The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1866-02-22
Letter from ETOn. R. w. Clarke
--IHe Jnsti1ies His Vote on tho
District Suffrage Bill.

Letter from EIOn. R. w. Clarke
--IEe JnsIiIies His Vote ON tho
District Suffrage Bill.
We find the following letter In the
Batavia Courier of last week. 1t is q
manly and unanswerable defence by
our Representative in Congress, Of his
vote on the District Suffrage Bill
WAsHINGToN, Jan. %, 1866
The week past has been one of con-
siderable activity and interest In the
House of Representatives. The bill to
give impartial suffrage in the District
of Columbia, was very freely debated,
and finally adopted by very decided
vote-yeas llG, nays 81. OF course
the Coppcrhoads voted nay, and q few
Union men, mostly from Kentucky,
Missouri and West Virginia helped to
swell the negative. These men, though
good and loyal, are still troubled with
the phantom Of negro cqu0i{ty, which,
in a social sense, is unmeaning, and
never can be effected by all the legis-
lation that can he had on the subject.
Equality Of rigHt il effected, and who
darcs assume to bc honest and deny to
any human bcig-White man, Turk,
IIindoo, Indian or Negro-his just
and equal share Of human right? 1t
was long time before our people
could be worked up to the point of
liberty To dH The rebellion has done
for slavery what the advocates of free
dom, in forty years struggle, had
failed to accomplish. Slavery is deadl
It fell by its own hand, and who la-
ments its death ? a few poor sldreTy
Screechers in the North still growl over
it, but the world rejoices in it, and his
tory writes it down as the great achieve
ment of the age. But to give to the
| negro his liberty, merely, does not ac-
5 complish the great work. He must
have power TO defend the great rights
his liberty confers upon him. Con-
gress has supreme legislative power
over this District; the people here can
look nowhere else for protection. It is
our duty to pass such laws as shall
, preserve with equal care, the rights of
all. Here the municipal Government
taxes the black man, holds him bound
o to all the duties OF a citizen, nay, takes
the negroes money to estain white
: schools, and excludes the colored chill
: dren thcrefrom, Can any honest man
say this is right? No, and yet it is
done under the very eye of your Con-
I gross, who ought to be honest men,
and willing to sec that justice is meted
out with an even hand in this Dis
trict, where they alone have the Con-
stitutiOnal right to intcrpOse to pre-
vent injustice, oppression and wrong.
F Let the Negro vote here, side by side
with the returned rebel soldiers. A
t Negro who has fought for the Union Is
3 quite as safe to trust in voting for the
Union as the unrepentCd rebel, who
only laid down his gun when his
, cause was lost and treason yielded to
loyalty. 1t is very true that some six
or seven thousand white men voted
| against Negro voting, and it is quite
as true that a large portion Of these
same six or seven thousand would
= have voted for the Confederacy in the
hour of our greatest peril with the re-
bellion, while the Negroes would have
voted faithfully for the Union, and
many of them went into the service
and fought for the Union. But let me
cut short the subject by saying that
the measure is right per Sc, and the
day has come, when, as q Government,
we must build upon the immutable
principles of Justice and Truth, and
those principles must be applied to all
= subjects and all persons upon which our
legislation is to bear. This measure
does not affect the social condition-it
requires no man to change his deport-
ment toward the Negro. 1t simply
. comedies to him the naked rights OF
man, and who will dare to take the
responsibility of advocating the wrong:
Since slavery has fallen all the false
principles upon which it was built have
been torn up, root and branch. Itwas
a great wrong built upon a foundation
of wrongs and falschoods. A new
structure takes its place, and its founda'
a. ton must be the immutable principles
of Justice and truth.
The people whom we propose to en-
franchise in this District have built
" and sustain, with their own means
twcnty-one churches; they have thirty
three schools, with over two thousant
scholars; and they pay tax to suppor
. the white mans city government, upor
~ million and quarter dollars of rea
estate. Over three thousand Of thes
black people went into the Uniol
army, and thousand of them returneC
no more forever. For such people
under such circumstances; is it TO
IGS hS much to give a living chance in tn
race of life taking from no whit
man any privilege or right he has en-
joyed, or desires to enjoy, unless 1t b
to tranple upon the weak with HI
iron heel, and that, God helping, h
shall not do. r. w. CLARKE;
A dress maker, who lived in Fon d
!. -. NIy;.ooA,vi,, tVpO yaara aUo hnH