Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1865-09-01

to sustain it, and so the credit and good faith
and prosperity Of the country.
1t would be a strange thing if we had not
the right to be more just than to do so great
a wrong, and more wise than to expose the
country to such dsngers. Was it wrong in
the government to abolish slavery and is it
wrong now for you to insist upon it, abolition?
Certainly, unless we had and have a right to
do so. But what right can any one imagine,
excepting that which arose from our military
power, coupled with our necessity, or due
regard to our security; The right thus
founded was and is a perfect right And
the government has, and you, as its military
and executive head, have, an equally perfect
right, resting on precisely the same founda-
tons, and of precisely the same extent, to
require and to insist that political rights in
those states shall not be determined by race
or color, II the safety and security Of the
country require such provision. Justice is
always the most expedient thing we can do,
although il may not always be possible to see
how it is expedient In the present case we
can We have passed through war marked
by the most deadly conflicts of history We
needed absolutely, and we at last yielded to
necessity, Of asking military aid from the
colored race and when we asked 1t, gladly
did they hear and answer. No man doubts
that the army Of colored men were Of use to
us although we may not say as the defeated
bells say,--it was that which turned the
scale, and made their defeat inevitable. If
we ask what does justice now demand for the
race which rendered us this valuable assis-
lance, the answer certainly would not be,
that we should use the victory which they
helped US to win to cast them helpless and
powerless by disfranchisement into the hands
of those who were be enemies of the Union,
and whom the assistance they have rendered
to us has made their enemies.
But if this be theanswer Of justice, that Of
expediency is quite as certain. There are
conflicts of peace, as well as conflicts of war
In the conflicts which threaten us we shall
need their ballots quite as much as we need
ed their bullets in the conflicts of war. The
questions are curiously similar. We felt that
we needed-we waited until we we're COM
PEELED to feel that we needed their assistance
in the war, before we accepted it, victory
came with it 4; certainly with it, whether be-
cause Of it or not. And again we need their
aid. If we permit, in the conflicts that await
US, the assistance they will gladly give, it
will certainly add greatly to the safety and
strength of our country. If we reject it, we
can do so only by wrong, of which the ret
rioution must be to lessen our strength and
increase our danger, and, may be, to defeat
and destroy those interests upon which the
prosperity and the good faith Of the country
are founded to defeat and destroy those in
terests, because we see fit to take from the
loyal the force which Of right belongs to them,
and give it all to the disloyal, to increase
their strength
Nor let it be said that we cannot be sue
that the colored voters will not be led in he
exercise of their rights by the whites. For
in the first place, it Is certain that they will
not all be so led. Men, whether from am BIZ
ton or patriotism, will be candidates on the
side of the national honor and the nationa
interests, and will seek the votes Of coloret
men and slavery is not there to prevent The
use OF sufficient means for scquainting tn,
, voters with the true nature of the question,
: before them. If white men control the vote,
Of colored men, then, if the whites are divided
the colored will be divided aud, if the whittl
vote all together, they will be no stronger j
! all the colored men vote with them. Or
; large plantations, the relation of empoye
and employed may operate, TO some extent
, to give to the owner some undue control o
the lsborers. So j. has been said that oul
large mill. owners, and others employ ing many
workmen, held them in political bondage. -
If this mischief existed in any places, or tC
any extent, it has certainly been greatly ex
aggerated in some minds but he who though
the worst of it never imagined that he founc
, in it reason for DISTINGUISHING any class o
our laboring men. The white men Of tn,
: South know better than we can, whether, i
J the colored men vote, white men can conuo
their votes, and if they really believe tina
they shall tttectually control them, their de
termined opposition to freedman suffrage in
dicates an Indifference to their own power
, and a Willingness to lose what would be al
instrument in their hands, which is, to ga,
{ the least, very remarkable.
e We have had and exercised perfect RICH
f to emancipate the slaves, growing out Of GU
e necessity; but this gave us no right whatev
er to emancipate them for our own security
e and to their danger, for our own benefit, ant
e perhaps to their destruction. And who cal
: deny that new danger, and an appalling on
{ hangs over that race, if, on the one hand, vi
i take from them all the protection and defenc,
n they found in slavery, while il made il tn,
a interest of their owners to take care of them
= anu, on tne Otner, take from tnem by dlstTan
d chisement all power of self-protection anc
self.defence; Already we see, and by nj
4 means dimly, in the measures adopted or pro
/ posed in some of those States, while still helt
t in strict military possession, what kind of leg
: islation over and against the colored rae
b must be expected when the nation has aban
+ doned all power to annul or check it, and ha
/, given no power to that race to resist it. Car
: this be honest or prudent or safe Can W,
. endure the disgrace OF calling on that race t,
= 90 with cur own loyal soldiers to peril ant
Z to death, and, after they have fought our bat
q ties, leave them utterly DISTINGUISHED
4 1t is to be hoped that commercial relation
b, and commercial intercourse may be fully es
b tabished between the South and the North
I and as connected with this, and necessary t.
: it, free and kindly social and personal inter
course. All must remember no these thing
a have stood for many years. Liberty of speech
I was wholly lost. Whoever went from afre,
f State to slave State went in peril of his life
Q peril, it is true, to be easily guarded agains
/ by one to whom it was easy to conceal hii
t thoughts or falsify them, or by one whose
oDiniona and faalinUa onuld ha Id Il.