Daily State Sentinel

GUBERNATORIAL CANVASS
From Laporte to South Bend.

MEETING AT SOUTH BEND.

&c., &c., &c., &c., &c.

FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

South Bend, August 13th.

The claim of the Abolitionists that they had a majority of the crowd yesterday is disputed by our friends. Old residents of Laporte, who know, are positive that the Democratic element predominated in the proportion of four to three at least. The evening passed off quietly. The Democratic delegation cheered Mr. McDonald, at the Parker House, as they passed out of town, and the band, paid for their services, attended to Gov. Morton, at the Teegarden House.

Our party took the train for South Bend at 9 o'clock in the morning. It was still hot, dry and dusty. The motion of the cars, however, stirred the air, and enabled us to enjoy the sights presented in a ride through the garden spot of northern Indiana. The constant succession of rich rolling prairie, clear lakes, sparkling like gems and luxuriant groves, spreading far away on both sides as the train dashed onward, left vivid impressions of beauty on the mind. There was evidence of the long continued drouth which has prevailed over the entire State, but yet the trees looked green, and the corn better than in central Indiana. The loose, sandy soil, it is said, is a better absorbent of moisture from the atmosphere than the clay or loam, and if, as is asserted, the drouth has been as great here as in the center of the State, the appearance of the corn crop of the two sections would confirm the theory. Farmers in Laporte, St. Joseph and Elkhart think their corn crop will be an average one this season.

On arriving at South Bend, carriages were at the depot, and Mr. McDonald and his party were drawn to the residence of Mr. Stover, at whose hospitable mansion he received the calls of his Democratic friends.

South Bend presents evidences of thrift and enterprise. Some fine buildings are in progress of completion, and it is adorned by many elegant mansions. Without having that regularity of beauty which lends such a charm to its rival city, Laporte, it has many striking features of interest. Its schools and colleges are unrivaled, and they are charmingly situated within sight of the city.

The streets were thronged when we arrived. I thought the crowd at La Porte was an unusually large one, but I believe that of to-day was larger. Along several of the streets for three or four squares the wagons were backed up along the side walks and packed in that way as close as they could be, and numbers were camped on the vacant ground wherever it could be found. The people of Northern Indiana are certainly awake and eager to hear what the leaders have to say. It is cheering to see and to believe that the people are at length roused and determined to listen to argument, weigh it for themselves, and draw their own conclusions. If the meetings increase in size as the candidates for Governor progress in the canvass they will soon be monster meetings indeed.

The meeting was held in a pleasant and thrifty grove of young trees on the Fair Ground. Between four and five thousand persons were present.

MR. McDONALD'S OPENING SPEECH

Mr. McDonald opened by stating that Gov. Morton and himself, in the discussion during the canvass, would aim to reach the reason and not to rouse the passions of the people. He asked his friends to give respectful attention to His Excellency, he certainly would demand the same for himself. He would ask that there be no noisy applause. He asked to be heard, and then receive or reject the arguments offered, as the judgment of the hearers might dictate. He had as great an interest in the welfare of the country as those who differed with him politically. He would deal with the public acts of the Governor, and would handle them without stint. Personally they had long been friends, and were so yet.

Mr. McDonald then took up the history of the bolt of the republican members of the last legislature, leaving the Executive without appropriations. He read from his Greencastle speech the charge made then that Gov. Morton had usurped powers not vested in him by the Constitution, and the Governor's reply thereto. The Governor there charges that he, McDonald, advised Governor Willard to borrow money in 1857 to carry on the government in the absence of appropriations. He, McDonald, denied this. He, as Attorney General, advised Gov. Willard to call an extra session of the Legislature. He read further from the Governor's defense, and taking the language then used, contended that the charge of usurpation was admitted. He had borrowed money without authority of law and paid it out as he willed. The report of the Financial Secretary showed that $865,195.86 had been obtained without authority of law and paid out in the same way. The report was very brief. It was like the supervisors report in a new county years ago—"all assessments paid in—all assessments paid out." These sums of borrowed money were obtained in the Governor's official capacity as the orders from the county Boards, copies of which he read, proved. Will not the State be called upon to refund this money with interest, and have the people nothing to do with it?

The Governor contends that as there was no law authorizing these loans, therefore he has broken no law. The order from Warren county granting the loan specifies that the money shall be advanced to the Governor in his official capacity with interest and upon his receipting therefor. He did so receipt in every instance.

