Year: 1876

our oppresSors, so that the inference
of all was that the States of the
Northwest should form a North
western confederacy for the time be-
ing, TO be afterward united with the
South, and to cut loose from the
East.


He arraigncd the war party us the
most intolerant ever known, as cor
rupt, as the author of hard times and
desolation, as who'll y responsible for
the war, and said if the war should be
so prosecuted as to abolish our mar
ket in the South by destroying the
peculiar system of labor in that sec
ton he would advise the Northwest
to look out for itself His favorite
phrase Wits, The restoration OF the
Union upon the basis of the Comstl-
tution;" by which he meant the pres
ervation OF slavery, and giving to it
equal rights in all the Territories;
and in. referring to this in subso-
quent speech, in the campaign he
said:


II this is rendered impossible by the fol-
vi vi lHC DdEly III DONCT,
then the mighty Northwest must take care
of herself and her own interests, and not
allow the arts and tinesSe U. New England
and the Eastern lust of power, commerce,
and gain to despoil her of her richest com
merce and trade.


Mr.. Hendricks fully believed ut the
time that he had struck the current Of
Democratic thought and action, but
he afterwards feared that he had got
ten off the fence prematurely. 1t was,
in my opinion, the worst speech
made in any Northern State during
the war, and exerted the most dele
terious influence. 1t was the fruitful
parent Of that crop of conspiracies
and reasonable schemes which after
wards disturbed the peace of the
State, and SO nearly compromisedher
position in the Union. The Sons of
Liberty and other disloyal organiza-
tions and the reasonable schemes
that were formed were but the off
shoots of that central idea of his
speech-that the interests Of Indiana
were not with the East, but were with
the South, and that the Eastern States
should be left out in the cold. Mr..
Hendricks did not belong to any of
these organizations, as l believe, but
that he knew all about them, that he
never condemned them, and that their
leaders and contrivers were all his
friends, | never doubted for mo-
ment, and that his position was this
that if they succeeded in their pur-
pose he would reap the benefit, but if
they failed he was not responsible for
their action.


HATRED OF THE NEGRO.
He has always exhibited an uncon-
trollable hatred OF the negro, and in
this represented the lowest and most
vulgar elements of his party. In the
Senate he opposed the freedom of the
sluves escaping into our lines during
the war. He bitterly opposed the
repeal of the Fugitive Slave law long
after the issue of the Emancipation
Proclamation, and speaking against
the resolution of repeal said it was as
plain to him as the multiplication that
| IL SnOuld not De repeated.


On the 10th of February, 1864, on
the resolution to allow negroes to ride
in the street cars in Washington he
said:


at seems to be considered a great outrage
that the negroes in the District of Colum
bia are not allowed to take their seats in
the same cars with the white men and
| women that travel on the roads in this
city. If / were allowed to express an
opinion on this subject l should say the
outrage would be the other way"


On the 5th of December, 1867, in
speaking on the District of Columbia
bill, he said he was opposed to allow
ing negroes to sit on iuries or hold of
flee, and that it was policy which
subjugates the whites to the coIoled
race.


OPPOSITION TO AMENDMENTS.


Mr.. Hendricks was in the Senate
when the Thirteenth Amendment to
the Constitution was adopted abolish
ing slavery; when the Fourteenth
Amendment was adopted, securing
equal ri ghts, protection and immuni
ties in all the States, and prohibiting
the payment for slaves and the rebel
war debt; when the Fifteenth Amend
ment was adopted, providing that no
person should be denied the right of
suffrage on account of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude, and
he spoke and voted against all.
/ He not only voted agains' the
Thirteenth Amendment abolishing
slavery, but in an excited speech, de-
clared to an astonished Senate that
the people of the United States had
no power to abolish slavery by an
amendment to the Constitution.


Its enough to know [says hel that this
Constitution existed before the Revolution
in the Colonies that it continued during
the Revolution that il came with the col
onies into their state of independence and
separate sovereignty and when the Colonies
came into the Federal compact they did
not submit that institution or the other do
mestic institutions to the control of the
J Federal Government. The Federal Gov
eminent has had nothing to do with the
compromise it was protected and respected,
and fugitive escaping from one State to
another shall be returned without respect
. to the law of the State into which he es-
capes.


This was spoken of slavery in April,


1864, in the last year of the War, when
Slavery was, in fact, already dead, having
been killed by the Emancipation PROCLAIM
alton, but he still carried the putrescent
corpse about in his arms, and entertained
the vain hope of calling it back to life.
He opposed the enlistment of negro
soldiers, and in speech at Shelbyville,
Ind, in February, 1863, just after his
election to the Senate, said:


The last and crowning act of infamy
on the part of this Congress is to be the
. enactment of the law to organize 15O, 900
! negroes into regiments. The bill has


passed the House, and believe will pass
: , the Senate, and be approved by MIR. Lin
coin. Three Republican members voted
against it, Their names should be pre-
served in letters of gold. What does this


legislation mean? Is il that 20, ,000, 600
= white men at the North cannot cope with
the 2, 600, 900 white men at the South? Or
is it that the negro will make better
soldier than the white man?"
Further on he said:


"Can it be possible that the safety, the
honor, and the glory of my country is to
rest upon the shoulders of negro regi-
ments? In church poetry I find the lines:


Upon what u slender cord


Hang everlasting things"
If our country's fortune depends upon
negro valor then may we sing:
r Upon what q slender cord
Hang earthly things"
The men will besnarkeG who have done
this. The people whose sons and brothers
: are in the held will not forgive the insult" !"


Looking at these remarks in the light
! of the past we would question the sanity
. ls~p Al kl.k