The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-06-30

f~rage-Its IBJasfiee 20 the Freed
men. zen
When Abraham Lincoln, g President Of
the United States of America, and Com.
mander in. Chief Of the Army and Navy
thereof" issued that Proclamation of
Emancipation which will forever be
esteemed the grsndest act of a grand and
progressive time, he added 70 the declare
ton that all parsons held as slaves in the
robellious territory were tbenOeiorward and
forever free, the pledge thst the @Exeeu-
tive Government Of the United States, in
Guiding the military and naval authority
thereof" would arecognize and maintain
their state of freedom. Not content with
q mers psper proclamation, he extended 8
solemn guarantee to four millions of freed
men, that the vast power of the United
Ststes military and naval, should be used
TO protect them in their freedom. That
pledge, which Abraham Lincoln ever stood
ready to fulfill, has been renewed ct his
death by his successor, and the nation, in
the person Of President johnson, stands
committed to the grand promise of our
msrtyred Chief Magistrate.
How is it being fulflled7
Reconstruction, without negro suffrage,
viii not fulalI It. Itmsy keep the word
of promise to the ear, but it will break it
to the hope. By such reconstruction, tho
negro will be released, TO be sure, from his
old relations ofserfdom-but what new con-
dition awaits him2 Deprived of the pro-
lection Of his master, whom Eelfinterest
would render. 70 some extent at lesst, care
fuI of the personal welfare Of his slave, he
is left alone and without power to protect
himself in the midst of whites who hate
him with ten-fold more bitterness Lecause
of his love for the Union, and who are left
to control his destinies, by their votes and
by their legislation, more entirely than
VIXEN he was q slave. From the tender
mercies Of unrepentant rebels, once slave
owners, what can the black Unionists, once
their slaves, expect2
Let US suppose that the work of recon-
s~truction is commenced without negro suf-
frage. Suppose that conventions are called;
that constitutions are framed which shut
out the negro from the polls and that I'M
der them civil government is resumed in
the rebellious States. The white elector
unrestrained by the negro ballot. the white
legislator, unchecked by responsibility to
black constituents, begin their career Of
oppression. They may order, as the Vir-
ginia tobacco planters do, that no black
man shall make 8 fresh contract, unless
provided with a certificate Of good beha-
viOr from his former employer. They msy
decree, as did the Tennessee convention
lists, that orphans, or children not orphans,
may be spprenticed for s term of
years. They may enact that an
blacks without visible employment shall
In like n be seized and turned over
to plantersfor a series of years; that blacks
who are debtors shall be made TO work out
their Indebtedness and, through n Of
those adroit provisions by virtue Of which
the manufacturer of slop clothing in Lon
don keeps his men in q perennial state of
debt s~erviLude, the southern creditor msy
secure all the advantages of the servile
system without the stigma Of the anne
Tho provisional government of Louisisna
forbade freedmen TO 60 from one planta-
ton to another. The provost msrshsls in
Alabama have issued similar orders. What
Is there TO prevent laws Or the same
nature from being enacted by state
legislation Whist is TO prevent the re-
unement and e~ztention of these villsinous
black codes, by men DESTROYS enough OF re-
venging their humiliation on the liberated
blacks, and of proving emancipation q
failure? Uuder such control the freedom
of the slave is no real freedom. It is ten
times worse than his former slavery. It is
not the freedom that Abraham Lincoln,
and Andrew johnson after him, have
promised to recognize and maintain"
And yet this wreiched state of affairs Is
the inevitable consequence of giving the
whites of the South, once rebels and slsVa-
holders, the power of the ballot, and ex-
clsding therefrom the blacks of the South,
once slaves but always loyal.
There is but one safe solution of this diff
Rcult problem: Let the States come back
with a suffrage unrestricted in respect TO
color, and restricted in no other respect so
far as to render labor in the future, as it
has been heretofore, the hopeless bondsman
of Capital. In this way only is the safety
of the nation secured, and its honor re-
deemed BY the fulHlment of its pledge.