Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1865-08-03
RUTLAND HERALD
FRIDAY, JULY 2S, 1865
,,ov Eouai Rights are 20 DC
.,,..S an the southern states

DAVIS ago AT flttsueiu l" "''
snonse 10 a toast to the president Oh
tba limited States" He spoke OF Presi'
dont Johpson's plan of restoring loyal
,,oyornments in the Southern States,
and stated from his own certain knowl-
edge that the plan was the one determ-
ined upon by President Lincoln ana
unanimously approved in Cabinet meet
ING on the day before the assassination.
It appears then that President johnson
is in this respect acting only as the execu-
tor of Abraham Lincoln, and those who
eulogize Mr. Lincoln and denOunce Mr.
Johnson should bear this fact in MIND.
Mr.. Dawes, agreeing with all iair-
minded men that the present law oil
suffrage In the Southern States is un-
lust pernicious and anti-republican In
spirit, and that every disability based on
color or race must be removed, came to
the consideration of the means by which
this end is TO be attained.
His remarks upon this subject are at
least worthy of the most serious con-
sideration We give them below;
Take the question of negro suffrage
or equal suffrage in the restored states,
upon which the policy of the admins
tration towards those states encounters
at this time organized opposition among
4 it's friends, and is promised resistance
even TO the exclusion of representation.
To every man who has studied the re-
belllon and the nature of the institutions
of which il was born, it is apparent,
I that, with the present law of suffrage in
those states, there can be, in the new
order Of things, no permanent peace,
because no real republicanism, no equal
ity. The power, by existing laws, is in
the hands of few to the exclusion of
many and that few those who have
been stepped in the rebellion. Caste and
color have built up barriers utterly in
compatible with republican institutions.
The whole existing social system, found
ed in force and violence is at war with
the theory upon which the government
is built, and cannot exist longer under
it. This theory must be uprOoted.
Every disability based on color or race
must be beaten down and every right,
privilege and duty under the govern
ment must have no other limitation but
capacity. This is the end to be attained,
standing out clearly in the noon day
sun, and never to be lost sight of But
the means by which that end is TO be at
tanned are not so apparent. And in the
conflict of opinion that has here arisen
charity has found no place. An execu-
tive edict or ukase commanding univer-
sal suffrage, is demanded as q condition
49, T,rt Laa .YYy,, sN ns,l :
exclusion from representation by arbitra-
ry vote Of each house is held, over every
state in which the rebellion has existed
that does not, as a condition precedent,
= establish universal suffrage. Now in
this demand, some things are forgotten
or disregarded. Is suffrage IL state or
national regulation? The power to say
who shah vote in each state exists eth
er in the state itself or in the national
government. 1t cannot in both. Con-
current jurisdiction isimpossible. Then
In which, Let the universal award of
1t by the whole nation to each state I'M
der the constitution, from 1889 to this
hour, answer. Let the express provis-
ion OF the constitution that even United
States officers, representatives in Con-
gress, shall be chosen only by those
qualified to vote for members of the
lower house in their respective states,
answer. Let the absence of any author
lily found in the constitution for its exer-
else, answer that it lis reserved for the
states" Without an amendment of the
constitution it cannot be done even by
Congress, much less by presidential or
der. The appointment of a military
governor is the military act of the com
mander-in-chief, and the rules he i'm
poses upon him are the rules which q
commander-in chief may give to his
subordinates. II makes no difference
what name he calls him. He may be
provost marshal or captain OF the guard
as well as anything else. But suffrage
is civil institution, and its regulation
is civil and not military. This demand
of an order from the president that suf-
frage in these states, either permanently
or temporarily, in reorganization shall
be regulated by him is therefore uncon-
stitutional and impossible.
Have those who threaten to exclude
by direct vote, all representation from
such states, until suffrage shall be made
5 universal fully considered the dangerous
character of the precedent they would
thus establish? 1t lisa two edged sword
they would thus use, and will cut as
well one way as another. My friend
who sits near me has been in Congress
when Massachusetts, and her ideas and
local laws have been not only in hope
less minority, but hated and hunted
How easy, by the precedent here invok-
ed, could the whole state have been eff
fectually silenced by excludingher men,
bers, till her local laws were made to
conform to the views of the majority
What need of that long and Intellectual
struggle with the cold man eloquent" if
this were legitimate mode OF silencing
not only him but his whole statef 1
beg men not to establish, not even in so
good cause as this, and for so grand
an end, a precedent 80 dangerous to
themselves, weapon that tickle and
uncertain majority in Congress can alone
Keep from their own sides.
take 1t that representatives from
states whose constitutions contain a like
disability of color, will never join in ex-
ecuting such threat. Since my day in
n