USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 33
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" First. That we are unconditionally and determinedly in favor of the preservation of the Union.
" Second. That in order to the preservation of the Union, we are in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war.
"Third. That we will sustain our State and Federal au- thorities, with money and supplies, in all their efforts to sus- tain the Union and prosecute the war.
"Fourth. That we will discountenance every faction and influence tending to create animosities at home or to afford consolation and hope to our enemies in arms; and that we will co-operate only with those who will stand by the Union, and by those who are fighting the battles of the Union.
"Fifth. That we tender to Governor Morton the thanks of his grateful friends in the army for his extraordinary efforts in their behalf, and assure him that neither time nor the cor- rupting influence of party spite shall ever estrange the soldier from the 'soldier's friend.'"
Accompanying the resolutions, as sent to the Legislature, was a memorial to the effect that officers and soldiers cheer- fully submitted to a policy which denied them a voice in the election; that they approved the wisdom which secured the civil from the influence of the military power, but that they felt compelled to petition the Legislature to refrain from po- litical discussions, to disapprove a compromise, to give the
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THE ARMY OFFENDED.
war a hearty support, to pour out the treasures of the State, as the soldiers had poured out their blood, to sacrifice every- thing except liberty and political cquality, to national inter- ests, to strengthen every department of the Government, to sustain all officers of the State and General Government in their efforts to subdue the Rebellion, and especially to sus- tain and encourage Governor Morton.
The same soldiers addressed the citizens of Indiana, en- treating them to believe that only a vigorous prosecution of the war could cause its speedy termination; urging them to support the Governor and the President, and to avoid strengthening their party by weakening their country.
The Thirty-Third and Eighty-Fifth regiments, at Brent- wood, Tennessee, in the form of a memorial, cast a defiance in the teeth of the Legislature:
" WHEREAS, A portion of the Legislature of the State of Indiana has, at its present session, by a series of acts and resolutions, shown a manifest intention to embarrass the Federal Government in the prosecution of the war by prop- sitions for an armistice, and to take the conduct of the war from Governor Morton, and place it in the hands of those who avow themselves in favor of a North-Western Confed- eracy, which propositions can have no other effect than to give aid and encouragement to the enemies of our Govern- ment, therefore,
"Resolved, That we, as citizens of Indiana, do unquali- fiedly condemn such acts and proceedings of our Legislature, and all other acts having in view the settlement of the pres- ent controversy in any other way than the return of the rebellious States to their allegiance to the Federal Govern- ment, and that to secure this end we favor a vigorous prose- cution of the war, and that we stand ready at the call of the Government to go home, if necessary, and crush out all treas- onable combinations which defame the fair name of Indiana.
" That Indiana has been our watch-word and rallying ery, a sufficient incentive to arouse every energy and inspire every heart to the most vigorous efforts, until that infamous Legis- lature took advantage of the absence of the soldier and patriot to steal into power and clog the wheels of the Government,
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by discouraging enlistments, encouraging desertions and re- pudiating taxation, thereby refusing to pay us the small pit- tance allowed us.
"That the civil officer who takes part in the encourage- ment of the Rebellion, should be driven from his post and from the community in which he lives; and that measures should be taken at once to fill the vacancy with a loyal man, without respect to party.
"That we hold it to be right and proper that volunteers should vote for every civil officer, at all legal elections in our State, and that the language of the Constitution providing for a vote in the township in which the voter resides, does not apply to a state of civil war, when, necessarily, one-half of the voters are abroad from their residences, and unless al- lowed to vote in camp, will thus be deprived of the priceless and inalienable right of self-government.
" That in this great emergency in our country's life we de- mand the right to vote as well as fight, and call upon our rulers at home to place this inestimable prize at once within our reach. We do not cease to be citizens because we are soldiers. We have not laid down the right to rule because we have sworn to obey.
" That, in our opinion, the factious opposition shown by a portion of the Northern people to the Federal and State Gov- ernments in the proceedings of their Representatives in the Legislature, the editorial articles of their newspapers, and the sentiments expressed by their newspapers, is intended to and does have the direct effect to encourage our enemies to hold out and prolong this war in hopes of seeing the North so di- vided that our armies will fall an easy prey to their united exertions. And so believing, we hereby pledge ourselves each to the other, that if this course is persisted in, we will hold the men so engaged as our mortal enemies."
