Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-04-26
.QDbIo Statesman,
IN. from the Piqua Democrat
e -r' SPEECH OF ...
HON. j. s. M'KINNEY,
AT BORDER HAL, PIQUA,
Before the. johnson Meeting, Held
Tuesday evening, April 10Th, 1866.

After the reading of the resolutions, Mr..
Mckinney being loudly called ior, address-
ed the meeting at some length, -.,,.,- =
The meeting, he said, was called "of all
citizens without distinction OF previous po-
litical associations, who approve President
JOhnsOn's vetOes OF the 'Freedmen's Bureau
bill and the Civil Rights BILL" Its purpose
was confined TO sustaining the President in
his vetOes Of those two bills. The offer had
been made TO those who had voted for
President johnson that they should come
forward and control the meeting. There
were several gentlemen nour city holding
commissions signed by the President, who
profess to support his views as against the
Radicals. They had been requested to take
charge of the meeting, but refused to al
tiliate with any person outside OF the Union
party to support President Johnson" These
office holders did not like the company they
would have to meet here. They must ac-
cept the company or desert the President;
for so long as Andrew johnson kept the
"COnstitution unfolded" and faithfully car
ried out his declared policy of Immediately
bringing back the Southern States as
| equals, and thus restoring the old Union
under the old Constitution, he would be
entitled to and would receive the support of
the Democratic party as unit; and that
party numbered now, as indicated by the
recent elections, about one-half of the peO-
| pie of the States that always adhered to the
| Union. That party was nOtsupporting the
| President for the sake of office. Mr.. M. hoped
that no Democrat would receive any ap-
pointment to office unuer President John
son so long as any man could be found who
| had supported him in his election, and con-
| tinued TO give him his hearty support in his
great struggle against the Radicals of his
4 ls,I a,,1
| the appointment. The support of honest,
earnest men who wanted no office, was
what the President needed aud would ap-
preciate. .t .....
He (Mr. NJ approved both the vetoes
because they killed, as far as his executive
power could do it, two of the most uncon-
| stitutional, expensive, oppressive and un-
| Just measures ever attempted to he enacted
| into laws for the government of civilized
and christian people. As the Ereedmen's
Bureau bill had been before the peo-
ple for some time, and had its terrible
enormities so fully exposed, he proposed TO
cOnfine his remarks to an examination of
| the Civil Rights bill, which had so recently
| become a law, over the Presidents veto.
| BY the 1st section of the bill it IS declared
| that IAN persons born in the United States,
and not subject to any foreign power, eX-
cept Indians not taxed, are hereby. declared
| to be citizens of the United States" This
provision is for the special benefit of the
negro, although it also declares to be cti-
| iZgns all the Chinese, Indians that are tax
| ed, Gypsies, and all Others that may hap
pen to be BORN in the United States This
| section PROPOSES to absorb all the authOri-
| ty in reference to these local questions,
which have heretofore been conceded to,
and supposedtO have belonged to, the States
separately. 1t proposes to make the negro
theiequal of the white race in all civil
rights. 1t proposes to strike down every
| State Constitution which makes any dis
crimination on account of race or color.
This bill further proposes to undermine
the State judiciary, usurp the reserved
| rights of the States, and finally lead to a
consolidated despOtism. Contrary to his
usual custom (said Mr.. M. }, he proposed to
read some extracts from high Republican
1 authority to show the enormity proposed
| by this bill, by witnesses whose prejudices
were all with the Oppressed African"
| The Ne,o York Times, the editor of which
is leading Republican member OF Con-
gress and the special friend and biographer
| of Abraham Lincoln, says:
"The point in the Presidents argument
| which stands out in boldest relief is that
| which portrays, with almost startling viv-
/
certaih--of undermining the Independence
of the judiciary. If Federal District At
torneys, Marshals, Deputy Marshals,
| Agents OF the Freedmen's Bureau, and 9th
er officials are to be intrusted with the pow
er of arraigning any State Judge who may
interpret State law in way which a
claimant of justice may disapprOve, of
what conceivable use can be State Judges?
Better abolish both at once, But not only
are these petty officials empowered, under
the Civil Rights bill, to appear as accusers
of the State judiciary; they have premi-
um held out to prefer charges. For every
case of alleged injustice to freedmen they
get fee. The accused may be innocent;
if so, the fee comes out OF the United States
Treasury. If the accused is guilty he has
to pay his share of the perquisites accruing
to the Federal official"
The Cincinnati Commercial, probably the
most extensively circulated and most in
fluential Republican paper in the West, in
speaking of this bill, says:
1"IHE VETo The ISSUES. - Colored
schools are established, and there are per-
sons, who are not traitors, who think it
would not be well to mix the white and
black children in the same school rooms
We do not know that either would be hurt
by the process, but the prejudice against
such mixture Is, perhaps, pretty strong'
How many wards in Cincinnati, for in
stance, would cast large majorities for the
reelection of General Hays and Benjamin
Eggeston to Congress, upon the ground
that they had assisted in passing over the
Presidents veto measure that opened the
, schools where the white children are being
! educated to the blacks, and not only open
the schools, but the churches, theaters and
, hotels: making all distinction against col
or anywhere, according to the established
customs of our society, A CRIME, PUNISHED
WITH SEVERE PENALTIES! ~
"We simply desire to invite the attention
of those whom it concerns to the probable
value of such a measure as this as an elec-
tioneering document. Our apprehension
ID that II would be found very effective
means of eleeting those who were against
N to ,office--especially of filling the next
Congress with members expressly pledged
m vote for its repeal.
" g We are in favor of the protection of the
civil rights of the negroes, and of. giving
them fair play in all things, but weprotest
against the folly that would, by a law as
Lotions in its details as the Fugitive Slave
: law--of which infamous statute it is indeed
a clumsy copy-attempt to crush out the
! indenendence of the State Judiciary and
suminarily reform customs OF the people
tthat are stronger than the law. The law
PROPOSES meddlesome. espionage, backed
Nv arbitrary power, and to fix In our form
az government a system of impertinenta and
grasping despotism of the most intolerable
} character ,uGslq ~ Us bng ,luaiGiggH Is
erence TO "Gens Hays and Benjamin Eg-