Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1878 — SENATOR VOORHEES. [ARTICLE]

SENATOR VOORHEES.

He is Interviewed and Tells What He Knows About Republican Lies. Ex-Soltliers Among His Strongest Supporters—He Always Wins in a Personal Campaign [Lnporte (Inrt.) for. Cincinnati Enquirer.] I found the Hon, D. W. Voorhees quartered a the Teegarden house, in this city and, before lie wasj aware of my intent, had drawn upon him a •opy of a South Bend paper contain rug copious extracts from the Indianapolis Journal, which extracts were not as full of praises as they might have been. lat once prepared myself for business by saying : “Mr. Voorhees, it seems that the leaders of the rep iblicun party, aided by tile Indianapolis Journal, have decided to make this a personal canvass against yourself. Does not this strike you as a little peculiar, and outof the usual way?” The Senator leaned back in his chair, glanced out of the window for a moment and then replied: “Yes; I can see no good reason why I shoul i thus bo singled out from among the large number of Demo crats in the state who are as justly dOtltled to be candidates for senator

a? I am. lam not a candidate to the exclusion of the aspirations of otheis. I have simply tried to <Jo my duty during the short time I have occupied that position, and if the people of Indlahft shall approve my course it will be gratifying, but if they sho’d prefer some otic else it will not Ire a matter of complaint on my part." “In your opinion, what will be the effect of these persona] assaults upon you in this canvass, and the likelihood I of your being returned to the senate?” j ‘ I cun only say, in regard to that, ! that my success Ims always been | greatest when my enemies have re- ; surfed to their present mode of at- ; tack. I have been six times a candidate for congress in my old district, ami five times elected. The only time I was defeated was in the Greeley campaign, when there was scarcely a word of abuse uttered against mein the entire canvass. During my successful cahVusses all the slanders and calumnies how being repeated in the Indianapolis JoOrftttl, and many more were poured upon ttte ih continuous torrents. The fact is, the matters now being published are a rehash of old, cast off, refuted falsehoods which I have met and trampled to the earth a thousand times." “But, Mi. Senator, here is a specific charge that you culled Union soldiers Lincoln dogs?” “That is a stupid lie—in fact ft brutal falsehood, ami has been stamped as such by the written statement of the Hon. Henry K. Wilson, late Senator from Sullivan county; by Maj. Griffin, one of the most reliable citizens of the same county; by Mr. Ed. Ptice, cleikot the circuit court, and tiie Rev. Joseph K. Wolf and scores of others embracing people of the highest respectability and unquestioned veracity, who heard the speech in which it is said I used the language. In addition, h-wever, the Hon. J. E. McDonald, sat by me on the stand at that time, and tins repeatedly stated that no more cruel and abominable falsehood was ever littered than ti.is charge contains. Besides ail this evidence every man of sense must know it to bo untrue from certain events which followed the close of the war. I was not a candidate for re-election in 186(5. In tiie meantime the legislative gerrymander in the state took place, which took Putnam county out of my district ami put Monroe and Lawrence in it, making it according to previous returns, a republican district by about twelve or fifteen hundred majority. In 18(58 I was renominated when absent and against my earnest wishes, but I accented and made the race That district had sent over twenty thousand gallant soldiers to the war.” “Let me interrupt you, senator.— What was the entire rote polled at the last election for congressman in that district?” “I think about #2,000. Well, my opponent was Major Carter, a good soldier and an officer of one of the regiments from the district. The survivors of the war. over 10,000 in number, were all at homo, aud for the first time I had an opportunity to me t them face to face in almost every township in »he district nnd reply to lhe accusations they had heard at a distance. I carried that republican district by 128 majoriiy by the aid of the votes of ie!urned soldiers themselves. If it could have been shown that I called them hirelings arrtDxlogs while they were imperiling their lives under the old (lag for the preservation of the Union they would not only have defeated meat the polls, but they would have killed me, as they ought to have done. At the nextele tion I was returned by nearly fifteen hundred majority by the same constituency.”

“But the Journal seems to rely a great deal on your alleged sympathy with the south before the outbreak of the rebellion,, and your disloyalty to the government during the war.” “.So I perceive,” he replied. “I was reared under the conservative influences entertained by both of the old psrties on the subject of slavery. I always regarded human slavery as a vast evil, but I found it in the constitution, and I feared worse evils growing out of an attempt to forcibly abolish it. It was natural, therefore, that I should cling to the last chance ami hope of a compromise and settlement, between the north and south, on the basis of existing institutions. I see tha* what purports to be an extract from a speech made by me at Green castle, shortly before the war broke out, Ims been revived. There was noshort hand importer present at that meeting, and I have no idea that my exact language has been retained, but at the same time I have no doubt I did say that I would not vote for men or money to bring on a conflict between the two sections as long ns there was the slightest hope of a compromise.— This was the position of Stephen A. Douglas, whose sneech of March 15, 18K1, in the senate, I had just heard, but when the war came by the firing on Sumter, from that hour until Lee’s sin render at Appotnatox court house. I voted for every man and evtry dollar demanded by the government iu its efforts to suppress the rebellion; every dollar which soldiers received in pay; every ration of food issued to. them; every blanket and every stitch of clothing that they received had the sanction of my support in congress. I can say the same with truth in regard to their bounties and pensions. I might also safely, were I disposed to do so. challenge a comparison between the private assist»m*e which I have personally rendered Union soMfers and which they have received from my bitterest assailants. All these facts are so familiarly known to my former constit ueue.y hi the Eighth district that I would not now stop to mention them but f or the fact that people of diff rent parts of the state can not, of course, be so well informed in regard lo them.”

