The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1865-06-28
Radical Warfare upon Pres. Johnson

surely the same authority WHICH may nml
the electoral law OF slavery may enlarge 1t.
the national authority eau do any thing abou
elections; if it can order an election; if it car
regulate an election; if it can exclude traitor
who is still at large, it can admit loyalist whose
only incapacity is his skin.
1.-The colored suffrage is now a necessity. But
beyond this, in making it an essential condition
of the restoration of the rebel States to the
Union, we follow, first, the law of reason and of
nature, and secondly, the constitution, not only
in its text, but as interpreted by the declaration
of independence. By reason and nature there
can be no denial of right on account of color;
and we can do nothing which is thus irrational
and unnatural. By the constitution, II is stipu-
lated that the United States shall guarantee to
every State republican form OF government
but the meaning of this guarantee must be
found in the declaration of independence, which
is the controlling preamble of the constitution
Beyond all question the United States, when
called to enforce this guarantee, must insist on
the equality of all men before the law, and the
consent of the government. Such is the true
idea of a republican government according to
American institutions
''The slave masters driven from their first in
trenchments, already occupy inner defences.
Property in man is abandoned; but they now in
sst that colored persons shall not enjoy political
rights Liberty has been won. And now new
compromise is proposed by which eolored per-
sons are to be sacrificed in the name of State
rights 1t is bad that it should be so. The cause
may be delayed but it cannot be lost; and all
who set themselves against it will be Overborne,
for it is the cause of humanity. Not the rich
and proud, but the poor and lowly, will be the
favorites of an enfranchsed republic, The
words of the prophet will be fulfilled: And /
will Danish the people for their evil, and the
wicked for their iniquity, and will cause the
arrogance of the proud to cease, and l will lay
low the haughtiness of the terrible. will make
man more precious than fine gold, even man,
than the golden wedge of Ophir.' catch these
sublime words of prophecy, and echo them back
as the assurance of triumph
At the anniversary meeting of the emancipa-
ton league held in Boston last week:
Ex-Gov. Boutwell, set his pegs somewhat in |
advance of the speakers who had preceded him.
He declared she would never consent to the
readmission of State into the Union unless
uader constitution which gave the right of suf |
frage to black as well as to white. The black |
man must vote, at all events, whether the whites
did or not" He suggested, also that, Sat the |
next session of congress, the districts covered
by the States of South Carolina and Florida /
should be organised as new territories, and the
colored people invited to settle there, and build
up States of their own, from which they might |
in a few years, send black representatives to
congress.
Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, said, ''the
legislature of Tennessee had passed, through
Que branch, law degrading the free blacks of
that State to the condition of serfs; and he would
tell the people of Tennessee, Gov. Brownlow
and y,rosidont Johnson that thn raprnSanta tiVnS
of Tennessee cannot be received in congress with
that law upon her statute books" The ballot,
he declared, must be put in the hands of the
black man.
Mr.. Wendell Phillips is reported to have said:
'He commended that slavery was abolished, and
that the reconstruction policy of the admins
tration, as set forth in the proclamation for the
reconstruction of North Carolina, was an abso-
lutte surrender of the helm of the Union into the
hands Of Alex. Fl. Stephens and his co-workers.
The construction on that basis was a practical
fraud upon the north Every life and every
dollar that had been spent had been stolen from
them. There was but one way in which the
people could still hold the helm of affairs, and
that was a declaration of reputation of the
entire war debt. Such party would have his
voice and vote until God called him hence. He
would constantly oppose every step Of recon
struction that did not place the negro upon an
absolute equality and level with the white man.
There were but two parties in the Countrywide
sycophants of jeff. Davis and the lovers of lib
erty. Every man who supported the North Caro-
lima proclamation was Davis sycophant. Better,
far better would it have been for Grant to have
surrendered to lee, than for president johnson
to have surrendered to North Carolina"
The National Anti-Slavery Standard of June
8, has leading article, under the heading, "The
Fatal Step, in which the North Carolina policy
of the administration is assailed:
"And the substance of the whole is that, so
far as North Carolina is concerned, the admins
tratiOn has declared against negro suffrage.
North Carolina is handed over to the rule of a
merciess aristocracy, created by the act of
president Johnson and resolved not merely to
exclude the negro from suffrage, but to make
his new possession of freedom a mockery and a
sham. Let whoever doubts it look at Tennessee,
and the black code which has already passed one
branch of its legiaslture. Such tyranny is
the necessary consequence of the distinction in
races. There is no party in the south that is
friendly to the negro, or disposed to do him
Justice. The rebels hate him because he was true
to the Union. The so-called negro loyaIists are
the poor whites, who always hated the negro, as
a negro, worse than the slaveholdng class did
q fact with which every southerner is familiar;
so that to whatever class the fate of the black
race shall be remitted there is mot even a chance
that it will be free from oppression-much less
be granted justice. By the proclamation of the
president and the policy of the government the
negroes of North Carolina are doomed to a cen
tury of serfdom.
"We can only hope the North Carolina policy
is adopted as an experiment, not as fnalty
Nh Ia, 4