The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-02-07

and beautiful structures III stone i nave
ever seen-the States monument to its
dead soldiers; costing, am told, something
in the neIghbOrhOod of million dollars;
| approached and read on one side, chiseled
into the stone, this legend:
TO ISDIANA'S SILENT VICTORS, WAR FOR THE
UNION, lS6l-lS65
l29 regiments of volunteer infantry. 1875
II regiments of volunteer cavalry-....... q ,605
y regiments of volunteer artillcry-...... l0,!S6
Indiana volunteers I'm the Nayy. 2l30
Total Indiana volunteers engaged in
battle.-..................... Zlu4u'
Killed and died: -,
Commissioned officcrS........................ G52
NoncommiSSOned officers and enlisted
men -o''''
Total killed and died .......,........... 2l,4l6
For the purpose of comparison will give
the figures from my own State OF South
Carolina: Total number Of officers ana
men who volunteered, II ,0S3; died in battle,
died from disease, died in prison-total,
15495.
l took the trouble to compare the
patriotism of the two sides to the quarrel as
evinced by their willingness to die for what
they fought. The voting population @; ol
South Carolina in 1860 was 60,OOO-that IS,
those q years of age and white. we put
into the field IL 900 more men than we had
voters. Indana'S voting population was
100000 in round numbers. Ninety thous,,
and Of her voters or their substitutes uq
not volunteer. They We're not needed, l
suppose. Now for the deaths. Inc
percentage of deaths in Indiana was ll1a;
in South Carolina, %, nearly double,
I will make no comment on TINS, MI
President, other than to remark that be-
lieve the men on both sides thought they
were right, and the South Carolinians, true
to their State motto, "Animis opibusque
parati," "Ready with our lives and for
tunes" died for their convictions. No man
can do more, and l pity the narrow SOU
who would charge them with being reoeis;
Indianna, so did they all. The embattleo
South met the embattled North, and the
issue was thought to be settled.
Thet issue, as I have stated was WheGn'
er all men are created free and equal
including the negro. But for that there
would have been no secession; but for that
, there would have been no war. IhereI0re
while have acknowledged in the fullesl
sense that the Union sentiment caused tht
Northern people To pour out their blooo
like water to maintain il, do not torSel
that the issue was the equality OF man
and liberty in the Union. Is the question
settled? Did the "a, 900 men from Indiana
who offered up their lives for the Union
and liberty believe that in thirty-five years
the party and the men of the party whose
principles they died for would come back
to believe with Stephen A. Douglas that
the Declaration of Independence was'ln'
tended only for white men?"
Did they believe that Lincoln's famous
utterance, f'The Union can not exist hall
slave and half Free" would be forgotten
and that we would have Senators here con
tending for the right of Congress t.
govern indefinitely in absolutism 1000, Ool
people under form of government that is
to be simple and strong," government
Of force resting on principles and ideas
entirely foreign to those for which Lincoln
died? We're the fruits Of the war mere
SOdom apples, to be turned to ashes on oul
lips within the generation Of the men who
fought in that struggle-men who We're as
earnest, honest, and patriotic in sustaining
the Government as any men ever were;
Have we got Sodom apples as the fruit OF
. that great contest?
Are the thirteenth, fourteenth and fif'
teenth amendments to be nullified in thell
essence because they have failed Of theil
purposes in the South? Are they for home
use only? Is the flag to become again q
Haunting lie" and float over military de.
spotism first in the Philippines and later at
home? Was the memorable conflict be.
. UWG6ll SldftTy anu il0CtlOul uSOlCSS Law
we gained nothing? Is the commercial
greed which dominates in our councils and
coercrS the President to do his bloody and
horrible work to make of the Constitution
new League with death and q covenant
with hell" in the interest OF oppression akin
to slavery? In order to do all these things
must we camp outside the Constitution
and give the old Interpretation Of the
Southern shareholders to the Declaration oi
Independence, and nullify all precedents
and decisions Of our Supreme Court? Die
this nation offer up of its best and bravest
upon the altar of liberty the blood of seven
hundred thousand men and spend and de-
stroy five billions of treasure that we might
have government of the people, by the
brief span Of one mans life the sacrifice
WIS vain, the civil war mistake, and that
the colored race has no rights we are bound
to respect at home or abroad?
Says the Book, Oye hypocrites, ye hypo-
critesr'
Hitherto the South has enjoyed monop,
oily in and the Odium of shooting and hang.
ing men of the colored race Have. the
Northern people grown enviOuS and dc
South has had no choice, and much of the
blood of negroes shed by white men is the
direct result of the attempt to place that
race in control of our Southern States. The
irrepressible conflict between liberty and
slavery destroyed slavery, but it has left to
the South an irrepresSible conflict between
intelligence and ignorance, between vice
and virtue, between barbarism and civiliza-
ton. We inherited our race problem. You
are going out wantOnly in search Of yours
and of the nations. The sins Of our faith
.ers are being visited on the children to the
third and fourth generation. The ill con-
sequences of having been bred in an at
mosphere Of slavery clings to us like the
shirt OF Nessus in our attempt to throw of
the yoke and go forward with progress;
But have we not enough CT debased and
ignoble people in our midst that we should
seek by conquest, without any right other
than shadowy one, to incorporate 100O0,-
900 more colored peoples?
II the North is jealous of the South'S
bad eminence" in the murder of colored
people, is it not strange, is it not passing
strange that almost the only protest
against this infamous policy of the Presi-
dent comes from men from the South who
are representatives Of their States in this
Chamber? We know whereof we speak.
We are in contact with the race question at
close quarters and have been and will have
to continue to be. You know not what you
do.
We are tied to the "body of DEATH" rep
resented by the presence in our midst Of a
debased and ignorant race. We are doing
the best we can. Can we incorporate a
large number without increasing the dam
ger to OurinstitutiOns, especially when it is
boldly asserted they are not fit for Self-gov
ernment? Is there any reason either in
policy or in morals why the already hard
task and hopeless future of the blacks of
the South, the burdens under which they
bend, should be increased by having the
"sullen, silent people" of the East brought
into direct competition with them in the
cultivation of cotton, rice, and other sub