Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-06-08


All parties now accept the amendment
abolishing slavery throughout the United
States as right and just; with itthe bitter
est Copperhead no longer finds fault. This
being the case, no Que viii deny that the
recently rebellious States should be obliged
to comply with the requirements of that
amendment before being restored to their
former rights and privileges among the
States. This is the object designed to be
accomplished by the Civil Rights Bill re-
Gently passed by Congress over the veto of
the President. The necessity for the pas
sage and enforcement of such law is pain
fully evident from the following epitome,
given BIZ the New York Ereniag Post, of
the report of the President, made by request
Of Congress, as to the provisions in refer
ence to the freedmen, contained in the con
stituiions and laws Of the Southern States:
g The states of North Carolina, South Car
DINA, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, MisslssIp-
pi and Texas are included in the report fur
nished by the Secretary of State.
1t viii be seen that IN South Carolina and
Florida fogging is still legalized punish
ment for the blacks; and in the former State
the law is so worked that unless a colored
man, fined for slight breach of law, hap
pens to have money in his pocket at the mo-
ment of conviction to pay the fine, he will be.
if the magistrate chooses, disgraced by fog
ging Let the reader imagine what would
happen if our legislature should pass law
declaring that if an offender, fined to the
amount of FIVE dollars, Hdoes not immediate
ly pay the fine he shall suffer corporal pun
shment" The first attempt to enforce such
law would create riot; and the public voice
would acquit of all blame those who should
to the utmost extent resist such an iniqul-
tous and dsgracefui enactment. And sup
pose, instead Of being of general application,
the law should condemn only one class of
men, say the shipwrights, or stevedores, or
the journeymen carpenters?
In South Carolina and Florida the freed
men are forbidden to wear or keep arms. In
South Carolina they are forbidden to work at
trades, or to engage in business, unless spe-
cially licensed. In Florida it is made penal
offence to teach the freedmen or their chill
dren, except license has first been obtained.
In Mississippi all freedmen who are not en-
gagged in labor by the year are compelled TO
take out a license.
IN South Carolina and Mississippi "any
person may arrest a freedman whom he sup
poses to have committed an offence, or to
have deserted from a plantation; and IN
Mississippi the law directs that such "alleg-
ed deserter' shall, while his case is pending,
be sent to his alleged employers planta
tionl'' In South Carolina it is enacted that
the laborer shall be called SERVANT and the
employer master"
There are other particulars in which sever
al of the States make unjust and injurious
distinctions between man and man"
Our readers will recollect that these are
not old statutes. enacted during the exis-
tence of slavery, but, new laws, recently
passed with special reference to the freed
men, and are attempts in direct defiance of
the constitution as amended, to perpetuate
in a new and more odious form the old insti-
tuition of slavery. 1t viii be remembered
that the same Legislative bodies that enacted
these iniquitous laws, also elected the Sena-
tors and Congressman, whom, under the
workings of My Policy" the President and
the whole copperhead party are now trying
to force into Congress For this purpose,
Of upholding Southern rebels in their def
ance of the constitution and laws of the
land, all the patronage of the government
in Pennsylvania has been put in the hands
of Senator Cowan to be used for securing
the election of the Copperhead candidate
for Governor, Hester Clymer. All true
Union men, as well as the gallant soldiers,
viii make note of this, as fact to be re-
membered when they go to the polls in
October