Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1865-12-08

| N National Legislature, and thereby complete
the work of restoration. Here it is for you, fel-
low citizens of the Senate, and for you, fellow
citizens of the House of Representatives, tC
Judge, each of you for yourselves, the elections
returns, and qualifications of your own MEM
bers.
The full assertion of the powers of the Gen
eral Government requires the holding of Cir
cult Courts of the United States within the
districts where their authority has been inter-
rupted. In the present posture of our public
affairs strong objections have been urged to
holding these courts in any of the States where
the rebellion has existed; and it was ascertained
by inquiry, that the Circuit Court of the Uni
ted States would not be held within the Dis
trict of Virginia during the autumn or early
winter, nor until Congress should have ian op-
| portunity to consider and act on the whole SUBJ
ject. To your deliberations the restoration OF
this branch of the civil authority of the United
States is therefore necessarily referred with the
hope that early provision will be made for the
resumption of all its functions. 1t is manifest
that treason, most hagrant in character, has
| been committed Persons who are charged
with its commission should have fair and i'm
partial trials in the highest civil tribunals of
the country, in order that the Constitution and
| the laws may be fully vindicatad; the truth
clearly established and affirmed that treason is
crime, that traitors shonld be punished and
the offense made infamous; and, at the same
time, that the question may be judicially set
tied finally and forever, that no State of its own
will has the right to renounce its place in the
| Union.
The relations of the General Government to-
wards the four millions of inhabitants whom
| the war has called into freedom, have engaged
my most serious consideration. On the propri-
ETY. of attempting to make the freedmen elec-
tors by the proclamation of the Executive
took for my counsel the Constitution ITSELF the
interpretations of that instrument by its au-
thors and their contemporaries, and recent legis-
lation by Congress. When, at the first move
ment towards independence, the Congress of
the United States instructed the several States
to institute governments of their own, they left
each State to decide for itself the conditions for
the enjoyment of the elective franchise Dur
ing the period of the Confederacy, there con-
tinued to exist very great diversity in the
qualifications of electors in the several States;
and even within State distinction of qualifi-
cations prevailed with refard to the officers
who were to be chosen. The Constitution of
the United States recognizes these diverities
when it enjoins that, in the choice of members
of the House of Representatives of the United
States, ''the electors in each State shall have
the qualifications requisite for electors of the
most numerous branch of the State LegisIa-
ture"> After the formation of the Constitution
it remained, as before, the uniform usage for
each State to enlarge the body of its elec tors,
according to its own judgement; and under this
system, one State after another has proceeded
TO increase the number of its electors until now
universal suffrage, or something very near it, is
the general rule. So fixed was this reservation
of power in the eabits of the people, and so un-
questioned has been the Interpretation of the
Constitution, that during the civil war the late
President never harbored the purpose-certain-
ly never avowed the purpose of disregarding
it; and in the acts of Congress, during that
period, nothing can be found which, during the
continuance of hostilities much less after their
close, would have sanctioned any departure by
the executive from policy which has so uni
formly obtained. Moreover, a concession ofthe
elective franchise to freedmen, by act of the
President of the United States, must have been
extended to all colored men, wherever found,
and so must have established a change of suff-
rage in the Northern, Middle and Western
States, not less than in the Southern and South
western. Such an act would have created
new class of voters, and would have been an
assumption of power by the President which
nothing in the Constitution or laws of the Uni
ted States would have warranted
On the other hand, every danger of conflict
is avoided when the settlement of the question
is referred to the several States. They can
each for itself, decide the measure and
whether it is to be adopted at once and abso-
lutely, or introduced gradually and with con-
ditions. In my Judgment, the freedmen, if they
show patience and manly virtues will sooner
obtain participation in the elective franchise
through the States than through the General
Government, even if it had power to intervene.
When the tumult of emotions that have been
raised by the suddenness of the social change
shall have subsided, it may prove that they viii
receive the kindliest usage from some of those
on whom they have heretofore most closely de-
pended.
But while have no doubt that row, after
the close of the war, it is not competent for the
General Government to extend the elective
franchise in the several States, it is equally
clear that good faith requires the security of
the freedmen in their liberty and their proper
ty, their right to labor, and the right to claim
the Just return for their labor. I cannot too
strongly urge dispassionate treatment of this
subject which should be carefully kept aloof
from all party strife. We must equally avoid
hasty assumptions of any natural impossibility
for the two races to live side by side, in state
of mutual benefit and good will. The expert
ment involves us in no Inconsistency; let us
then go on and make that experiment in good
faith, and not be to easily disheartened. The
country is in need of labor, and the freedmen
are in need of employment, culture, and protec-
and expatriation is not TO be questioned, l would
not advise their forced removal and colonization,
Let US rather encourage them to honorable and
useful industry, where it may be beneficial to
themselves and to the country; and, instead of
hasty anticipations of the certainty of failure,
let there be nothing wanting to the fair trial of
the experiment. The change in their condition
is the substitution of labor by contract for the
status of slavery. The freedmen cannot fairly
he dof i'm TO-
doubtremains about his freedom of choice in
his pursuits, and the certainty of his recovering
his stipulated wages. In this the interests of
the employer and the employed coincide The
employer desires in his workmen spirit and
alacrity, and these can be permanently secured
in nc other way. And if the one ought to be
ableIt to enforce the contract, SO ought the other
The public interest will be best promoted, if the
several States will provide adequate protection
and remedies for the freedmen. Until this is in
some way accomplished, there is no chance for
the advantageous use of their labor; and the
blame of ill-success will rest on them
| know that sincere philanthrophy is earnest
for the immediate realization of its remotest
aims but time is always an element in reform.
1t is one of the greatest acts on record to have
brought four millions of people into freedom -
The career of free industry must be fairly OPEN
ed to them; and then their future prosperity
anu COuuitiOu uiuoiB dilcL all IcsI IudiDly on
themselves. If they fail, and so perish away,
let us be careful that the failure shall not be at
tributable to any denial of justice. In all that
relates to the destiny of the freedmen, we need
not be too anxious to read the future many
incidents which, from a speculative point of
view, might raise alarm, will quietly settle
themselves.
Now that slavery is at or near its end,
the greatness of its evil, in the point of
view ofpublic economy, becomes more and
more apparent Slavery was essentially
a monopoly of labor, and as such locked
the States where it prevailed againstth in
coming of free industry. Where labor was
the property of the capitalists, the white
man was excluded from employment, or
had but the second best chance of finding
it; and the foreign emigrant turned away
from the region where his condition would
be so precarious. With the destruction of
the monopoly, free labor will hasten from
all parts of the civilized world to assist in
dovoloDinor VariouS and in,D1aocurobIa M