The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-08-13
ESTABLISHED, 1881.

'VA ~ all
We doubt not the effect of this inn
mense meeting in these two counties
will be very marked. There was no
question expressed by any as to the
election of Col. ALLEN. He says he
has accepted the nomination to be
elected, and we can be assured of his
success. The election of the ticket
even in Old Knox, the stronghold of
Copperheadism, is not without hope
When we see such an uprising as that
on Saturday, eve are prepared for
overwhelming victories everywhere
aiia I GOV. BAKERS SPEECH, NV
The first Section OF. the proposed
amendment to the Constitution of the
United States reads asfellows, yiz.:i
Al All persons born or naturalized in the
United States and subject to the jurisdic-
tf.'r thereof, are citizens OfIthe United
States and of the State wherein they reside.
No stats & ThsIl brd make or ent3Tes any Sr ia~ %
munities of citizens of the United Statesi
nor shall any, state deprive any person OF
life, nbefty or property without due pro
cess of law, nor deny TO any person within
its jurisdiction the equal projection Of the
Never, err in iia@ the history t' Of political
discussion in this counry has a plain,
unambiguous proposition been so
slhamefully and wilfully perverted as
/ this. ,r -, .g..... ~ l' s"~
It is melancholy to reflect that such
men as Joseph r. Mcdonald, Daniel
w. VOORHEES, and John r. Coffroth
should 50 far forget what is due to
virtue and to truth; so far forget what
| is due to their reputation and stand
| ing as lawyers, as to attempt in their
| speeches to make the people believe
| that this proposed amendment confers
the right of suffrage upon negroes.
In order not to misrepresent these
gentlemen, [ win state their argument
in support of this extraordinary
Mcdonald and Cofroth base their
whole argument upon a definition of
the word citizen obtained, as they say,
from Webster''s Dictionary. 80 80 =
A citizen of the United States, say
these Democratic eQlogists, is per
son who. has the rightlto, vote, and the
/ right to hold real estate,'IS This being
| the case, and the right to vote being,
say they one of the rights. of citizen
ship If the Constitutional Amend
sment is adopted and any State should
attempt to- deprive any negro born in
4 the United States from voting, this
would clearly be to abridge his privi-
leges as a citizen of the United States,
and would be in violation Of, this
amendment. 49,, So fs-f
P9Now, if the preniisesnlaid down by
these gentlemen are correct, their
conclusion would follow ;rbut the pre-
misses themselves are without the
shadow of foundatioh.s4 The defni-
ton of "a aocitizen, upon which their
whole argument hangs, has no
more of the elements Of 81 truth
orr accuracy in vait o than there
/ would be in the definition that
citizen of the UnitedStates isa per-
] son who wears 1breeches and who has
the right to hold real estate Before
proceeding to the analysis of the Nc
I Donald -Coffroth definition, / beg
leave to observe that it is not little
remarkable that Hon Reverdy John
son, the distinguished Senator from
Maryland, who stands second to no
man as a lawyer in the United States,
did not make the discovery which
Mcdonald and Cohroth are so busily
engaged in promulgating among the
| people. Senator johnson made the
Minority Report from the Joint Com
rAittee on Reconstruction, and belong
4 ing as he does to the so-called Demo
lfcratic party, and urging, as he does in
that minority report, every possible
1 objection that he could te0the adop-
ton of the amendment, It'll quite
wonderful that If so grave an objec-
ton as that it conferred negro suf-
frage really existed, he never. once
4 alluded to it. But Lido mot in
tend to- rest 1omy defence of
this amendment against nthe un-
candid and untruthful attacks of
the Ex-Attorney General and the
:, would be Attorney General on this
| negative evidence, strong though it be.
r. / I'pledge myself to prove beyond the
possibility of refutation that the
right to vote does not now and never
| did constitute an element Ingredient
In American citizenship. BE it re-
membered that the Mcdonald defni-
ton of an American citizen is: A
person who has the right to vote and
tc hold real estate.8 - w0d
Now if this definition be true, every
person who has the right TO vote and
! to hold real estate must be a citizen,
= and secondly, every citizen must have
not only the right to- hola real estate,
mt he rieht lf5 vote. .9ansAsS =
fffT can PROVE either 6fitlae follow
. inc ! Tbroposifidhs I fdestrc5,the defni-
ton and thereby overthr6w. the entire
; superstructure britt upon it.. These
ii propositions are the following, viz:
\ list. That many persons are unques
tionably entitled to vote and to hold