Year: 1864

Z uety them 10 show me an example, eN-
cept, perhaps, in the sale of these bonds
Judge Perkins came all the way from
Indianapolis To Centerville to make this
attack on me. As l said before. the
Judge has been on every side of this
/ question of the war. In his speech of
18th OF July. S63, he said the war must
be closed, that an armistice should be
had He did not wish to see the South
conquered, he said, except in the bonds
! OF love. After Vallandigham defeat,
the Judge suddenly became very loyal,
WAS opposed to the Peace party, &c. The
men OF the party then wished to know if
he had indeed cut loose from them, and
/ hearing that he had declined to become
! their candidate for Judge of the Supreme
/ Court, they wrote him letter asking
him If he had decided not to take
nomination for that position. The
Judge replied in letter which l want
You to hear. The Judge said:


| am, gentlemen, rs l have been, car
nesuy opposed to Mr.. Lincoln's civil
administration; believing it to be con
trolled by the radical Republicans: but /
am for continuing to give it q fair and
efficient support TO the vigorous prose
cut,on of the war, as prosecuted: and, to
that end, l am for aiding the Govern
ment by all reasonable and proper means
IN raising the necessary volunteer sol
diers, and in providing the funds required
TO promptly and literally pay them more
literally than the private soldiers are
now paid. l do this because l wish to
save what can be saved of the Union,
and believe that the war is the only in
strumentality of which we are now per
mitted to avail ourselves in attempting
to accomplish that object, and will be
the only instrumentality during the ex-
lstencc OF the present Administration.
l have always been Uuion man. The
preservation of our Union has been the
fundamental principle, the foundation
stone of my politics, all my life. In my
early boyhood, the first political lesson
taught me was to cherish the Union, my
first political aspirations were for its
preservation; the political effots of my
manhood days were all guided by the
seme principle, and directed to the same
end, and hope it may form part of the
burden of my last prayer. do not
know what that prayer will be, if it is
not that God will preserve our Union and
save my own soul. And l beg to be
permitted to add here, though it may he
esteemed, by some in bad taste, may be





| for | feel it and must. vet humility SAYS
it. that l to-day have the satisfaction
(the loss of which could be compensated
by no gold or greenbacks) of being able
to lay my hand upon my heart and with
the APPROX ofmy conscience declare that
l am guiltless of any act or sentiment
that has contributed to produce our ex-
isting National calamities. / have new
er. as have radical Republicans, taught
that portion of the Constitution of the
United States was not obligatory on me,
and should not be obeyed. l have spo-
ken of preserving the Union as it was"
OF that have no expectations, DC.


And again:


We shall conquer the South. We can
humiliatc her. If Deity does not. pre-
vent; twenty power full States can con
quor, or annihilate ten weak ones.-This,
with me, is not the point of difficulty
My anxiety is about how we are to settle
the quarrel and reclaim our lost liberties
after the conquest has been achieved.
I say our lost liberties, not that our peo-
pie do enjoy much liberty, and so do
the people of Russia and Japan, and
even Poland; but it is enjoyed by Gov
ernmental permission, not by the noble
and dignified right of freemen; l say
this because, according to the theory of
the Administration, whenever the execu-
tive sees fit to withhold its permission,
and imprison the citizen. the citizen has
no instrumentality left which he can en-
force. a right, to obtain liberty But this
question must be got at, at the proper
time, and in the proper mode. What we
have on hand at the present time is the
conquest of the South by war. This,
have attempted to show, what we have
got to do. We have got to fight her to
the point of submission. let the inciden-
tai consequence to her or her institutions
be what they may; and we have got to 10
it under the lead of this radical Admin
istration. This is CALLING to my Demo
cratic friends. Well. how are you going
to get out of it? What are YOU going
to do: Why. if | were on board ship
manned by pirates, and it was about to
sink. would aid them to keeping her
afioat, and rnn ming her into harbor.


Well, the job fist on hand, then, dis
guisc it as we may, is to subjugate the
South; this is the point in the progress
at which we have arrived; and this is one
of those jobs which; accordingly to the
old adage, is well done if it were done
quickly. 1t is mercy to the South that
it be done quickly The more dispatch
the executioner uses, the less the suffer
ings of the victim.


And. finally, he said


1, then, am for speedy conquest of
the South, so that the war and strife NAV
cease and peaceful scenes again abound
throughout our land, and we be able.
when corruption and decentralization
shall have become a surfeit, fanaticism
have spent its spite, and passion shall
have burned out, once more to get the
ear of the people, and turn the attention
TO the question of redeeming their lost
liberties, and re establishing the plain,
economical republican Government
which our fathers left us.


You have now had Judge Perkins for
and against the war, and here let me re-
mark that on one side he uses Some
stranger language than l ever used. and
yet is the man who attacks the Union
men of the State in one of its most 10y
sl counties. Now. one thing more in