Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-07-21

ed OF the right OF suffrage
III we neglect to impose the first condstian
the cause of the late Rebellion viii continue,
and viii, some day, produce another. If we
1 neglect to impose the second condition, an
| olIgarehy, on an extended scale, will grow
upln one large section of the country, work
| ing grave injustice toward the voters Of an
other section. The three fifth abuse will
re-eppear ID a giant form.
But if we suffer this it cal7not fail to pro
duce, as Slavery produced, alterations and
| heart-burnings. Under any paan of recon
struetion involving so fragrant an injustice II
Is In vain to expect harmony or permanent
! peace between the Northern and Southern
sections of the Union.
| 1t Is not here denied, nor is 1t deniable.
| that. under ordinary circumstances, a State
may, by general law appsicable to all. re-
strict the right Of suffrage 7as, fer example,
to those who pay taxes, or to those who can
read and write. And il is quite true that
the effect of such Law would be to give adj
dItlonal political power to those who still en-
joyed the elective franchise But a State
can only do this after she has a State Gov
ernment IN operation, not when she is about
to frame one. North Carolina is In the
Union, as she has always been; but her
people, having lost, by war against the
/
allowed to go on under their old Constitu-
ton and laws They have to begin again
As Idaho, if desiring to be State, would
have to do, the people of North Carolina
haveto elect members of a Convention, which
Convention has to frame a State Constitu-
| ton, to be presented, for acceptance or re-
| lection, to Congress. Now, Just as Idaho,
taking her first step toward State sovereign
| ty, could not on her own authority, begin
| by denying avote in the election of members
of her Convention, to half her free popula-
ton, or if she did, would find her Constita-
| ton rejected, for that cause, by Congress, as
not emanating from the whole peoples SO, in
my judgment, ought not North Carolina,
having forfeited her State rights and begin
ming anew as Territory does, to be permit
ted, in advance, to reject HIore than third
OF her free population ,522 out Of 992,
CD. hope she win not so construe her
rights as to venture on such a rejection. If
she does, Congress ought to reject her Con
stitution as authorized by part of her peo-
pie only.
But, beyond all this, we cannot safely al
low the negro exemption clause to take its
chance along with other possible restrictions
to suffrage which a State, fully organized,
may see fit to enact First, because of its
magnitude, 1t is an act of ostracism by one
half the free inhabitants Of an entire section
of country against the other half, equally
free. Secondly, because of Its character and
results. 1t is an act of injustice by by those
who have assaulted the life Of the nation
against those who have defended the nation
al life; an act BY which we abandon to the
tender mercies of the doubtfully loyal and
the disguised traitor those whose loyalty has
stood every test, untainted, unshaken; men
ignorant and simple, but whose rude fdeli-
set in the forest, or the Union cause inper-
lied on the battlefield
The decision of matter so grave as this
should be taken out of the category of those
rights which a State, at her option, may
grant or may withhold; because, being ma
tiOnal in its consequences, it is national in
its character This is a matter for Federal
interference, because, like emancipation, it
is matter involving the Federal safety.
1t is because | know the frankness of your
own character, Mr. President, that, at pos
sible risk of conflicting opinions, | write to
you thus frankly. 1t is because | am deep
ly impressed By the vast importance of the
issues at stake that | write to you at all
think of our Union soldiers, the survi
vors of a thousand fields | recall the last
days, not of conflict but of triumph, when
Confederate arms were stacked and Confed-
crate paroles were given, and the Stars and
Bars fell before the old flag | remember
with what fierce fury those who surrendered
at last, fought, throughout four years des-
perate effort to shatter into fragments that
benianant Government under which, for
threequarters of a century, they had enjoyed
prosperity and protection. remember all
that was done and suffered and sacrificed,
before, through countless discouragements
and reverses, treason s plot was trampled
down and the glorious ending was reached.
And as, in spirit | follow victors and van
duished from the scene of conflict, think
that never was nation more gratuitously or
more foully assailed, and that never did ma
tion owe to her deliverers from anarchy and
dismemberment a deeper debt of gratitude
and good will.
Then | ask myself great question. Shall
these soldiers of liberty, returning from
fields of death to Northern fields OF labor
and of peaceful contest-of contest IN which
the ballot is the only weapon, and the bulle-
tin of defeat or of f,,victoryis contained in the
election returns-shall these veterans, who
never finched before military force, be over
borne, with their laurels still green, by po-
litical stratagem? Their weapons of war
laid aside, is the reward of these eonquerors
to be this, that, man to man, they shall be
entitled to oue-third as much influence in
administering their country's Government
as the opponents they conquered? Are the
vietors on the fields of death to become the
yanqtlished in Halls of Legislation?
1t is question which the nation cannot
fail, ere long, to ask itself; and who can
doubt what the ultimate answer will be2
may God, who, throughout the great eri-
sis of our nation history, overriding evil
for good, has caused the wrath Of man to
work out his own gracious ends-directing
us, without our will or agency in paths of
Justice and of victory which our human wis
dom was too feeble to discover-direet you
also, throughout the arduous task before
YOU. to the just and the Right
ROBERT DALE OWEN.
New York, June II, 1865.
THE following anecdote Of the Iron Duke
is recommended to the Secretary ofaWar,
and of the Navy, who have spent enor-
Il. ,t4s /,