Year: 1866

| At q great Union Republican mass
meeting held at New Albany. on Wed


nesday, July 18th, Gov. 0. p. Morton


delivered the following powerful speech


which every voter in the nation should
read, viz:


| GOV MOTIONS S SPEECH.
| Some three or four weeks ago a Demo


cratic Convention was held in this city


at which a candidate for Congress was
| nominated, speeches were made by


Messrs. Voorhees, aud Mcdonald, and a


series of resolutions adopted.
The resolutions were evidently intend


ed to inaugurate a new policy in the


Democratic party, and to enable the par


ty, if possible, to relieve itself of the


odium with which 1t i now loaded down,


and by which it must ere long be carried


to the bottom


The second of these resolutions de


clares that ..the war was just and neces-


sary to prevent the disruption of the


Union and the overthrow of the Consti-
tuition" and thanks the soldiers for their
yalor in preserving the nation.


Sixteen months after the war was over,
the men composing the Convention dis
covered for the first time that the war
was '.just and necessary" on our part
truth which had been arrived at by the
hAA.r Of ha nannla Of tho Initial
States more than five years before.


How it happened that this discovery
was first made at New Albany, or by
what means the truth broke in upon
minds so politically benighted and 50 far
behind the age, does not appear.


Nevertheless, New Albany was select
ed as the place of revelation, and the
politicians there assembled the humble
for the dissemination of the
new truth


This resolution is a complete and un-
reserved confession of the disloyal and
course pursued by the so
called Democratic party throughout the
war, and a full admission that their prin-
;iples and practices were hostile to the
Union. The whole country will regard
t as a dying repentance, forced from a
convicted criminal who is standing in
nll view Of the scaff'old; but will regard
as a confession, springing not from
,enitence of heart, but from hopes of
,ardon and renewed life. The men
making this confession ask the country
lave from the first been in favor of the
var, ana demand that they shall be re-
,eived as good Union men who have
and preserved their country,
,ell:on.


Allow me to say to them their request
will not be granted. They will be held
o the record, and cannot be relieved
rom their great responsibilities by the
,heap discovery that the war was lust
md necessary sixteen months after it
vas ended.


1t is true our Savior, in his parable,
described those who came in at the
leventh hour as having received as much
ay as those who had worked all day; but
anne in one hour before the work was
one. and helped to finish it; but these
politicians did not come in
ntil sixteen months after the work was
II over


"If the war was .'just and necessary
S these men now say, why did the Dem
cratic party throughout the war de
ounce it as unnecessary. unholy, and
and assert that it was
orced upon our Southern brethren by
ricked invasion of their rights? If the
var was ..just and necessary why did
Democratic members Of Congress vote
gainst all supplies of men and money
against all appropriations and meas
res necessary to carry on the war, and
10 all in their power. by their speeches,
o discourage the loyal people of the
North and encourage the disloyal people
# the South? If the war was Just and
necessary why did Democratic poll
icians throughout Indiana discourage
labor to keep Democrats
rom going into the army. and exhort
he people TO resist the draft? If the
var was ..just and necessary why did
Democratic politicians argue that the
1overnment could not coercc a State?
md that each State had right to judge
# the infraction of the Constitution, as
veil as the remedy? and peaceably to
withdraw from the Union, according to
he determination of its own will?


If .'the war was just and necessary"
Why did the Democracy of Washington
county. in = meeting held at Salem, in
February, 1861, resolre that if a separa-
ion took place between the North and
he South, the line of separation must
'un north of Washington county, and
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