Year: 1863

to the same laws, possessing similar IN
terests, and bound to the same commo
destiny, | desire to say directly to YOU


few calm and honest words. As soldier
are brave, they are also Just and gener
Gus, and willing to read and hear bot
sides OF all questions. before formin.
final conclusions. If | have in any ca
+. 'pacity been untrue to yon while engaged
IN the perilous service of your country
your resentment, however severe, wouiC
be just But if in every act, publicly anC
privately, | have kept in view the true
Interests and happiness of the soldier
l'know By every impulse of the human
heart that will be sustained by youl
unbiased judgments


Within the last three or four weeks a
most wicked, malignant and cruel at.
tempt has been made by my political op-
ponents to create deep and settled
hostility in your minds against me. To
attain this object system of the most
astonishing and unparalleled falsehood
ever known in this or any other country
has been adopted | confess myself al
most at loss how to meet it. A false
hood once started continues its endless
journey regardless of all contradictions.


The newspaper which starts it will
never publish or notice a denial, and
thus the false and injurious impression
which 1T makes remains forever. | do
not even know that this brief statement
to you will be allowed to reach and coun-
teract the atrocious calumnies which
have been poured into your ears by my
enemies.


You have been told by such newspa-
pers as the Indiana. Journal, the Wabash
Express, Evansville Journal, and other
bitter. partisan papers that in late
speech in Sullivan county spoke very
disrespectfully and unkindly of you.
that | called you Lincoln hirelings,"
Lincoln dogs" and other approbrious
epithets. No more Infamous lie was
ever told | appeal to the Searcher of
all hearts for the evidence of its truth.
when | tell you that / never spoke a dis
respectful word of the soldiers of our
armies in my life. There were at least
five thousand people within hearing of
my voice at the town of Sullivan, on the
occasion alluded to, and no one, friend
Or foe, cam IN truth assert that he fearri
me apply such language to the soldiers.
On the contrary, as | can prove by can
did men of all parties, in that very
speech | passed high eulogy on the
courage and patriotism of the soldier,
and announced repeatedly the necessity
and duty of sustaining him in the field.
l did, indeed, speak of hirelings and
thieving politicians who are being sup
ported by Government plunder, and who
have devoted themselves to manufacture
ing falsehoods against their political .op-
ponents


But the best evidence of my feelings,
and my treatment of the soldiers consists
in what l have done, more than in what
| now say. / challenge my enemies,
who now wish you to take my life, to the
record which l made in Congress. Take
the first speech made in Congress, Feb
ruary 10Th, 1862, and you will there find
nv opinion of Indiana soldiers as taken
down at the time by official reporters, and
not as reported by men who have no mo-
tive except the destruction of political
adversary. think will not be charged
with vanity, when / say that in that
speech is expressed as high an apprecia-
ton of the devotion and gallantry OF the
Indiana soldier as you can find IN any
speech made by the Indiana delegation
during the 37th Congress ] speak not
of its merits as a speech, but simply OF
the sentiments towards you which it con
tains. You may search every speech |
have made since that date in Congress
or out, which has been reported, and l
believe that in every one of them, to the
best of my recollection now, you will find
some complimentary allusion to the SOL
diers of the proud and great State of In
diana. Would | have taken this course
through all of my career up to the day l
smoke at Sullivan, and then in the face
of thousands of people of both parties be-
lie my whole record on that subject
Whatever you think of me as patriot,
you do not think me fool. You will
be assured that did no such thing.


But there is still better way even than
this to try my feelings towards the sol
diers. Many appropriations of large
sums of money have been made to pay
you, to feed you, and to clothe you while
in the service of your country. They
have been made while was a Represen
tative in Congress from District whicl
has always been foremost in every re
quirement of the. law for the raising o
troops. What has been my course OF
this subject? You have been told that


have voted against appropriations il


your behalf On the contrary, now sa


to you in the presence of the record, tha


if any man can find one vote that eve


gave against an appropriation of none
for the benefit of the soldier, will resig
the seat which l now hold, and agree t
go out of political life forever. Whate7


er may have been, and still is my opir


ion as to the origin and necessity of tn
war--whatever may be my opinion as
its management and the political issue


which the party in power seek to carr
! out in connection with it, still / hay


never considered the starving OF the Sc


diers in the field, or the stoppage of the


pay as the proper means of bringing 1t
S a close. Mr. Corwin and others who nc


hold high offices under the present A
s ministration, voted against supplies
our troops in Mexico, but this is no pre-