The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-28

far larger Indirectly; and1-unless the Jury we're
scandalously packed-it would result In non
agreement or no verdict. / can imagine no
| good end to be subserVed by such trial, and
| holding Davis neither better nor worse than
thousands of others-would have him treated
as they a1e.
hope to see impartial suffrage established by
| very general consent. Many will favor 1t be-
| cause they hold 1t eminenty wise and just;
| others because they are tired OF contention
| about negroes, and wish to put an end 70 IL.
| And the one simple, obvious mode of taking
| the negro out OF politics IS just 70 treat him as
| o man. He will cease TO be an object OF speclsl
| interest or championship Rom the nouT tndt
| the law disregards the immaterial clrcumst stance
| of his color, and treats him only as human
| being.
i trust the States will generally accord to
! sppctiye of the nation and of each other; and
| trust they will agree to place those rights under
| the protection OF the Federal CONSTITUTION:
This NAV not, in one sense, be necessary; yet It
| Is hest to leave no ''loop,to hang doubt upon."
| The whole country needs absolute peace and
rest. am very willing that each State should
| impose a moderate poll tax on every citizen,
and allow no one to vote who shall not have
| seasonably paid this tax. l hold that luDatics
idiots, criminals, yagrants, and public paupers,
! have no natural right to vote, and that they
| ought not to be entranchised If there be
negroes, as l presume there are, who choose to
| prowl over the country, begging and stealing,
think these should not be allowed to vote.
But every honest, dil'gent, industrious, useful
citizen, however lowly, ought to be voter;
and that State is weakened and imperilled
which excludes any such from her electoral
body.
dislike the suggestion of an 'intelltgencer
basis of suffrage. Let us not be deluded by false
analogies and vague distractions. In a State
where each child grows up within sight of free
sChool-houses, wherein he is more than welcome
to be pupil, it is perfectly reasonable to pre-
scribe that those only who can read may vote.
Where half the people have not only been denied
all public facilities for education, but have
grown up under laws which made teaching
them crime, the case is very different. Estab-
lish common schools in the South, and you may
fairly prescribe that no one shall vote after 1876
who does not know how to read. But do not
put out mans eyes and then punish him for
| blindness. .. ...'.. .tf, -
II would be morally impossible to enforce
fairly and uniformly an intel igence test in the
| South. just think of Mayor Monroe, with his
chief of police and first marshal, sitting as a
| board on the eve OF an exciting election to de-
| termine how many and which of the blacks of
| to make them voters Fancy the Copperheads
of Southern Maryland passing on the literary
pretensions of their late slaves, from whom they
feared defeat IN an exciting political contest!
The bare attempt 10 enforce such test at the
| South will manifestly nHame and distract that
entire region. trust it will be forborDe.
l commend impartial suffrage as required by
the true interest OF all concerned; yet | cannot
| admit that il is matter in which the North has
| no rightful concern. The blacks are portion
| not merely of the Southern, but OF the Ameri-
can people. They played an important and
| benefcent part in our great civil war. We
cannot ignore the obligations springing from
our necessity and their loyalty. / hold that
| honor and good faith absolutely constrain those
| who triumphed in that struggle to take care
| that their humble supporters and hackers shall
! not be made TO suffer for taking the side of the
| Union. To say now, in view OF the recent past,
| "Let the Southern negroes have such rights
only as their white Qate Rebe) fellow-citzens
shall see fit TO accord them,n would be ingrati-
tude and perfdy such as might we'll invoke the
| llghtnings OF heaven. No matter at wha. cost,
| we OF the North must take care that the South
ern blacks are not left at the mercy of that dia-
| boliC spirit which manifested itself through the
| late massacres of Memphis and New Orleans.
"But there is the Federal Constitution in your
Perhaps do not comprehend the force of this
objection. Let me illustrate my views of it by
familiar example. Suppose General Grant,
when he first approached the boundary of Ten
nessee--but no, let us suppose that General
Lee, when in 1868 he reached the southern
boundary of Pennsylvania, had found his way
barred by pompous, puffy parsonage, who ac'
costed him as follows: ''Sir give you notice
that this is the sacred soir OF Pennsylvania;
am one OF her magistrates, and IN her name
and authority, ana in virGue OF that Federal
Constitution which you have sworn to obey,
command you to turn back l'-it is just posi-
BILE that the General would have ordered the
Justice to get out OF the way, but more probable
that he would have simply kept on without
voucEsafng the judicial magnate word.
We have been engaged in q fierce, desperate,
protracted struggle Tor the very exls tence of the
Republic whereof the Constitution is but an
incident. Il know there we're those nomlnally
on our side who said they fought for the Con
stitution, but never heard of their hurting
any body.) In the progress of that struggle il
became necessary TO call the blacks to the
rescue of the imperilled nation. Had we made
them no promises whatever, our obligation:
resulting from our peril, and their services IN
aveTting it, would not have been essentially les
sened. had we been Worsted, they must have
shared our misfortune, and gone under the fee
of the triumphant Rebels. Had we ended the
struggle by treaty or compact they must have
been governed by the terms OF that compact
But we were NOT worsted; we did not compro
mise nor end the war by treaty; we were en-
tirely and absolutely triumphant; and l hold il
moral obligation thence resulting that we shall
guarantee and secure their absolute perfect
freedom. To prove unfathtul to this Obligation
is to bury ourselves in per6dy and enduring
shame. And this responsibility, spring inc
directly from the national rescue from ruin,
hold far before and above the letter of the
Constitution.
The soundness and urgency of this view would
not have been 80 palpable had the Rebels, after
the utter collapse and disappearance of theiI
ConfeGeracy, evinced grain oil common sense
Had they so acted that their friends might have
plausibly argued that the blacks we're safe IL
their hands, we might have guessed, or trusted
or hoped, that the most vital rglts oil the freed
men would be respected and shielded by State
actioni Hand lthereupon gone to sleep. But tnC
last shots of war had barely ceased to echo
when Southern Legislatures, assembled by Mr.
JohnsoL's Provisional Governors, began to con
coct and enact laws bearing exclusively on thu
Freedmen, which would have disgraced thu
worst days OF Egyptian or of AIgerine despotism
For instance; DO reasonable person ever OBJ
, jected, while slavery existed, to laws placing
, | the blacks in slave States under police sur
l veillnace and forbidding them to keep o
bear arms; but such acts become absurd