The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-07-27
KEoKnK. IOWA:
THURSDAY MORNING. July q.


SPEECH OF COY. JOHNSON.
IN. As.ii.s.. ., e !. 10y !. Ass...
IS ~ a---E HxE ms.S 81 fg~Hri
FREE NEGROES DO YORK and
WILL WORK.
rprrpDm or SPEECH REyrOREDl
80 IN THD 6OUTEkfstsiisss sss ssse
We publish below a portion Of the speech
delivered by Mr.. JOHNSON, Provisional Gov
ernor Of Georgia. The spirit is very different
from that manifested by the South Carolina
Governor, who is probably, after all, as loyal
q man as could be found in that pestiferous
State of slayeholding aristocrats s .AEA.8
now feel bound to declare to you one
thing which you must recognize as accom-
plished, and the sooner you know it and con-
form to it, the sooner will you be relieved
from military rule. Slavery exists no more.
This is decreed. Its restoration, under any
form, ia utterly out of the question. Those
who indulge hopes to the contrary are labor
ing under . delusion. In order to convince
you Of this, viii call your attention to GER
tain facts which have already TRANSFERRED
Twenty-Five States in the Union have al
ready accepted the proposed amendment to
the Constitution of the United States. by
which amendment it is declared that slavery
or involuntary servitude shall no longer exist
in the United States and that Congress may
make laws to carry this into effect. Twenty
FIVE States have ratified and adopted this pro-
posed amendment; only two are wanted to
pass it by constitutional majority, and when
Il is so passed it will be the law of the land.
These two will be obtained. There is no pos
sibility of defeating it. And when it shall
have been done, the Constitution will declare
that slavery in the United States no longer
exists
But furthermore slavery has been extin-
guished by the operations of the late war. X
do not propose, in this connection, to enter
upon lengthy argument 10 prove it. l sim
ply state what is universally acknowledged by
ali writers on national law, that belligerents
have the right TO make captures Of persons
and property, and that they may make what
disposition they please of the property cap
tured. The vanquished are at the disposition
of the conquerors, and may be disposed of as
they think proper. Such is war, and it is a
sin against God and humanity that it should
be waged. We must submit to the result of
the war Congress, by the Constitution of the
United States, has the power to give to the
President the regulations of captures by sea
and land, and the President, in the exercise
of his power given to him by the Constitution
and by Congress, issued his proclamation dis
posing of their captures, declaring that all
the negroes who were slaves in the revolted
States should, by virtue of that proclamation,
become emancipated. Such is, in my judg-
ment the law, and | believe the Supreme
Court will so decide.
come to another point. The constitution
which the people Of Georgia shall adopt in
convention viii be required TO recognize this
fact. The convention will be called npen to
agree to this amendment to the Constitution,
that slavery shall no longer exist in these
States. They will be called upon to decide
this before their restoration to the Union, in
order that this quarrel about slavery, which
has existed since the beginning of the Gov
eminent to the present time, shall never be
revived, and in order that there may be no
dispute among the people of this State on the
subject, they must provide for its extinction
now, and so / tell you to-day, if you wish to
be admitted into the Union, this convention
of the people of Georgia must be composed Of
such material as will recognize the fact of the
extinction of slavery in Georgia, and agree to
the amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, which will extinglish slavery
throughout the country.
So, then, say to you again, under what
ever view you may take of the subject, slavery
is extinguished. 1t is gone--it is gone for
ever.
have heard complaints upon this point,
fellow-eitizens, that in passing from the state
in which we have been into the new order of
things, great many difficulties and inconye-
niences will arise. Nothing else could have
been expected. 1t is said the negroes will
straggle through the country, commit depre-
dations, many of them be impudent. All
this may be true. But for the purpose of
rectifying these evils, we must have Legis-
lature that will make laws to punish them,
and punish them severely, for the commission
of crime.
This Is your remedy; complaining will not
do any good. And not only that, but III
is claimed by some that the negroes will not
work. know that those who have been driv-
en- off the farms do not work, because they
have no opportunity of working, and some Of
them viii not work where they have not been
driven of. For this latter class the Lepisa.
ture must make laws declaring them yaerants.
and punish them as such. The negro will not
work! How do you know they will not !?
l saw them working very we'll in New York,
and other places where / have BEEN 1t is
true they sometimes commit crimes in those
places, and they are punished for it. They
must work-they can work-thev must either
work or perish. What is the difficulty? Do
not the people have to work in Germany, in
France, in New York, in Ohio What is the
reason they will not work? | tell YOU thew
will work; and must say that under the ne
collar circumstances by which thew were sur-
rounded, no people ever behaved better than
they have done. Those who tell you they will
not work, have hopes of continuing their con-