The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-07-20
COMMITTEES ADDRESS.

GOMMlI1Ab ADDhG1Cs
FELLOW CITIZENS Moved by a sense of
national peril, we ask your calm but earnest
attention to the policy of reconstruction
already indicated by our Government, and
to it's probable results
Scarcely emerged from the danger of ma
tionsl ruin by an armed rebellion, we are
met by other dangers less palpable, but for
his very reason, perhaps, more serious and
threstening. The Slave Power has failed
10 subvert the Federal Union by the sword;
its next move will be to take possession and
WELD it for its " purposes by the ballot.
Look at the recent development of facts.
The States late in rebellion are declared and
decided to be in fact States in this Federal
Union with their State rights unabridged,
their State constitutions unchanged. The
pardon of recent rebels is going forward
rapidly. Men who have proved their dis
loyalty through q four years bloody war
aud persistent rebellion will control the
new government of these States, and are
preparing to take their seats of power in
our next sessions of Congress-. 0aths of
allegiance, broken without conjunction in
1860 and 81 to make trial of war to perpet-
uate slavery, are sworn over again with
eaual facility to make trial of the new
method of controlling and subVerting the
Federal Government for the sake of slaV-
cry. E-L
During the last fifty years, with the sin
gle exception of the Democratic Presiden-
nal Convention Of 1850, the friends of slav-
cry in this nation have been a unit. They
will know how to be a unit again. the
thoughtful, observant minds in the nation
LsvS kS0a ssa-sAoL d~EjHE sh0 late war
with the manifestations of intense Southern
sympathy in h Northern. and Western
States spirit ripe. for most desperate
measures to aid the Slave Power in subvert-
ing the Republic. Union between these
elements and the restored Slave States is
already an established fact.
T~wo-ffths of nearly four millions of re-.
cent slaves are now 70 be added to the rep
resentative population of those lately rebel
States, giving them its additional members
in Congress. What will they do when they
come TO control the Federal Government by
the force of majorities? .7fr =
Can it be for one moment doubted that in
no long process of time they will annul the
decree Of emancipation /; restore slavery in
the late slave States reverse sll that has
been done to exPunge it from the Federal
Constitution repudlste the national debt,
or, as the alternative, assume the war debt
of the onfedsrscy trample down the col
ored race; drive them 10 desperation and
perhaps TO violence. and urge the nation
onward in q career of injustice, oppression
and wrong, the legitimate results of which
can scarcely be less than TO disorgsnize So
ciety, hurl down our republican institu-
3iOns, and bring upon the nation the right
eous retributions of Jehovah 2 D.
Let US call renewed attention to the fact
that while the policy Of reconstruction,
which is rapidly gong into effect, admits
TO the polls, and of course puts in control of
those State Governments the very men who
have proved their disloyalty before the
world, it equally excludes from the polls
that entire class of citizens who alone have
proved themselves thoroughly loyal, and
whose loyalty has saved the nation.
During the last four years nobody has
dared to question the thorough loyalty of
the long enslayed race. Their devotion to
the Union, their love for it, their fidelity to
Union men through all their perils, their
trustworthiness everywhere, their bravery
unto death in the field of battle,-who does
rot know these witnesses to their true
hearted loyalty and to their entire RELIABLE
ity as good and true citizens of this pation2
And now, shall they be leftpowerless al the
mercy Of the men whom they have helped