The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1866-08-07

US. The United States must fiud friends
T interested and able to suppress hostility to
its authority and to discharge all the func-
tions of government, State and National,
in the face Of every disloyal or hostile
power And the power of those who re-
belled must be curbed by those who did
not rebel, aided by those who joined the
! rebellion reluctantly aud are anxious to
atone for their error or weakness.
This can be done only by recognizing
the negro population as an integral part of
the people of The Southern States;' and
i by refusing to permit G1ay State govern--
meat to be organized OF, aay other basis
than uniuersaL suffrage and equalized be
fore tie Law. .....
Whatever anomalies may have been
winke1 at during the era Of slavery, it may
well be doubted if, without serious blow
at onr principles, any government can be
recognized as republican in form which ex
cludes from suffrage and equal laws a ma
joritg of the citizens of the States, as would
be the case in South Carolina and Missis
sippi, or halt the citizens, as would be the
case in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and
Virginia, if the negro citizens be disfran-
chised.
/ 1t is certain that government which de-
: clared them equal before the law, and re-
,cognized universal suffrage, would be re-
publican in form and substance also. 1t is
equally certain that such constitution in
the Southern States is the ouIy one con-
, sistent with the national peace and safety;
and Congress has the right and, 7 think
, ought to refuse to recognize any State 9 v
f ernment in those States not on that basis.
But the white people Of the States which
rebelled will not organize governments on
| that basis. No considerable portion of the
, white population of those States is in favor
, of it. The loyal are as much against it as
the rebel leaders.
None will adopt it of themselves, nor
will they adopt it on the request and un-
: der the Influence of the President.
f But all will submit to it if exacted, and
accept it if unavoidable.
: To submit the question to the loyal
voters of the State assumes the existence
of State government and constitution
defining the right Of suffrage, and making
| loyalty a condition. ....
!; But there are no such constitutions IN
any State which rebe!led. The United
States have refused to recognize any State
governments in any of those States.
There are, heretofore, no State govern
ments and no voters in any Of the rebel
States. .... ..#.
There are States, and people Of those
States-both known to the Constitution
OF the United ,otates.
And the negroes are as integral part
of the people of the State as the whites.
Both are citizens; neither has right to
exclude the other; neither can speak in the
name of the State for tie other; it is the
equal right of both to beleard and repre-
sented in constituting their common gov
ernmcnt, and any proposal to submit the
question OF the political or civil rights of
the whites IS as unjust and absurd as to
submit the question of the political rights
of the whites to the arbitrament of the ne
groes-with this difference, that the ne
groes are loyal everywhere and the great
body of the whites are disloyal everywhere.
/ The problem therefore is, solved by
simple appeal to the people Of the State.
No election can be held, no convention
assemble, no political authority be legally
exercised in any Of those States but by the
will of the United States, and for the pres
ent, till Congress speaks, by the will of the
President.
IT, therefore, the President will declare
that no election shall be held unless the
negro population have free and equal
voice, that no convention shall assemble
which they have not helped to elect, that
none shall proceed to frame government
unless in the beginning universal suffrage
and equality before the law be declared its
fundamental basis, the problem is solved.
! If those conditions be accepted, the Con-
stitution will be presented to Congress,
and the government recognized which it
forms. .. a.. ~
If they be not accepted, the President
will hold the State till Congress declare
how they shall be governed.
If the problem be not dealt with in this
way, or some such way, it will be'solyed in
an adverse sense.
Ii it be not solved rightly it threatens
to degenerate into barren and bitter agi-
tation, sure to result disastrously to those
who propose the political enfranchisement
of the negroes, and to consolidate the union
Of the enemies of the government in the
Ioyal and the rebel States into an irresisti-
bic power, which must wrest the govern
ment from the hands of those who have
saved it. This coalition is probable in any
event; but on this question it is certain
and fatal @
:, The negro population must be recog-