The Indiana regiments at Helena addressed to the Legis- lature a letter full of the sturdiest patriotism.
" Do not place one straw in the way. Remember that every word you speak to encourage the South, nerves the arm which aims at the heart's blood of our brothers and kindred,"
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wrote General Hovey, Colonels Spicely, McLean, McGinnis and Slack.
General Milroy and his officers in West Virginia warmly remonstrated.
The Twenty-Seventh regiment recommended Governor Morton to punish traitors in the Legislature, and expressed its willingness to come home and assist him.
No body of Indiana troops failed to remonstrate and to signify emphatically their disapproval of the course of the Legislature.
General Rosecrans also wrote to the Legislature, "throw- ing all the weight of his name and fame against the Copper- heads."
The majority in the Legislature was sorely offended and was not rendered less factious by these proceedings. One, trembling with rage, thought "it was high time to know if there was a Cromwell at the doors." Another, Mr. Wolfe, in- sisted on reducing the pay of the "shoulder-strapped gentry, who, instead of attending to their legitimate business, were holding political meetings and passing resolutions condemil- ing the free Representatives of the people. Perhaps they would then mind their own business." He called their course infamous and insulting, and declared that it was instigated by Governor Morton and his minions.
After a series of angry debates, the "whole batch," to use the elegant language of the Senator from Clay and Putnam, was rejected. Nevertheless, an apology, full of insinuating flatteries, was addressed to the soldiers.
Governor Morton was regarded as the head and front of this vexatious interference, and was opposed with increased animosity, if that were possible.
According to our Constitution, the Governor is Com- mander-in-Chief of the military forces. He may call them out to execute the laws, to suppress insurrection, and to repel invasion. He has authority to commission all militia offi- cers, issuing commissions in the name of the State, signing them with his own name, and sealing them with the State seal. It is his duty to appoint the Adjutant, Quartermaster 25
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and Commissary Generals. The Indiana Legion can be called into existence and continued by him, every county be- ing required to give bond, to be approved by the County Auditor, for the safe keeping and return of all arms, accou- trements and munitions, and the counties being held liable to the State for all arms distributed.
On the seventeenth of February, Mr. Hanna introduced into the House a bill which, at one fell blow, would revolu- tionize the Government of the State of Indiana. It included the provisions of the Military Board bill, which, earlier in the session, had exeited in the adherents of the Government the most serious apprehensions, and which had been laid aside with private assurances from potent individuals that it should not again be brought up. According to its provisions the Auditor, Secretary, Treasurer and Attorney General of State were to have the arms of the State in their custody, and were to be endowed with authority to bestow upon militia offi- cers,-a Major General and Brigadier Generals,-certificates, which, in the event of the Governor's refusing commissions, were to be of equal authority. The Major General, so certifi- cated, was to select his own staff, which should perform the duties and have the powers now appertaining to the depart- ments of the Adjutant, Quartermaster and Commissary Gen- crals. The Indiana Legion was to be disarmed and dis- solved, and all commissions previously issued to its officers to be rendered null and void. Arms were to be given out on the requisition of the Brigadier Generals, and without bond or security for their preservation or return.
Thus while the bill showed a faint semblance of respect for the Constitution by suffering the Governor to retain the title of Commander-in-Chief, and by allowing his staff to continue in ostensible existence, it robbed both Governor and staff of every vestige of military authority, and, in its true and manifest purport, deficd the State and National Govern- ments.
