The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-07-13
Senator wilson ON negro Suffrage.

SeuatOE WILSON On Ne8rO HuhEdEes
The following cheering words were
spoken by Senator Wilson in his address
to the colored people of Washington on
the Fourth of July last
I want the South to understand that
their black code and their black laws, and
slI they have done 10 hold men in slavery,
we're abolished for ever with slavery itself;
and 1 serve here to-dsya notice upon them
that 1 nave prepared a bill, which l in
tend 70 introduce, toe, on the first day of
the next Congress, for the personal liberty
of every freedman on this continent; and
l want them to understand that l belong
to q body of men who are accustomed to
sleep on the field of victory
a class of men who accept the
doctrines of the New Testament, who &C
cept as the living faith of the North Amer
ican republic, the Declaration of Indepen-
dence-s class of men who represent the
principles Of liberty, OF humanity, of jus
tice, and q set Of men who never we're,
and never can be defeated. CCheers. In
our ears the words, the touching words Of
Abraham Lincoln run forever, hat the
black man may in some hour of future
trial, keep the jewel of liberty in the fam
lily of freedom. Mr.. Wilson then review
ed the various political parties with which
he had been connected at various times,
but fsom which he had broke when they
ceased TO carry the srEndard of progress
to the height he thought it should go, until
at last, said he, after four years of bloody
struggle 1 have seen slavery wiped out Of
the country, from Canada TO Mexico. Now
Il fa1l Won Nn-Aau that naaffnn narfu nh1I-
fations aside, we stand on the eternal
principle OF right; have sworn to stand
there to the end of the chapter, and so
long as there is a right not secured,
or q wrong unredressed, these men
are ready and viiL build up and pnu
dOUa at their pleasure. And 1 say to you
that ninety-hve ont of every hundred Of
the men who in November last voted to
put Abraham Lincoln-God bless his name
in the Presidential chair, are standing
today shoulder to shoulder, determined to
protect the freedom of America. Nothing
is more sublime han the record of the
black man in this struggle. They have
stood by our brave soldiers and sailors in
the thickest fights they have guided them
against h enemy; they have stood by
our men when fugitives from starving
prisons and given them iood. They stood
by the country faithfully in the hour of
trial, and the country will stand by them.
/" Good, good and applause 1t is said
that if they possessed the right of suffrage
they would vote as their former masters
dictated to them. If there was ever an
uttera1c e that had not the semblsnce of
truth in it, that is it. I believe if the gov
eminent had told the rebels when it forced
them to lay down their ARM that they
must do justice to the negro and give him
his franchise they would gladly have done
it; but 1 am not hero to And fanlt with
the government and shall keep my faith
in it until is broken. And l believe the
President of the United States, who told
the black man in the capital of his own
Tennessee, that, if no one else would, he
would be the Moses, and be to them Whist
Abraham Lincoln would have been to them
had he lived to carry out his great and
glorious principles. ! understand they say
they hold the right of suffrage in their
hands. I want them to understand that
an act Of Congress prohibits them from
holding Offices under the government and
until justice is done to the negro those
gentlemen will go minus the Offices. Par
dons won't give them TO them. 1 sm net
in favor of compromises generally; but we
may accept as q compromise justice to the
negro.