Year: 1870




| men-many of them were absent during
the four years of the war-you left
these colored men at your homes where,
they stood sentinels at the doors, where
your wives and your children were safe
under their protection. They labored
and cultivated your lands, and raised
products which supports the armies in
the field. And now, is it possible that
the foreigner-T speak not of the for
! eigner as a man of another country
| bnt men foreign to your interests, men
of other sections of the country-is at
possible that they shall come in and
make these eolored men to hate you
and destroy you? Your interests are
| tho interests of the colored men,
| He forgot to tell them that last
spring he advised the breaking up of
the Legislat ture of Indiana to prevent
the ratification of the Fifteenth Amend
ment; and that his whole political life
had been devoted to a warfare in behalf
Of slavery, and to excite against the col
ored people the bitterest prejudice and
hatred of the white race.


! He also told them that political equal
itv did not mean social equality, and
would not leai to it, and that the col.
ored man had no desire or purpose of
that kind and this. after he had pro
claimed from every rostrum in Indiana,
that political equality would inevitably
lead to social equality. AM that this
was the great thing the Republican par
| ty had in view Whe c now are tue
Democratic mottocs: "White husbands
or none" and tFathers, save us from
negro equality" "and s.This is a white
mans government" Where are the
tWhite Boys IN Blue? These war
cries of the Democratic party are
suddenly hashed forever by the
Fifteenth Am endment, and IN place
are now issued, on perfumed paper,
polite invitations to eat and sleep at
the houses Of Democratic editors
What q wondrous change has been
wrought by the Fifteenth Amendment!
The colorel nan has his reyen ye. It
has been long coming, but has at last.
What luxury it must be to him of de
spise the fawning demagogue who now
crawls at his feet aud begs to kiss his
hand for his vote!


But now that the colored man is no
longer the "daily bread" Of the Demo-
cratic party, and is himself Invited to
sit down at the feast, they have cast
about for a substitute, and have fixed
upon the bondhOlder, the man who
loaned his money to the government to
carry on the war. This man is now
prosecuted, in their speeches and plat
form, as the embodime ent of vllainy, as
the usurer and extortioner, the plunder-
er Of his Government in the our of its
extremity, and as now fattening on tho
sweet and blood of the people. But
they were not always his enemies, for
during the rebellion, when the Governs
| Id - thax
to pay the army and carry ou the war,
these Democratic politicians adv: :sed
them not to lend their money, and
warned them that they would lose it,
telling them that the bonds would be
worthless, aud that the greenbacks
would perish in their hands. Then
they exaggerated the risk, assured them
that the rebellion could not be put down
and the expressive language of one, that
they .'might as we'll throw their mon
ey into the river as to loan the Govern
ment," Their raven cries were not
needed then, and because they were
not, the men who had faith in the Gov
ernment and were willing to risk their
money on its existence, are now calum
mated as the enemies of their country.
But if they hate the men who loaned
their money to carry on the war, they
the soldiers who fought our battles
still worse, and would characterize them
in fouler phrase if they dared But the
soldiers are very numerous body. who
can not be insuted with impunity and
it is therefore considered safer to at
tempt 10 excite their prejudices against
the men who furnished the means to
prosecute the war but this is alike an
insult to their intelligence and integrity
for what soldier does not know that ar
mics can not be raised and maintained
without vast expense.


THE DEMOCRACY OF INDIANA


What is there in the history OF the
Democratic party in Indiana that pre-.
sents an inducement to put the admin
istration of the State Government into
its hands ? Certainly not because of
its war record, for that they are asking
us to forget, and begging us to let by
cones be by cones. Its history during
the war is painful, and is too fresh in
your memories to require the story to
be told tonight. / would rather, il
possible, draw the veil Of oblivion over
the chronicles of party which was


false to the State, to the nation, and to
liberty, in the hour of their extreme
peril. Certainly not because of it's rec
ord in the State before the war, for it
is not too much to say that for fifteen
years before 1861, Indiana was. in many
respects, the worst governed State in
the Union.


The Swamp Lands donated to the
State by the General Government, which
Governor Wright said would yield to
the School Fund over S1,O00,0 900, were
in spite of all he could do, stolen and
squandered. and fill a disgraceful page
in our annals and the increase Of the
debt, the total want of policy, and reck-
less manner of conducting the public
business, the appropriation of ths
School Funds to patch out blundericg
administration, to say nothing of defal-