Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1866-12-27
RUTLAND HERALD.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1866.
Suffrage i'm the District OF Cos
lumbia.


The bill establishing equal suffrage In
the District of Columbia has passed
both houses of Congress, and though
the President has not yet signed the bill,
there is little doubt that 1t will eyentu-
ally become q law. Even should the
'Moses" of the negroes, which class this
bill is particularly intended to benefit,
see fit, ain the teisaom of his dellbera-
tons" to veto the bill, Congress is COM
posed of the same members now as
when that body passed, over the veto
OF the Executive, the Freedmen's Bu-
reau and Civil Rights bill, and as the
Presidents objections to the District
suffrage bill will be practically the same
as those which prompted him to veto
the bills above mentioned, we have no
fears for the success of equality at the
ballot-box in the District of Columbia.
1t is now over four years and half
since President Lincoln signed the bill
passed by Congress abolishing slavery in
the District of Columbia. Previous TO
that time, and since the very foundation
of the Republic, human beings had been
bought and sold at slave marts within
sight of the National Capitol, and in
hearing distance Of the representatives
of the people assembled to make laws for
the government of those whose country,
ranking oremest among the nations of
the earth, was proclaimed to the world
as "the land of the free" And these
proceedings, too, were acknowledged
and tolerated as legal and constitutional
by the laws of the land and the "powers
that be-" But within few months previ-
Gus to the time mentioned, the institu-
ton of slavery had, through its support
ers, rebelled against the general govern
ment, assailed the life Of the nation, and
endeavored to disrupt our free institu-
tions and establish instead monarchy
or some other tyrannical form of gov
ernment with slavery and oppression as
the corner stone thereof. For this act of
slavery, Congress at its annual session
of 1862, as punishment for its
crimes, passed bill forever thereafter
prohibiting human slavery in the Dis
trict of Columbia, and the signing OF
this bill by the martyr President was
the signal note of the battle which from
that day forth was waged for freedom
and universal liberty in our land, and
which eliminated in the issuing of the
emancipation proclamation by President
Lincoln, which granted freedom anC
equal rights to all human beings in oul
land, of whatever race or color, and pro
hibited involuntary servitude in an.
form except as punishment for crime
Since that time, vast changes hav
occurred. War has swept over tn
land, leaving it's traces on oDe-half tn
national domain, and carrying sorrow
to thousands of homes. But slavery
which was the cause of the war, per
ished in the conflict as an institution
protected by State enactments in fiftee
States of the Union. The seed whic
was then sown in the regeneration c
the little area known as the District {
Columbia, has borne an abundant hal
vest.
To-day, the American people, throug
their representatives in Congress, TAX
still another step in advance, and, fror
this time forth, stand on higher groun
the ground not merely of equal an
exact justice for all before the law, BIT
of equal suffrage also. The vote whic
was taken on the District of Columbi
suffrage bill in Congress determines tbs
the policy of the Government will
democratic in practice as well as theor
that loyal men will no longer be el
cluded from participation in the Go,
eminent for the crime of having blac
skin, but that the rule required to /
observed in the reorganization of tt
rebel States will be loyalty,not complex
ion. 1t is true, that instead of an ABR
ham Lincoln to sustain such polio,
we have now an Andrew Johnson in IL
Presidential chair to oppose it, B,
the loyal majority in Congress has bee
instructed by majority Of more tina
four hundred thousand loyal voters
the recent elections, and they will nj
only obey those instructions, but the
have the strength and the will to NAL
the verdict of the people efiectual.
NEwsPArERIAL.-The Chicago Repul
lican, one of the very best newspape