Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1893 — A FALSEHOOD EXPOSED. [ARTICLE]

A FALSEHOOD EXPOSED.

Indianapolis Sentinel. The Journal has made its usual annual rehash of the story of the insult to Mr. Hendricks on the occasion of the meeting of oitizens to express their sorrow and indigna** tion at the assassination of President Lincoln. This year’s fabrication is lather more contemptible than usual because the first part of the story has been copied almost word for word from the Journal’s local account of the affair published on April 17, 1865, and to this has been added the ornamental m srepresentation that has been gradually piled up by repub ican newspapers and republican orators since that time. In evidence we quote the Journal’s statement of that date: “When Mr. Hendricks rose to speak symptoms of intense dissatisfaction were manifest in the crowd, and it was only through the interference of Governor Morton, who asked it as a personal favor, that he wa6 permitted to oonolude his remarks. Mr. H. said he had never before been railed ut»on to speak on so sad an oocasion, He had never experienced so great a shock as that occasioned by the assassination of the president. He would haye thought that the high position he ocoupied, aB well as the noble qualities of the heart conceded to him on all hands wo’d have shielded him from the assas sin’s stroke. He had frequently asked the interference of the president in behalf of the misjudged, as well a;i the guilt /, and never knew him to refuse an act of kindness which did not conflict with his his sense of duty. His kindness

had endeared him to all. Ten years ago Mr. Hendricks had sat side by side with Andiew Johnson in congress. As he 'hen knew him, he was a worthy gentleman and a man of high ability. Mr, Hendricks announced it as bis intention to give to the administration of Mr. Johnson an earnest support in all matters that did not interfere consc'ence.” That is a veiy iair account of event. There wnp no disturbance, and no interruption exoept at the beginning ot Mr- Hendricks’ me 'ks and that was quickly stop> ped by Governor Morton who realised the asinine stupidity of the thing much better than the hood* loms who creatjd the row. The disturbance was not patriotic, but political. It was a manifestation of the same spirit that drove d" m* ocratio voters from tb> polls, and voted Massachusetts troops at Indianapolis; the same spirit that attempted to break up tho Andreev Johnson meeting some months ias ter, and secured a riot and bloods shed on our streets; the same spir: t that held every democrat to be a traitor. The republican press did all it could to stimulate this “patriotism.” On this very occasion the Jour, al cheerfully observed that the sentiments of “democratic sherts, suqh as the Indianapolis Sentinel, together with the teachings of the copperhed leaders and the bribery of sc uthern gold JThink of it! when the south had neither coin nor credit. It beats British gold and the tariff.) incited Bowles, Milligan, Horsey and their recanting state’s-evidence associates to plot arson, treason, murder and assassination in our midst. — The doctrines of the South caused to befall to Mi. Lincoln just what the dogmas of horn* traitors caused almost to happen to Oliver P. Morton . ” It it uot strange that with such teachings the republican ward workers should insult Mr. Hendricks, but at this time it seems almost ludicrous to turn from such hogwash and read between ihe mourning l orders of the Sentin J of that day the following:

“There is no excuse, no apology, no justification for the crime. It was a cowardly, cruel and brutal act. The extent of the i onspiracy is not known, but there .s every evidenoe of premeditation. We sincerely hope that th 9 leaders of the southern rebellion, for the honor of our own race and our coun try, have no complicity in the crime; but retribution prompt and inexorable, should be visited upon all who had any participation in it. ♦ t * Standing around the bier of the dead president let the people determine to imitate his virtues his forbearance, his magnanimity, his resolute purpose, and his humble reliance upon divine assistance for suppoit in the nation’s calamity; and, eapn apd pi), forgetting past differences, past prejqdices and past animosities,firniiy resolve that so far as his example, hi? in'* flence, Hip efforts, and whatever sacrifice may be necesshry can contribute to it, that the republic, pu« rifled and strengthened by the fiei y ordeal througn which it is passing, with the blessing of Almighty God, shall live forever.” Strange sentiments to Incite treason! Which think you now more patriotic, the words of The

Sentinel or those of the Journal? The Journal concludes its ac - count of what did not happen a: the imaginary second interruption by the statement “the ori&s anc confusion continued for fifteen minutes, bui when quiet was partially restored Mr Hendrioks pros oeeded, but the reporters failed to report the last sentences he uttered. l’his is flat falsehood. The olosing remarks of Mr. Hendrioks were as reDorted in the Journal quoted above, and were in refers enoe to the resolutions which had just before been introduced by Governor Morton and adopted by the meeting, pledging support to Andrew Johnson in his administration . And Mr. Hendrioks was one of the few in the meeting who oomplied with the resolutions.—’ The speech made by Mr. Hendricks was the same that he had made a few hours earlier at the bar meeting, at which he had been appointed chairman of the corns mittee to draft resolutions on the death of Mr. Linooln. The Journal’s report of it is almost identical with the Nentinel’s, and as to the manner of the ds-livery and the effeot of the interruption, we quote from the statement of Maj. Jonathan w. Gordon, who was one of the speakers on the oocasion. He says:

“Mr. Hendricks had stopped trying to speak soon after the uproar began and stood decorously and calmly faoing the storm. I had noticed before he was stopped that he was repeating in words the speech he had made an hour before in the bar meeting, and saw that ne stopped i i the middle of a sentence, and remember that I knew at the time the next word which would follow the last that he had spoken. * * * During all this time I gave as much attention as I could to Mr Hendrioks; and well remember that neither tremor nor pallor indicated the slightest fear on his part. * * * But what most displayed his self-pos-session and courage was to fodow. It was this: He resumed his speech without repeating a single word, starting off with the next word that would have followed had there been no interruption at all, a»d going on to the end as he had done at the court honse before, but adding a word to his former speech made necessary by the resolution which pledged the crowd to give to give to Mr Lincoln’s! successor the same support they had given to him.”

Such was the occurrence. There was m it no cause for shame to any one but those who created the disturbance and those who have persistently lied about it since then. Mr. Hendricks had always the confidence ana esteem of the best people in this commun’ty, and the fact that this was shown at the polls again and anain is the reason why even his memory is pursued with ghoulish h tred by his political opponents.