Governor Morton, in his message, had urged immediate appropriations for the relief of soldiers' families, for the satis- faction of military claims to the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, due from the State, and approved by
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APPROPRIATIONS CONSIDERED.
the auditing committee, for the payment of a large debt to assist surgeons who had been sent to the field at various times, and who had rendered invaluable services; and for the payment of officers and men of the Indiana Legion for repell- ing invasion, and protecting the border. But these things had all been sedulously deferred, as had also appropriations for the support of the arsenal; for sick and wounded soldiers in the field; and for the advance of soldiers' pay, due and in arrear from the General Government, though it had been shown by the Governor that this advance could be made with little or no loss to the State. Even the usual appropri- ations for the support of the State Institutions, the Hospital for the Insane, the Institute for the Blind, and the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, had been withheld. No money had been allowed for the support of the penitentiaries, and the Northern prison was now deeply in debt. The Indiana Le- gion had received no pay since the beginning of the war, while the Southern border was constantly disturbed by the danger of invasion. The only fund for contingent military expenses, including the care and relief of the sick and wounded, was a small remnant of the appropriation made in 1861. For the civil contingent expenses of the Executive Depart- ment there was no provision whatever.
The single appropriation which had been made was for legislative expenses at the opening of the session. The sum so hastily appropriated was seventy-five thousand dollars, more than double the amount of any former sum devoted to the purpose.
Affairs were in this unfinished and chaotic condition when, on the twenty-fifth of February, but nine legislative days re- maining, the military bill was pressed to its engrossment, all amendments and substitutes having been voted down, all reference to committees refused, and all debate cut off. To make assurance doubly sure, and coolly calculating on the desperation of the perplexed and harrassed minority, the Democrats held behind the bill, and tantalizingly displayed as dependent upon it, all the so earnestly desired appropria- tions. Behind it also they held, in shadow Brown's resolu- tions in favor of secession, Wolfe's demanding an armistice,
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and Niblack's depriving Indianapolis of control over its own police.
In the ordinary course of events the passage of the bill was inevitable, and with it war in Indiana; for though so open a violation of the Constitution might and must be referred to the civil courts, the law's slow delay would allow of ruinous action. In any event a legal decision, coming early or late, would be no more binding to the Democratic party than were to Samson the withes of the Philistines.
Driven by the terrible alternative of Revolution, the mi- nority in the House accepted the last resort, and withdrew, thus breaking a quorum.
It was fresh in the memory of all, that twice in the previ- ous regular session, also in 1857 and in 1855, the Democrats had bolted on comparatively insignificant questions. But the majority, standing as it always stood, on the platform of self, was not the less exasperated. It angrily debated the propriety of arresting the absentees, but at length concluded to go home, and "bring about such a storm as would force the Governor to call an extra session," Mr. Buskirk compla- cently suggesting, that "in a very short time we should have nothing of a government left, except what we had in Indi- ana, and that it therefore behooved Democrats to keep the State Government in its pristine strength."
The Legislature adjourned on the ninth of March, after a session of fifty-nine days. Its departure was the lifting of an incubus. Governor Morton immediately consulted the Auditor and Treasurer of State, with the hope of obtaining from the Treasury money for the most pressing necessities. Those officers promptly decided that not a single dollar, in the absence of Legislative appropriations, should be drawn from the public funds. Governor Morton then appealed to the loyal people of the State. He also applied to the Presi- dent for an advance, under an appropriation made by Con- gress, in July, 1861, of two hundred thousand dollars, partly for the purpose of providing arms for loyal citizens of States which were threatened by Rebellion. Both appeals received a cordial response. The President advanced two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Counties, railroad companies,
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TARES DILIGENTLY SOWED.
private individuals and one bank, knowing that he had not the right to borrow the money, but relying on the action of the Legislature in some future session, made a further and ample supply. "Thus," said Governor Morton, in after days narrating the events of 1863, "thus the danger passed by, and the government of the State went on."
The Democratic party, not content with its action in the Legislature, was exceedingly busy in every corner of the State. Such a multitude of private letters were written to soldiers urging desertion and promising protection from ar- rest, and so productive were these letters of evil, that the army at one period sent back a counter-current of cowards almost equal in weight and volume with the stream of re- cruits. In the single month of December, 1862, more than two thousand deserters were returned to the field through Indianapolis alone. Robert Walpole, an active Democratic lawyer, boasted that he had aided five hundred soldiers to escape. Treasonable books and documents were sent in great numbers to the army, and were scattered over the country.
