Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-06-03

unnccessary-yet In ten years, II our Fed
eral system survive, the whole people OF
every State will be restored to all their
| rights within the State, and the South hold,
along with all her citizens, the same posi-
tion of equality and influence which she
held fifty years ago. This is the lesson of
history, the law OF, human nature; and no
narrow, suppressinig spirit OF revenge, or
of bigotry and scctionalism, in the form of
test oaths and teasing, restraining, denying
regulations without number, can stay the
inevitable result-np, not even though it
should succeed now in controlling the civil
and military power of the Federal Gov
ernment, and, 7 rs'' .1 d,.T :aIr .
Dressed in little brief authority, " % u.f.r.
Play such fantastic tricks before high Heaven,
| AS make the angels weep"
But to return: as to the time and manner,
as well as the results of abOlishing slavery,
and gravest of ALL achat shall be done eoith The
negro, the power and responsibility are alike
with the Administration; and again it will
be for the Democratic party, guided by the
light of its ancient principles and looking
only to the public good, simply to, accept or
reject, .-r ,.-,.- .... ...
| The question of the political and social
| status of the negro, is essentially and totally
| distinct from the issue of A frican seryitude;
| and any man may have been or be yet radi-
| eally anti-savery, without being a friend
to negro suffrage and equality. Party spirit
or pressure, indeed, has driven many into
support of the doctrine, contrary to- both i'm
pulse and conviction; but now the issue is
llchanged. Outside of slavery, the negro,
lIwhere admitted to reside in a State, ought to
| be the equal of every other man in all legal
| rights and remedies, just as is the female or
the minor. But political rights and social
usage are questions which each State and
llcommunity or individual, must be permitted
alone to decide. And four millions of Afri-
cans are not to become the wards and pupils
OF the whole American people, nor the Fed
eral Government a vast eleemosynary insti-
tuition made up of guardians and trustees
and professors and school masters for the
negro population. Whatever parg now,
with the pressure of anti-slavery and war
removed, undertakes the task, will fall be-
fore the popular reaction, Not the people
only, but large majority of the army and
of its bravest and ablest officers, and fore
most among them the gentleman whom /
have already named with honor, are deter
mined in their hostility to the whole doc
trine OF negro suffrage and equality, and to
its natural and necessary but unclean cor
rollary, miScegepation. And it is not ques-
,tion of religion or philanthropy, as slavery
Twas assumed to be; but of pure politics.
Women, minors, and aliens are alike eX-
cluded from political rights upon grounds
of policy; and yet all are Of the human
family-nay of our own race, and more yet,
are many of them, our own mothers and
sisters and wives and brothers. A far high
er and impelling public policy, enforced by
the example of Mexico and other republics
| and countries of mixed races not of one
common stock, and fifty fold more essential
now if four millions of African slaves are
to be set free at once among us, torbids po-
| litical equality to the negro, where we de-
| ny it to our own flesh and blood and to
| those of our, own households. Said Mr..
Jefferson, forty-four years ago, and after
the Missouri, Questions: .-.,..- ...r ..,... .....
"Nothingis more certainly written in the
book of fate, than, that these people (negro
| slaves are to be free; nor is it less certain
that the two races, equally free, cannot. live
in the same government. Nature, habit,
opinion have drawn indelible lines of dis
tinction between them" ..., 80,
And headvised gradual emancipation and
deportation. Herein lies both the difficulty
and the danger Of dealing now withslayery
in the South. ....f ..'.' ',..',s r,t .,.
Upon the question of the political rights,
of the negro, we are beyond the tannt and
reproach OF the monarchists of Europe.
When they shall have introduced universal
WniCe suIlraSe, remoVeu Cne disabilities lm-
posed upon millions OF their own subjects,
and abolished all titles of nobility and other
distinctions of rank, it will be time enough
for them to again interpose in the domestic
affairs of the American Republic. mi o..
. On this question, too, the Democratic
party has record which it cannot reject.
1t has proclaimed that though all men, of
whatever race, may be equal before the
municipal law, yet that the governments
here were made by white men to be control
led by the white race But be this as it may,
I the entire question, whether slavery re-
main or be abolished, belongs solely to the
people of each State to decide for themselves,
ELSE the whole theory of our system of
governments has been surrendered, and the
system itselfis perished. .,..J t....f-L -L....I
Another subject remains upon which the
Democratic party can yield. not one jot or
title BY every principle Of its being, by
its very name, by its whole record, it is in
eXorably committed to hostility to all vio-
lation of freedom of speech and of the press;
to arbitrary arrests and military commits
sionsI for the trial, upon any charge. of citi-
zens In States and places where the judicial
tribunals, WITH TRIAL BY JURY, are unob-!
structed; to armed or corrupt interference
with elections; and to the whole host of
other wrongs done. to public liberty and
private right. There can never be peace,
quiet or-dearest, most needful to the hu-
man heart beyond even physical health to
the systematic sense of security, till all
these shall have been removed from us.
But upon this chiefest question. OF constitu-
tional liberty, the Democratic party no1
longer stands alone. A large majority of