Mr. McDonald then took the portion of the Governor's defense which refers to the bolt, and said that the defense was an utter failure. The secessionists of the South had just as good a defense for their conduct as had the Governor and his friends for bolting from their seats, because they feared unjust legislation. He offered no apology for their conduct that the Southern leaders might not urge for theirs also.

Mr. McDonald then took up the war and its causes. Many persons said that we should not now speak of the causes of the war. Why not? What would you think of a physician, who called upon to see a patient, when asked what was the cause of a disease should reply, it makes no difference. I will kill or cure him and then discuss the causes.

Mr. McDonald then traced the stormy agitation down to the commencement of the war. The Democratic party had fought against this agitation and predicted its result. Gov. Morton, in his early days, had stood shoulder to shoulder with him in the Democratic ranks, but living in the Burnt District he had to get over to another party to obtain office, and he took the leap. The Governor had left the party in 1854—joining the Know Nothing organization, called the people's party. His conversion was very sudden—as much so as St. Paul's, but he thought not so sincere.

The Governor spoke frequently of a letter written by him—McDonald—in 1850. That letter only proved that he had been for fifteen years consistent in his political career. If that letter converted Governor Morton—caused him to leave the good old Democratic party, he was sorry for it, and to that extent he had done harm.

Governor Morton frequently asked him his position on the war. He had answered, and would continue to do so. He gave his position, as in the Laporte speech, and enlarged upon the impolitic course of the Administration, contending that they were acting as recruiting officers for the Confederate armies.

Before he closed he asked Governor Morton who had neglected to answer yesterday what he had done to avert this desolating civil war, which had plunged the country in blood and brought woe to every household in the land. He would also propose another query. What kind of a Union was Governor Morton in favor of restoring? Was it the plan proposed by Mr. Lincoln in his proclamation of December last, by which one-tenth of the people of a State, upon taking an oath to subordinate their will to his, reorganize a State Government? Or was he for a restoration of the Union under the present Constitution upon the principles therein embraced, emanating from the fathers of the Republic?

Governor Morton's Speech.

Governor Morton responded to the desire of Mr. McDonald to have a fair and candid discussion. Personally they were friends, and he hoped nothing would occur during the canvass to alter that relation. Mr. McDonald had a perfect right to comment on his official conduct, and he had a right to criticise the public opinions of his opponent.

Governor Morton read Mr. McDonald's letter of 1850, and charged him with having repudiated the sentiments therein expressed. He had left his party, but his opponent had deserted his principles. Which was it best to do?

Governor Morton in reply to the charge that he had usurped authority in borrowing money to carry on the State Government, said that if all that was charged were true what would the people say about it? Was it their will that the benevolent institutions should be closed—that soldiers should not be raised for the army of the United States, and provided for? If recruiting did not go on in the State, drafting must. How would that suit the gentleman and his party friends?

The Governor contended that in raising money as he did he violated no law. He then went over the same ground of defense heretofore given, reviewing the action of Governor Willard and his legal adviser in 1857. If public necessity was a good excuse for taking money out of the Treasury without authority of law then, it is good now for borrowing money. A Democratic Convention had endorsed the act of the Democratic officers. If the arguments used in their defense were good to clear them of blame, they were still good. But he did not fall back alone on the arguments then used. He contended that the parties who advanced the money relied solely on the good faith of the State and no law was violated. He could never have reconciled it to himself to have refused to take and use the money offered. He did it. He did run the machine and he flattered himself that he had run it well.

The Governor then gave a history of his transaction with Winslow, Lanier & Co., for money to pay the interest on the State debt, and lauded the liberality of that firm in advancing the money, and his own sagacity in using it.

In regard to the breaking of a quorum by the Republican members of the Legislature in 1863, he would say that it was only an extreme case which would justify such a measure. They, the Republicans, had learned it of the Democratic party. It was said that when the Democratic members broke a quorum in 1861, on the military bill then pending, it was done upon the advice of Mr. McDonald and Mr. Hendricks. If the Republicans of 1863 did wrong, they were taught how to do it by the gentleman himself.

But there were reasons for the bolt of 1863. The military bill then pending he denounced as revolutionary, and similar in its provisions to those passed by the Southern States before they seceded. Had it passed, the State would have been plunged into civil war, and it would have passed if his friends had not bolted, and he justified that act.

