Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-07-14
SPEECH or WINTER DAVIS.


tor Of the day. He discussed the various
questions involved III the terrible events OF
the past four years, Slavery State Soyer-
eighty, secession, reconstruction, republican
governments In States, and the right Of
suffrage. He certainly argues the question
vigorously and boldly and we invite special
attention Ca his closing suggestion.
No State Government has ever been re-
& eogn;zed which ostraclsed a majority or any
great mass of the people. When slavery
existed, slaves were merged in the use OF
the master. But the right of the State to
ostracise a great mass Of free negroes has
\ never been recognized They were hand
full everywhere but in Maryland aud there
/ thav voted with the whites on the adoption
of the Constitution Of the United States.
! IF this precedent be set now, it is for the
first time TO be set When negroes become
free they become a part of the people of the
nation; and 10 ostraeise them Is to sanction
a principle fatal to American free Govern
ment.
In South Carolina there are twice as ma
4 ny negroes as whites in Mississippi there
are mere negroes than whites IN Alabama
IN Louisiana and In Georgia they are nearly
equal They are now In sufficient numbers
at the South to control any election. They
viii vote with their masters -lnsiduous
gentlemen tel us-then at least let their
masters be under the necessity OF touching
I their hats 10 them to get their votes
4 Laughter aud applause They are not
/ intelligent enough to vote, another says
They know, fellow-citizens, a grey uniform
from blue one. Applause. They know
| a Yankee from their masters Applause. !
| They have fought well under Yankee lead
ership; may be they can vote as intelligent
/ IT under Yankee leadership. Continued
applause They are not spread in equal
masses over the Southern country, but they
are cengregated in particular districts that
border the Atlantic, the Gulf, and the Mis-
sissippi, and are in immense majorities IN
fully one-third of the Congressional Districts
of the South They can break the terrible
4 unity of the Southern vote that plunged us
| into the rebellion. Men who are not capa-
| BE Of understanding considerations like
| these had better go and whine about negro
votes. have seen about as much OF ne
groes as any of you, have lived as near them,
I and suppose / have as much prejudice to-
/ ward them as any of you but to talk OF
| this after we have had to call them to our
and in putting down this rebellion is either
! drivelllng folly or infinite meanness. APP
| plause. Ii you did not wish to have the
/ negro hereafter to enjoy the rights OF man.
why did you bury him on the battle field?
! Applause You white men of Illinois,
why did you not have the quota of your
| State increased so that the negro should not
be needed? Applause. We, Of Mary
laud, carried emancipation by going to the
4 poor white men in the southern portion Of
/ the State and showed them that the negro
could relieve them from military service.
/ They did not stop to discuss his right to po-
| lirical privileges then Ii be is their and
your equal on the battle field, in the service
lOf the country, he Is, and should be, at the
Lailot-box, Applause, and if he is not your
equal on the battle-f field, theny0u have cheat
| cd the United States, to the injury Of the
national cause to save yourselves from SER
vice. Renewed applause. There snoth-
I ing in President Johnson's : proclamation
which assumes TO conclude the Judgment of
the present Congress Of the United States or
| the recognition Of State governments in the
rebel States He may have more confidence
IN the white people Of the South than [
haye-he may have desired to give them
opportunity OF refutng every SANDER and 81
lt.ncIng every doubt regarding their loyalty.
He might hayea hope that when they should
Ja pun 10 NOLE on ilAClf EOn%IliNNlOttS
4 under his proclamation, to be ready to pre-
sent them to Congress in the form Of petit
| fions. for they would be nothing else that
seeing the signs of the times and what JUS
! tiee and humanity require. or rather what
| the long-headed people Of the North will
naturally suppose their safety requires, they
may incorporate universal suffrage as the
/ basis Of their constitutions. | shall rejoice
/ with him if that result shall come about, but
! / am far from expecting it. | viii now be-
! Heve until [ learn the contrary, that that
was his purpose. [ viii not believe the dec
| laration Of any person who says he Is op-
! posed to it, He knows that the only au-
| thority that can recognize State governments
at the South is the Congress which admits
! their Representatives and Senators, that it
must judge of the republieanism Of their
/ form Of Government turn to them with
! some doubt, but with earnest hopes, and
appeal to them to be ready for any emer-
| gency, to be caught by no snare, to yield to
| no solicitations, not to take any man 5 dec
| laration as to the safety Of trusting the
! whole mass Of the rebels of the South with
/ the control of the Southern States, but to
remember that a revolutionary minority will
| throw almost insurmoantable obstacles in
4 the way Of legislation; that the minority of
the Southern delegations, joined with inter-
ested and discontented men from the North
may clog and even arrest the wheels of gov
ernment on any bill that they can organize
a powerful opposition to the payment Of our
national debt, and the imposition Of taxes.
unless we agreed to their demands to rein
state rebel officers, place their wounded on
your pension lists, or indemnify slavehol-
der for their slaves. | pray these gentle
men to look this thing in the eye, and if
they have no regard for Justice and human
/ ity, | would say to them / like you, gen
| tlemen, am no enthusiast. | am very little
of phlanthropist. | have no supreme
love of the intellectual superiority of the ne
gTO over the white but / know that his
vote is important, and if | have not much
respect for justice and humanity / have for
the 20's daughter and rpplause); I have
great respect for the possibility OF carrying
on its machinery and if the constitutions
do not give the mass of the negroes the
right of voting on equal terms with the 10y
| al white men, not those who can read, where
| it has been a penltentiary offence to teach
| one to read for twenty years; that is trihing
with grave matters, but to that mass of the
negro population whom we subjected to the
| draft and at whose hands we sought aid in
our hour of weakness the safety of the ma
/ ton requires that no such principles, re-
/ quires that no such government shall be rec
/ ogniZed as republican in form, that no Rep
resentative or Senator from such a State
shall be admitted to either House, or even
complimented with the privileges of the
floor =