Delaware State journal and statesman., 1866-08-03
THE nIGuTs OF oIT1zENsmIP.


Hon. John A. Logan, in a speech deliver
ed at Salem, Illinois; on the 4th of July, in
advocating the constitutional amendment,
stated that the section comforting the rights
of citizenship upon freedmen did not confer
the right of suffrage, but only protection of
great natural rights, being equivalent TO Il
declaration that 'every man is a human be
ing" and that "you have no right to 10 out
and murder him; you have no right to take
his property. you have no right to take his
work without paying hlm wages; you have
no right to abuse that man or triAe with his
rights and privileges. " He explained why
he, Douglas Democrat of 1860, advocated
this provision, in the following emphatic
and eloquent language
"Sir, when you ask me how became such
great advocate of universal citizenship, /
can answer the question. | have had my
preiudices, just as other men in this land,
but when | marched with the columns of
loyal men ON Southern soil, and saw the
flag of treason defiantly Haunted in our iaces
when l looked around me and asked for
friends, appealed to the white man in vain
he was the friend of the traitor, the sympa-
thizeT with rebellion; he owed allegiance, he
thought, to treason, and not to the Govern
ment of the United States But at the Deep
dark hour of night, the poor colored man,
| bowed down by the chains Of slavery, would
crawl through the marshes, through thickets,
wade the rivers and come into our picket
lines, into our camps, and tell you where the
rebel forces lay, and how you might attack
treason and destroy it. [Cheers,l That is
the reason why cared not when | found a
man that was my friend-a friend to my
country; though his skin was black, l could
trust him sooner than | could the white trai-
tor [''That's so"l
Hence | want him TO have the protection
of the law; am in favor of his having it,
and ever shall he until he gets it, Task you,
countrymen, / ask you, mothers, who are
sitting around in this little group, that have
fond sons that lie away far off beneath the
hot burning sands of Georgia, whose faces
you will see no more on earth, whose graves
you can never visit again, perhaps, and the
old fathers too, and the little, prattling babe
that often asks his mother, "MOther, when
will my father again return to me?" to have
the laws of this land so modified, that while
traitors in the South have their gatherings,
day after day, to strew gaIlands OF tiowers
upon the graves of rebel soldiers, that they
may live in their memory as long as life
shall last, if some poor, old, decrepit negro,
who has gained his liberty by the march and
prowess Of American arms, shall come along
with a little basket of flowers to strew upon
the grave of some poor loyal soldier, that lie
shall have the right to do it, and that no per
son shall have the right to interfere, and that
he is to be protected. Emotion These
rights they ought to have. We ought to be
willing to give them to every human being
on top OF Gods earth. l hope this is moi
treason-I don't believe it is. Laughter.
| believe it is but doing justice TO those peO
ple and to ourselves. 1t is u Christian ac
on our part, and we should not fail to per
, form it. If we do, VIC fail to perform Q
men who have saved the Government, ant
wrenched il from the hands of treason, wher
they were fastened upon its throat"