Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-12-06

To your deliberations the restoration Of this
branch OF the " authority of the United
states is therefUenecessarily referred, with
the hope that early provision will be made
for the resumption of all its functions. 1t
IS manifest that treason, most fragrant in
character, has leen committed. Persons
who are chargedvith its commission should
have fair and IMPARTIAL trials in the highest
civil tribunals of;he country in oder that the
Constitution ant the laws may be fully vim
dlcated the tnth clearly established and
affirmed that teason is a crime. that trail
tors should be punished and the offense
made infamous ind, at the same time, that
the question may be judicislly settled,
finally and foreve, that no State of its own
will has the right to renounce its place in
the Union.
NEGRosUFFRAGE.
b relations of he General Government
towards the four Millions of inhabitants
whom the war has olled into freedom, lave
engaged my most serious consideration. On
the propriety of attempting to make the
freedmen electors Iy the proclamation of
the Executive, l t.ok for my counsel the
Constitution itself, the interpretations of
that instrument byits authors and and their
contemporaries, aAd recent legislat on by
Congress. When, at the first movement to-
NNBChuOufty the OOnRIEs5 VI Tile
United States instructed the several States
to institute governments of their own,t they
lett each State to decide for itself the condi-
tons for the enjoyment Of the elective fran
chise. During the period of the COnfedera-'
cy, there continued TO exist a very great di-
Yersity IN the qualifications of electors in
the several States; and even within a State
a distinction of qualifications prevailed with
regard to the officers who were to be chosen.
The Constitution of the United States recog-
nizes these diversities when it enioins that
in the choice Of members of the House of
Representatives of tho United States, " the
electors in each State shall have the quail
h~cations requisite for electors of the most
numerous branch of the State Legislature"
After the formation ofthe Constitution, it re-
NAMED, as before, the uniform usage for
each State to enlarge the body of its electors,
according to its W judgment; and, under,
this system, one State after another has pro-
eeeded to increase the number of its electors
until now universal suffrage, or something
very near it, is the general rule. So fixed
was this reservation Of power in the habits
of the people, and so unquestioned has been
the Interpretation of the Constitution, tina
during the civil war the late President new
er harbored the purpOse-eertainly never
avowed the purpose-of disregardingi it; and
in the acts of Congress, during that period,
nothing can be found which, during the
continuance of hostilities, much less after
their close, would have sanctioned any de-
parture by the Executive from a policy
which has so uniformly obtained. More
over, a concession of the elective franchise
to the freedmen, by act of the President of
the United States, must nave been extended
to all cOlored men, wherever found, and so
must have established a change of suffrage
in the Northern, Middle, and Western
States, not less than in the Southern and
Southwestern. Such an act would have
created a new class of voters, and would
have been an assumption of power by the
President which nothing in the Constitution
or laws of the United States would nave
warranted.
On the other hand, every danger of con-
fict is avoided when the settlement of the
question is referred to the several States.
They can, each for itself, decide on the
measure, and whether it is to be adopted
at once and absolutely, or introduced grad
ually and with conditions. In my iudg-
ment the freedmen, if they show patience
and manly virtues, will sooner obtain a
participation in the elective franchise
through the States than through the Gen.
eral Government, even if it had power to
intervene. When the tumult of emotions
that have been raised by the suddenness
of the social change shall have subsidized, it
may prove that they will receive the kind
LEST usage from some of those on whom
they have heretofore most closely de-
pended.
WHAT MUST BE DONE o THE FREEDMEN.
But while 1 nave no doubt that now,
after the close of the war, it is not compe-
tent for the General Government to ex-
tend the elective franchise in the several
States, it is equally clear that good faith
requires the security of the freedmen in
their liberty and their property, their right
to labor, and their right to claim the Just
return oftheir labor. Icannot too strongly
urge a dispassionate treatment of this sub
iect, which should be carefully kept aloof
from all party strife. We must equally
avoid hasty assumptions of any natural
impossibility for the two races 20 live side
by side, in q state of mutual benefit and
good will. The experiment involves us in
no inconsistency; let US then, go on
and makethat experiment in good faith, and
not be too easily disheartened. The country
is in need of labor, and the freedmen are
in need of employment, culture and pro-
lection. While their right of voluntary
migration and expatriatiop is not to be
questioned, l would not advise their forced
removal and colonization. Let us rather
encourage them to honorable and useful
industry, where it may be beneficial to
themselves and to the country and, in
stead of hasty anticipation of the certain
ty of failure, let there be nothing wanting
to the fair trial Of the experiment. The
change in their condition is the substitu-
ton of labor by contract for the status of
slavery. The freedmen cannot fairly be
accused of unwillingness to work, so long
as a doubt remains about his freedom of
choice in his pursuits, and the certainty of
his recovering his stipulated wages. In
this the interests of the employer and the
employed coincide. The employer de-
sires in his workmen spirit and alacrity,
and these can be permanently secured in
other way. And if the one ought TO
be able to enforce the contract, so ought
the other. The public interest will be
best promoted, if the several States will
provide adequate protection and remedies
for the freedmen Until this is in some
way accomplished, there is no chance for
the advantageous use of their labor and
blame of ~ill-success will not rest OF
them.
l know that sincere philanthropy is
earnest for the immediate realization of
It's remotest aims but time is always an
in reform. 1t is one of the
acts on record to have brought
millions of people into freedom. The
career of free industry must be fairly
opened to them and then their future
prosperity and condition must, after all
mainly on themselves. Ii they fail,
md so perish away, let us be careful that
he failure shall not be attributable to any
lenial of justice. In all that relates to the
of the freedmen, we need not be
90 anxious to read the future; many in
idents which, from p speculative point of
might raise alarm, viii quietly settle
themselves.
H EVILS OF SLAVERY.
Now that slavery is at an end or near
IS end, the greatness of its evil, in the
'oint of view of public economy, becomes
nOre and more apparent. Slavery was
ssentially a monopoly of labor, and as
UGH locked the States where it prevailed
gainst the incoming of free industry.
Where labor was the property of the cap {
.alist, the white man was excluded from I
or had but the second best !
hance of finding it and the foreign en- {
grant turned away from the region where 8
is condition would be so precarious. Z
With the destruction of the monopoly, free {
lbor will hasten from all parts ofthe civil f
led world to assist in developing various a
Il