Wallace to come
forth from his retirement and ride a white
horse at the head of the procession. They hope
to inspire the old "boys" with animation and
zeal for the success of the republican party by
seeing Gen. Wallace in regimentals and side
arms al the head of the caravan.
BY the way, the temperance OF this retired
disciple of the republican party calls TO mind
the fact that he was not always one OF the snow
white followers OF the G. o. p, and probably
the following extract from speech made by
Gen. Wallace in this city in 1856, on the occa-
sion of the presentation of a silver pitcher to
the Hon. d. w. Voorhees,, may prove interest
ing reading co-incdent with his temperance
in the arena as a leader, and may cause the
question to be asked why the author Of the
greatest religious book extant is now training
with such party as he says the republican
party was in its infancy. We quote:
eff it has not already occurred TO you, it may
hereafter, sir, that in this presentation have
not used as yet that word that you and l so
love and hOnor-the word DEMOCRACY.
In 1852 this district was democratic.
In fact, sir, if the party had gone down every
where else, such were the conditions OF poll
tics here that we were justified in regarding
our district as kind Of democratic Malta, with
plenty of stout knights to defend it forever
from the Moor and infdel. We made Mace
our grand master and he became our Judas
veritable political Wandering Jetc only it was
the devil said TO him: larry till / come
In 1854 with his own hands he opened the
gates Of our citadel 10 a prowling band of thugs.
Our grand master became their grand master.
Suffice 1t to say, sir, we were overthrown. In
1856 everything was in doubt except that the
district was against us by at least $500. Sir,
the fair RebeccG was in the hands of her enemy
there were the lists; yonder the stake. Was
there not one chivalrous enough TO become
her champion? You responded, you struck the
sounding shield of the challenger; lance at rest
you rode against him; you were dismounted in
the shock, but your enemy-Ahl sir, Bots ca
bert, the base-hearted, lies dead in his armor
and dishonored by his very victory
"In New York there is a man. long-nosed,
long-headed, ready-tongued, skillful with the
pen, with brain full of knowledge and ex-
perience, and heart pulseless as an iceberg
a cold, calculating human devil. At this mo-
ment whether waking or sleeping, sitting or
moving, on land or water, at home
or abroad, in church or on the street.
that man is brOoding over an idea of power,
and counting the steps already taken, and
those yet TO be taken by him toward the pres-
dency. This is no fancy-William Fl. Seward
is himself no fancy. He is living fact; a
radiant serpent, an eloquent lie, smiling
devil; political consumption.
There is another man in New York scarce
less noted-a broad-faced, white-haired, white
eyed, white-hatted, white-cOated, white-livered,
whited sepuleher; but withal a man truly won
derful, in whose hand the commonest quill in
the wing of the commonest goose in a Jersey
Dutch woman's barn yard would become an
engine. l had almost said an engine rs mighty
as any that lifts the arms OF our proudest
Atlantic steamer. Daily at his word q hundred
thousand Trtbuaes scatter through the Union.
Napoleon is absolute in France. Horace
Greeley's power over all the anti-democraticisms
in America is almost as absolute. The
republicans told US they were not know
nothings; but did they not fuse with that
party? Yves not their candidate for president
know-nothing? They told us they were ex-
clusiyely protestant party, with religion for a
test; but did they not Juggle for catholic votes?
Did Fremont dare deny his own catholicism?
They told us they were the party of freedom (;
but did they not obstinately deny the people OF
the territories the right and liberty 10 regulate
their own domestic institutions? They
1920; did they demand its restoration? They
told us they were a national party; did you
ever hear of republican mass-meeting
south of the Ohio river? They told us they
were not abolitionists; but at Philadelphia did
they not vote for abolitionists? Did not an alb
olitionist report their platform and an
other help to make it? Did not Hale, Giddings
and Wilson stand gOdfathers 70 their mulattO-
born anomaly? They told us that
they were lovers of the Union; but did they
not ask a repeal of the fugitive slave law, upon
the faithful execution of which Henry Clay
said the Union depended? Was not their
whole effort TO build up northern party hos
tile TO the South? In their Philadelphia con-
vention did they not threaten the South with
fire and sword? Consider again
what motley crew Of agents and emissaries
they put to work. Moral men were not
enough-they enlisted the gamblers; temper
ance men were not enough-they subsidized
the grocery [saloonl keepers; white men were
not enough-they called out the negroes.
Negroes hurrahed for Fremont; negroes took
to the pen and stump for him; 600 negroes
voted for him in New York. Men were not
enough-they called out the women. A Miss
Filkins Miss Anna Dickinson is the Miss Fix
ms to whom Wallace referred, yet he listened
to her in this city on the 18th of September,
and applauded as heartily as even Anna could
desire) went gypsying over the country,
screaming Fremont at the crossroads and In
the villages. A Mrs. Robinson published ly-
ing history of the troubles in Kansas. A Mrs.
Childs wrote a serio-comic blood-and-thunder
story of family of Yankees in Kansas.
Beecher Stowe issued her second negro story,
two ponderous volumes long. Profane men
were not enough-they called out the preach
ers. In many pulpits Fremont became more
popular than God. Congregations were made
to believe that voting against Fremont was as
wicked as crucifying Christ. Here
on election day the preachers linger about the
polls, shivering in keen north wind, and reck-
less of a driving snowstOrm, distributing tickets
winking at frauds, and serving the Savior,
by seeing that none of the cody flock voted
for Buchanan; finally Kansas was flooded with
chastity scoundrels; some in the name Of
heaven. leading fighting men, others for
Christ's sake, hunting 'ruffans' with a wolfsh
hunger for blood, others traffcking with Gree
ley, and the manner Of their commerce was,
so many lies for many dollars.
am astonished at their weakness and their
folly. The democratic party is all that pre-
serves the land Mt this time from furious re-
ligious war. Why, sir, strike down this party.
merge it in republication, sink il in know.
nothingism, and such is the evaporation OF
the sects that the catholics could not take the
holy sacrament in safety. Let the clergy be-
ware how they hawk at democracy Mirabeau
said of the last of the Gracchi, that as he was
dying he threw a handful of dust toward
heaven, from which sprang Marius. From the
sacred dust of the dead democracy there might
spring a religious scourge and America yet
have its Charles and ST. Bartholomew, or its
Cromwell and Ireland"
All this and much more, is the opinion of
the republican party held by Lew Wallace
during the struggles from 1854 To 1861. What
he has seen in the republican partys career
since then to cause him to expend his wealth
of affection upon it, is hard 70 see. IL is vile
now as when il was graded in the Philadelphia
convention by Garrison, Greeley, Giddings,
Phillips, Lovejoy and Anna Dickinson. There