The contemptuous nicknames Butternut and Copperhead were insolently adopted; ornaments made of that much abused nut, and of heads cut from copper coin being osten- tatiously worn, and by women as well as men. Influential speakers threatened the Government with the anger of the people, and strove to rouse the people to wrath and riot by painfully depicting their wrongs. Daniel W. Voorhees, member of Congress from the Seventh District, on the twenty-third of February, 1863, uttered in Congress, during a debate on the Conscript bill, the following mischievous lan- guage: "You seek to establish a despotism by this bill, in order to fill the ranks of the army by force. Go back to the Constitution, as you value your lives; cease, as you value the peace of the country; cease, as you dread the lurid flames of civil war, at your own households; cease these infractions of the American's birthright, the Constitu- tion. Dare no more to lay your hands on the white man's liberty. Go no further in the line of policy which you have attempted. I say to you, gentlemen, that, as the Lord God
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reigns in Heaven, you cannot go on with your system of provost marshals and police officials, arresting free white men for what they conceive to be their duty within the plain provisions of the Constitution, and maintain peace in the loyal States. BLOOD WILL FLOW. 3 You cannot and you shall not forge fetters on our limbs without a struggle for the mastery."
Senator Hendricks proclaimed similar sentiments, and plainly suggested the formation of a North-Western Confed- eracy. Political meetings throughout Indiana endorsed and published rebellious principles. In January, 1863, conven- tions in Carroll, Brown, Lawrence, Stark, Rush, DeKalb, Martin and Scott counties adopted resolutions opposed to the war and the President's Proclamation, and in favor of an armistice, compromise and amnesty to Rebels. In Febru- ary, at a festival given to Senator Hendricks in Shelby county, the Administration, arbitrary arrests, emancipation, conscription and the war were denounced, and Hendricks, while speaking on the subject of volunteering, said: "Not intending to enter the Union army myself, I never asked any one else to do so." Also, in February, the counties of Greene, Putnam, Jackson and DeKalb published revolutionary reso- lutions. In March, the Democratic club of Indianapolis de- manded a State convention because "the Legislature had failed to protect the citizens against the tyranny of the ad- ministration," and declared in favor of a cessation of hostil- ities.
A political meeting in Warren county opposed the con- scription and the administration. The Tenth and Eleventh districts, in convention at Fort Wayne, arraigned the ad- ministration as tyrannical, and proposed revolution as a last resort. The Democracy of Wayne county met at Cambridge City and resolved:
First. That the further prosecution of this war will re- sult in the overthrow of the Constitution, in the overthrow of civil liberty, in the elevation of the black man and the deg- redation of the white man in the social and political status of the country.
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"FEE, FAW, FUM!".
Second. In favor of an armistice and National Conven- tion of all the States.
Third. Denouncing the clergy in the following language:
"Resolved, That the majority of the clergy for the past two years, are the devil's select and inspired representatives, preaching envy, malice, hate, vengeance, blood and murder, instead of love, charity, christianity, and the doctrines of Christ, and they therefore receive our unqualified and indig- nant condemnation."
Fourth. Denouncing the Provost Marshal system as an institution unknown to the Constitution, subversive of State Rights, dangerous to liberty, obnoxious to lawful resistance, in conflict with civil jurisdiction, and pregnant with demor- alization to society.
"Fifth. That we say to the administration that as the Lord reigns in Heaven, it cannot go on with its Provost Marshals and Police officials, arresting free white men for what they conceive to be their duty within the plain provisions of the Constitution, and maintain peace in the Northern States. Blood will flow! They can not and shall not forge fetters for our limbs, without a struggle for the mastery."
June 4, Andrew Humphreys, a member of the Legislature, addressing an approving rabble, represented President Lin- coln as an old tyrant and usurper, who wasted treasure and lives, killing forty thousand men a day. In September, the same gentlemen, standing in a wagon-bed, at a picnic in Jackson township, Sullivan county, spoke with much feeling to four hundred armed men of the beauty and necessity of peace, urging Democrats not to hoard their money, and not to spend it in levity, but to use it in preparing for self-defense. After Mr. Humphreys, a stranger from Georgia mounted the wagon, partly to show the crowd how a Rebel looked, to which it responded that he was "a good-looking fellow," partly "to represent to his friends the importance of resisting the present administration at the sacrifice of their means, their families, and themselves if necessary."
