Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1866-01-24
THg RAFTsmAn's JOURNAL.

tion here aie opposed to it A prominent
man charged with high crime in Pennsyl-
yania alleged that the hostility and preju-
dice and the people in the county where he
was indicted would deprive him of fair
trial, and asked the Legislature to grant
him change of venue. The people of
that county demonstrated, and submitted to
the Legislature that they were the fittest
persons to try him, because they kneao he tcas
guilty. If the people here were generally
consenting to this enlargement of the fran
chise Its necessity would be less apparent.
1t is because the negro is hated in this city,
and justice denied him by prejudiced Off
Gals, that his vote Is ne cessary Tor his own
protection. Every vote against him at this
pretended election was an argument in his
favor. l know that the prejudices, errone-
Gus sentiments, and even vices of the peo-
pie should be somewhat regarded In legisla-
ton, and that vested wrongs supposed to
be vested rights should be Invested very
slowly. But what less can we do in this di-
rection than is proposed to be done by this
bill, namely, to bestow the elective fran
chise upon handful of men, who, as a body,
are intelligent, sober, peaceable, and indus
trious, and in District where only local
officers are chosen, and over which our
right to legislate cannot be questioned. 1t
must be opposed, not upon the ground that
it is going too fast or granting too much at
first, but upon the ground that, in that di-
rection no step should be taken-nothing
granted now, nor forever that this is ex-
clusively white mans Government and
the colored man is his slave. This is reb-
ell heresy entirely exploded by the war. We
are coming back TO the doctrine of our faith
ORG In ba Tontinaptal fioppracS thau as-
serted that AL men are created free and
equal They subsequently made the Con-
stitution to accord with this sentiment, and
forty years, as long as they lived to admins
ter it, negroes were allowed to vote in all
the old States except, perhaps, South Caro-
lima. Both the precept and practice of our
fathers refute the allegation that this is ex
clusively white mans Government. If
we cannot now consent to so slight recog
milton, as proposed by this bill, of the great
underlying theory of our Government, as
declared and practiced by our fathers, we
are thrown back upon that new and mon
strous doctrine that the five millions of our
colored population and their posterity forev-
er have no rights that white man is bound
to respect.
Who pronounces this crushing sentence?
The political South; and what is this South? I?
The southern master and his northern min
ion. Have these people wronged the South
and murder? No, sir, they are remarkably
gentle, patient, and respectful Have they
despoiled its wealth or diminished Its gran
deur? No, sir, their unpaid toll has made
the material South. They removed the
forests, cleared the fields, built the dwellings,
churches, colleges, cities, highways, rail-
roads, ana canals. Why, then, does the
South hate and persecute these people?
Because it has wronged them. Injustice
always hates its victim. They are forced to
look to the North for justice. And what is
the North? Not the latitude of frosts not
New England and the States that border on
the lakes, the Mississippi, and the Pacific;
The geographical Is lost In the political
meaning of the word The North in po
litical sense, means justice, liberty and u
nion, and in the order in which name them,
Jefferson defined this North when he
wrote 'all men are created equal, endowed
by their Creator with certain inaiienable
rights, among which are life, liberty, and
pursuit of happiness This North has no
geographical boundaries. 1t embraces the
friends of freedom in every quarter of this
great Republic. Many of its bravest cham
pions, like our still unstolen, Republican
President, halls from the geographical South.
The North, that did not fear the slave pow
er in its prime, in the day of its political
strength and patronage, when it comman-
ded alike the nation and the mob, and for
the same cruel purpose, will not be intimi
dated by its expiring maledictions around
this capital. The North must pass this
bill to vindicate its sincerity and its oouI-
age. The slave power has already learned
that the North is terrible in war and forgiv-
ing and gentle in peace; let its crushed and
mangled victims learn from the passage of
this bill, that the justice of the North, un-
limited by lines of latitude, unlimited by
color or race, slumbereth not