“Did you see in the Journal of a few weeks ngo what purported' to be a facsimile of a letter written by you in behalf of Shoup in December, 1860?” “No. I did not see it. Itwasprlnted before my return from Washington. Ido not remember havtng written the letter, but have no doubt that I did. Frank Shoup and I were schoolmates. My recollection is that In the fall of 1860 he desired to go south on account of the delicate health of a sister. I was much attached to him, and doubtless gave hi n the general letter of commendation to the people of the south. So far from there being any thought on my part of recom mending him for military employment, I had not then, nor had the country genetally (he most distant idea that there would be a war at all. The statement that my Sympathies on public issues at that time were sub stantially with the south must of course be taken in the light of the is sues presented at that time, and not afterward. The Crittenden compromise was then tho most prominsnt issue presented. A peace congress had been called, or was in contemplation. The representative men of both factions earnestly desired the success of such a proposed settlement, and it was my understanding then that a large

majority of southern people were in favor of it. On the other hand< there was a class of extreme men in the north, headed by sucbimen as Chandler, of Michigan, who were loudly asserting their desire for blood-letting. As between this latter class and a compromise preserving the Union, and securing to all the states their existing rights under the constitution, my sympathies were certainly in favor of the latter proposition. But what sense or fairness is there in trying a man’s fitness for the confidence of the people at this time on the issues before the war? Suppose I were to do so. Suppose I were to go mousing through the sayings ol public meneightoen or twenty years ago. Discoveries could be made by me as well as by others. I believe it is understood that Judge Martindale is a candidate for the senate; yet the paper which he controls wasatgthe very date of the Shoup letter a disunion upper. Day after day, as everybody remembers, ft announced that the/Uuion might be broken up without resistance on the part of the north; that the southern states might secede in peace; that a line of separation might be drawn across the face of the country with its consent. This was simply treason to the Union, as far as treason can exist in men’s words. It may be answered that the proprietors and editors of the Journal have changed since then, but it was the organ of the same party it speaks for now. It was controlled and edited, I believe, by the Hon. J. t>. Defrees and Mr. Benjamin Sulgrove, one at this time a republican office holder at Washington, and the other still a writer for the Journal. I know of no republi can convention which has repudiated the treason of the Journal in 1860 and 1861. Tho New York Tribune, then and now the great organ of the republican party, boldly announced similar sentiments of disunion. lam reliably informed that the republican state central committee of Indiana is now engap-ed In aiding the circulation oi that paper as a campaign document in the present canvass. Its sms are all overlooked and its treason forgiven without repentance. The Cincinnati Commercial occupied substantially the sam i ground as the Tribune and the Journal, and hundreds of men from the south who labored to stem the tide ot disunion before the rebellion broke out have since assured me that such newspaper articles as these organs contained did more to lead the south into secession and into the belief that they could establish a separate government without bloodshed than all the efforts of Yancy, Slidell and other extreme men of that section put together. It is a well known fact of history, too, that Chase, Stauton, Holton and many others were in full aocord with the views contained in the papers mentioned. It seems to me that the In dianapolis Journal and the leaders of the republican party had better cleanse their own political reputations before assailing mine. The truth is, that when the inevitable struggle growing out of the institution of slavery became immediate and imminent, ’he wisest and best minds of both parties were blinded by the magnitude of the issue aud were guided substantially by their previous education and training. Some, while holding that slavery was a monstrous perversion of natural rights, had their faith still so strongly grounded in the compromises of the constitution that they were willing to make the greatest sacrifices rather than resort to the sword. lam not disposed to assail the living or the memory of the dead on tbisquesti in. I.wotild rather ascribeputrioiic motives to all iu the light of the events then surrounded them. This is all that I claim for myself, and I willingly concede it to others.”

“What do you think will be the result of the approaching contest in this state?” “Well, I hare not the sli .htest doubt that the people of Indiana, without regard to party, are with me by an overwhelming majority. And I believe, farther, that the democratic state ticket will be elected by the largest majority given by either party within twenty years. 1 * P> ow a bout tbc legislature sena“Of course I am not blind to the fact that by reason of a wicked and criminal apportionment of the state the republican party has large advantages in regard to the legislature; but at the same time I am confident of a democratic majority in both houses. The truth is, the repubficans are offering nothing to the people, The republican plattorm contains nothing which meets the'popular desire. On the other hand, the democratic platform contuins; especially on the financial Question, what two thirds of the voters of Indiana would indorse if that issue wore directly submitted without the influence of party bias. Our people are an intelligent, reading and thinking people; they know what they want, aud they will find out practical methods of obtaining it.” “What do you thiuk of the nationals and greenbackers?” “ They have a great deal of strength in the state, and as a general thing are aincer , honest and intelligent men. While, perhaps, a few of their leaders are governed by motives of political ambition, as is the case in all parties, the great mass of thejorganizution is made up of independent, unselfish pers&ns. Like all pioneer movements it embraces somo speculative minds who are tco far, but in the main their tendency is in favor of much needed financial reform. I do not apprehend injury to the deraociatic narty on account of their votes. Those who are sincerely acting to accomplish great ends must necessarily see that at this time in Indiana they cau not do so through their own organization. They also see that the democratic party stands pledged in its platform to carry out the substanoe of their principles, and in my opinion their votes will not be thrown away, but will be cast where they will produce substantial results.”