Year: 1866

In the Indiana House of Representatives
February lst. 1861 Mr.. Heifren said: 'lf
YOU call us traitors because we sympathizc
with our Southern brethren-becausc we
have stood up manfully and nobly for the
right-if ii is because we want To guarantee
them the same rights we enjoy ourselves
put your epithets upon us as much as you
please. You will find strong arms and brave
and true hearts beating in the breasts of over
an hundred thousand Indianians, that will
saw, as YOU march under Abolition banners
towards our brothers on the other side OF
Wonder river: Thus far shalt thou 30, and
no further


Mr.. Nebeker (interrupting)-1 want TO
know if he means bv that he will meet the
armed forces of the United States?


Mr.. IIeffren-l mean that. whenever the
President of the United States of America
calls upon the Governor of the State of In
diana for troops TO go to tie Southern States
and ,rhip those seven States back into the
! Union. and force them to remain an integral
part of the GOvernment-l mean that |
stand where KOsciusko and Pulaski stood.
| will do as Lafayette did: as Steuben and
DeKalb and others did. | will leave my ma
tive land-my hearthstOne-my wife and
family-and rather become private in the
Southern army, fighting for equal rights
and privileges. rather than be the Comman-
dcr-in- Chief of an Abolition army that wO'd
be compelled to 90 to the South To shed the
blood of those who dare raise their arms for
freedom and libcrty-for justice and self
preservation.


When Won talk about cocrcing fifteen
Southern States or fifteen Northern States
of this confederacy. you might as well talk
i,
turning its waters toward the Rocky Noun
tains The race from which we sprung
never was conquered For two thousand
years the history of the world records no
instance where the Anglo Saxon race, or the
people from which they sprung, was ever
conquered. When YOU attempt by North
cm power to compel the Southern people
of this country to remain subservient and
become vassals to them, foreign power;
when that day comes, and in the name OF
/ Heaven | trust the time will never come.
when brother has got To point the sword at
brothers breast; has got to spill brothers
blood: has ever got to be called out under
1 the military despotiSm and dictatorship
which is proposed to be given by a bill of
this House. to the Governor and that shall
be executed by the slaves of the Executive
of this State. and We compelled to march
across yOnder river to take the blood ofOur
brothers upon that soil. | pray that God
Almighty may. in his providence and mer-
cy. send an earthquake to sink the whole
( United States in one common grave. Ask
me and the people of Indiana to cross that
river TO fight our brethren and friends:
: The people ofthe Southern States are do
/ ing but what our fathers did. | stand here
/ to-day, firm admirer of and believer in: the
/ Virginia resolutions of 1898. i say | am
here still standing by the principles CON
tanned in them recognizing the right of a
State whenever her people may choose, to
/ leave this cOnfederacy and set up a Gov
ernment for itself. Ii this be treason. then
/ | am a traitor. Bat with me YOU will find
more than hundred thousand traitors in this
broad land in the State of Indiana. and be-
/ fore you undertake to come with hemp in
one hand and jayonet IN the other, as you
! threaten, to eXpiate cur crimes upon the al
tar of the country. | tell you to speak for
your own collins and bring them with YOU
for we will meet you as Leonidas with his
Spartan band met NerXcs and his hosts at
the pass of Thermopylae. and only over our
dead bodies shall the horCes of Abolition
ism, under its dark and black banner, march
across the Ohio river and there endeavor 10
plunge the sword in the breasts of our
Southern brethren.


But if nothing but war and blood. and
strife, Will settle the mattcr--if YOU are de
itermined to force things. let me tell YOU
now, YOU will not have a united North. and
God forbid that you should Upon every
hillside. and in every vale ON the broad
IprairieS and in the wldS of the wilderness.
thousands and tens of thousands would rise
up 10 meet YOU and stay your onward


march. who would lay down their lives up
on the battlefield ere you should. under the
black banner of abolitionism, invade the
Southern States to lay waste their villages
and cities. incite their slaves to servilc in
surrcction, and carry devastation and mis-
cry on every hand and you would find foe
men worthy of your steel.