Year: 1866

want of education, intelligence, and


equality among the people. Such


Governments have been made SO


strong that they have always tended


toward the oppression of the people.


There was then no relief against OPP


preston except in revolution, and


revolution is incident to all Govern-


ments in the world, not excepting


that of the United States. 1t is often
sfightfnl7 in air other = Govern


ments, while it is always wrong


In our own. We have been


blessed with measure of intelligence


and equality, and with form of gov
ernment in which all noble progress
and reforms can be carried onthrough


the instruments of peace and peace
full measures. There is never any me-


cessity, and, therefore, never any right


of revolution here. In all countries


the object of party is to prosecute re-
FORMS, but in other countries they are


necessarily prosecuted by revolutiona-
ry means. The tendency of revolu-


ton, however, is to bring the Gov
ernment to the ground, that a new
one may be erected in its place. We
could not have a revolution here
which could be successful without
the same result; therefore, there can


be no reform of our Government by
revolutionary means. We had the
institution of slavery, curse entailed
on us, which we sought to remove by.
peaceful means. The party uphold
ing slavery thought it right to resist
by revolutionary means; the conse-
sequence is, we have just passed
through with the blessing of God and
the valor of the people of the United
States, ,athe virtueoof the people of the
United States and the skill of the
leaderslffo the,Ioarmy and navy
of the United States, we have passed
through "a reform, through the agency
of free speech and the ballot box,
pulling down and suppressing a revo-
luton which sought to destroy the,
Government. The lesson T ask you
to draw from. this reflection is, where
any party of men, kingreform, ask
you to resort to sword, pistol, musket
or cannon, then recollect they are en-
gagged in an effort to bring down this
blessed Government upon our own
heads Can you imagine what would
have been more unfortunate to the
people of the whole Continent, If the
attempted reyolutionat the South had
succeeded? !? Itwould have been said
thatwe, in the North, had not bravery,
virtue or intelligence enough to pro-
secute our reforms through the con-
stitutional agency of free speech and
free suffrage. Give us free speech and
a free ballot, and there is no. measure
of social amelioratfon" and process
which the American people can not
accomplish At the same time this
Government has nothing to fear, or
any citizen his life, Liberty or proper
ty, except to call them into requi-
sition, for the support and defense
of the whole American people. You
of Indiana have been border
State before and during the war. The,
border States were on the south cf
the Ohio and on the west side of the
Mississippi. The result of the war
was that the Southern States are
henceforth loyal to the Union, while
prejudice and passion has ceased. In
order to make the lesson more direct


all the people every individual has
at this time one chief duty, important,
to be performed-it is to put the Gov
ernment back to the same condition it
was, when the attempted revolution
of the South broke out; when every
State, and the right Of every State, and
every citizen in it, shall be exactly,
now as what it was before the at
tempted revolution began, except
those ri hts which, in prosecuting the
war and maintaining the Govern
ment against the rebels, were swept
away, by bringing slavery to AN
end. 1t may be desirous, here
after, to have other reforms. If
SO you have the power to make them
in the several States; you have the
right, and South Carolina and New


York have the right to make such re-
forms by their own act, independent
of the Federal government. The


Federal government has no power or
ability to interfere with these reforms


| believe and trust the people of all
ranks are in such condition Of intel
ligence and virtue, that they can al


most maintain the government and
preserve it for succeeding and unnum-


bered generations, while the people in
the several States can prosecute their
several reforms until they shall raise


society throughout this continent to
an elevation which will at once en-
courage and instruct mankind
throughout the world to establish
systems of pure representative self
government. Other nations have pass
ed through precisely the same crisis.
Rome, at the end of the republic, met
the crisis, and hurls under it what
might not have been the fortune of
Rome,r if, instead of Julius Caesar,
they had chosen Cato for Consul and
Dictator. This is the privilege God


has vouchsafed to US. Instead of
having Jefferson Davis ar some other