The great and overshadowing question of the war, after all, was now absorbing the public mind. His position was known. He was in favor of suppressing the rebellion by force of arms. Where does his opponent stand? He quoted from Mr. McDonald's speech, in which he said that he was opposed to the war as now prosecuted. Now if the gentleman has any other way to prosecute the war, will he come forward and state what it is. He is opposed to a war for emancipation or subjugation. The gentleman is always lugging in the negro. If he is opposed to a war for subjugation, what does he mean? Is he opposed to subjugating the people of the rebel States? If so, he is opposed to the war in every sense, and the people will so construe it.

On what policy does he want the war prosecuted? Does he want it prosecuted to preserve slavery? Does he want it prosecuted without hurting anybody? Does he want it prosecuted at all? He said yesterday we had tried three years of war and failed, and now we must try some other remedy. Let him tell what his remedy is. The people demand it of him.

Would he abandon the war? Will not the abandonment of the war on our part give the South the power to dictate terms of peace? Will our abandonment of the war call back the rebel States to the Union? Will they not demand the payment of their war debt—pensions for the widows and soldiers—payment for farms and property destroyed, and also that the right of secession should be recognized? Would the abolition State of Michigan and the abolition State of Ohio stand this? Would they not say you have recognized the right of secession, we will step out and get rid of paying the rebel war debt?

But the gentleman's friends—thousands of them—are unconditional peace men. Withdraw our armies from rebel territory and would peace follow? It would not. The rebel armies would follow in the footsteps of our withdrawing armies and the contest would be brought to our own doors.

In reply to the gentleman's question, asking what he had done to avert this war, he would reply that he had used every effort in his power to sustain the government. He had appointed five gentlemen as members of the Peace Convention. They went there, but no peace was to be had.

The Governor then followed with a rapid review of the acts of Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet up to the advent of Mr. Lincoln, and then gave a statement of the expenditure of the $865,195.86 which had been advanced to him.

The Governor concluded by a stirring appeal to the people to stand by the country irrespective of party ties.

McDONALD'S CLOSING SPEECH.

In closing, Mr. McDonald said that he would be bound in courtesy to confine himself to the topics already discussed. He could not introduce new matter in a closing speech, to which his opponent would have no opportunity to reply. In regard to the Governor's administrative career, it seemed to him that the only plea used was that Gov. Willard had done wrong, and he (Morton) had followed in Willard's footsteps. The Gov. had made him (McDonald) a very important man in the State for the last fifteen years. He was held responsible for all that was done under Democratic administrations in that period. The truth was, and Governor Morton knew it, that when Governor Willard refused to call a special session of the Legislature, he had, as Attorney General, protested against the course adopted. It is true that when Aquilla Jones was called upon to advance the money, that he pledged himself to use his influence to see the money refunded by the State. But the Governor contends that he has done right, because what he has done has been for the best interest of the State. All usurpers say the same thing. When Charles the II levied ship money, he justified it by the same plea. Maximillian of Mexico will tell his subjects the same thing. He had asked Governor Morton what he had done to avert the war, and he had replied that he had sent Commissioners to the Peace Convention. He had done so; and what sort of Commissioners? The Union men of Kentucky had said, when speaking of them, "that Indiana was represented in the Peace Convention by the Black Republicans." What chance of peace or compromise with them. Governor Morton knew them, and knew just how much they would do to maintain peace in the land. Their appointments were the sole contribution of Governor Morton to avert the calamities which had fallen upon the land.

The Governor still called upon him to state his position in regard to the war. He had stated it, and if His Excellency did not understand it he had better go to school again and study the force of language. He was opposed to the war as now prosecuted. He was satisfied it would bring nothing but calamity in its train. While he would uphold the government in all its constitutional powers, he would hold out the olive branch and give to the seceded or rebel States the right to control their own domestic affairs. He was for the restoration of the Union, and with wise statesmen in the land this condition in his judgment, might have been obtained without the cruel waste by war that we have been forced to witness. The Democratic party had at all times responded to the calls of the government. Persecuted, reviled, trampled upon as they had been, they had still fulfilled all their obligations to the government. Would any other party have done this? He ventured to say that the party now in power would not have borne in patience the treatment they had meted out to their opponents.

The speeches were listened to with attention by the large crowd present. At the close, three cheers were given for the restoration of the Union, three for Governor Morton, and three for Mr. McDonald. Some young ladies then approached the stand and handed to Mr. McDonald two magnificent bouquets as an evidence of the appreciation of the ladies of his efforts to stay the bloody strife which was desolating the land they loved.