In Allen county, in August, a convention declared "the proposed draft for five hundred thousand men the most dam- nable of all the outrages that have been perpetrated upon the
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people by this administration, and further, that the honor, dignity and safety of the people demand that, against ruin and enslavement, they must afford to themselves that protec- tion which usurpation and tyranny deny them."
The Crawfordsville Review, taking upon itself the author- ity of prophesy, declared: "The day is coming when the word loyalty, if that day has not already arrived, will be a steneli in the nostrils of every honest man."
Many pages might be filled with the disloyal sayings of bad men, but where would be the use?
During the autumn of 1863 the sowers of strife were not without some show of harvest. In Morgan county soldiers arresting deserters were fired on. In Jay county arrested deserters were rescued. In at least nine different counties riots occurred in resistance to the enrollment. Fletcher Fre- man, an enrolling officer in Sullivan county, was murdered in cold blood a few days after the pic-nic in which Mr. Hum- phreys and his Georgian friend urged that men should arm themselves to maintain peace. Frank Stevens was killed in Rush county shortly after the Democratic newspaper of Rushville advised enrolling officers to insure their lives be- fore entering on their duties. Captain McCarty was killed in Daviess. Mr. Collins was shot in Terre Haute. In sev- eral communities Union men were warned, through anony- mous letters, to leave the neighborhood, and their barns, hay stacks and wheat ricks were burned. In Brown county the lives of all Abolitionists who refused to sign a peace memo- rial were threatened.
That murders were not more numerous and riots were not more extensive, in short, that the seed of rebellion bore little fruit in proportion to the diligence with which it had been scattered, is due to the vigilance and wisdom of our State administration, to the innate honesty of our people, and, above all, to the favor of our God, who rewarded the right- eous act of emancipation by the victories of Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Port Hudson and Helena, bringing from the blackness of night the beauties of dawn, and advancing it toward the perfect day.
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"WHAT MEANT THE THUNDER STROKE?"
CHAPTER XX.
AFFAIRS AT HOME-Continued.
To horse! to horse! the sabres gleam; High sounds our bugle call; Combined by honor's sacred tie, Our word is Laws and Liberty!
March forward, one and all !- War Song-Scott.
Wednesday, the eighth of July, 1863, at that dusky hour between night and day, when the absent and the dead,-the soldier in his tent and the soldier under the sod,-claim their vacant place at home, the silent city of Indianapolis was startled by the clank of the alarm-bell. No cry of fire fol- lowed. Between the strokes was a deathly stillness as if the town were without inhabitants. Then church-bells and fire-bells struck in, and with deafening clamor. Still there was no cry, nor flame, nor smoke, and no answer to the en- quiry, " What does it mean?" People streamed from the most distant suburbs toward the centre, after the first unan- swered question scarcely speaking. With every square the throngs increased until, before the Bates House, a vast, silent, wondering, alarmed crowd was assembled. Governor Morton stood on the balcony with despatches in his hand. John Morgan had crossed the Ohio, and was in Indiana with four or five thousand horsemen, and with artillery. "It is necessary to organize without delay," added the Governor, "therefore go at once to your wards."
The mass separated as rapidly as it had collected, women back to their homes, men to the school-houses or engine- houses of their wards.
Unexpected as was the intelligence to the people, it had not taken the Governor by surprise. On Saturday, the fourth of July, at noon, General Boyle telegraphed that Gen.
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John II. Morgan, with a large force, was marching in the direction of Louisville, and asked that such troops as Morton had in Indianapolis might be sent to him. The Seventy- First regiment, Colonel Biddle, and the Twenty-Third bat- tery, Captain Myers, were forwarded during the afternoon, and arrived at Jeffersonville during the night. Adjutant General Noble went down with them, and ordered out the Clarke county regiment of the Legion, under command of Colonel Wiley. It rendezvoused at Jeffersonville Sunday afternoon. The Seventy-First regiment and Twenty-Third battery crossed over to Louisville, and were sent out on the roads leading into the city.
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