Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-04-18

world to do with that question. The Fed
eral Union was a sort of copartnership,
in which certain conditions and terms
were stipulated and agreed upon As long
as they observed those terms, they had a
right TO vote to force any refractory men,
Der who refused TO continue in the firm,
to come back and stand by the terms.
A voice, Make him stand. Exactly,
make him stand" Laughter But these
fellows in Congress would have the Union
without the Union They would have
the play of Hamlet with the part of Ham
let left out daughter These fellows
in Congress were the greatest set of scolds
and old women he ever heard of. If they
could only be put in pen by themselves
the fate of the Kilkenny cats would be
theirs. Laughter There would be only
a few points Of tails left IL you did not
90 for the destruction of all the women
and children of the South, the Radicals
would denounce you as Copperhead.
They say they cannot restore the Union.
Why2 Because, they say, rebels would
come back to Congress Was there no
way to keep them out of Congress? Were
there not laws to punish them? And if
you hung one of them for treason, he
would not trouble them muchin Congress
after that. Laughter. A proposition
had been made in the Senate the other
day, to swap off the punishmen: of trait
ors against letting the negroes vote.
That was what they were driving at
Their motives were easily understood.
Their two or three leading gentleman
he would not name them-he did not
want to throw the carcasses of dead dogs
among this assembly. Laughter, and
cries Of 1--WE know them. One of them
for instance, (they might imagine the
name, knew that he was hated by all the
people in "the South, and knew that if
the Union wa, restored he would be po-
liticaly dead. And that was just why
they did not want the Union restored.
Why should the negro vote What
good would vote do him? He would
either have a party Of his own or go in
with one of your two parties. A voice,
"He would vote for the Radicals
"vote for the Radicals p No, Sam is
too cute for that. He would not touch
the Radicals with ten-foot pole. Laugh
ter WE'LL if it could not do him any
good to ring in with one OF your two
parties, was it to be supposed that he was
to have a party of his own, and to elect
darkeys to Officer That would not be
allowed either Voices, "No, no." ]
Over in Liberia, where the darkeys are
getting up little United States of their
own, did they allow white men to vote ?
Not at ALL They had law that no man
should vote who had not African blood
in his veins. These Radicals thought
they had abolished slavery. That was
all balderdash. They had never abolished
anything but the law of common sense.
Laughter
The slaveowners themselves did more
to abolish slavery by going into the war
than the Radicals did 1t was the sol
diers who really abolished it. But now
these Radicals wanted to give the negro
votes. Why should that be done? If
the negro did not like the rights which
he enjoyed in any State, he could leave
it and 90 to another. That was the pres
ent liberty the negro enjoyed equally
with the white man. The Radicals seem
to think that if the negro was allowed to
vote he would vote for them, and keep
them longer in political power. A voice,
That's about it. That was about as
near to it as he could come.
The people of the Southern States
could not be held long as conquered
people. When we were right and they
were wrong, what a. terrible struggle we
had But when they would be in the
right, and we in the wrong, was it to be
supposed God would be on our side Z
The only plan was to be kind, fair, lib
eral, and conciliary. If we were to be
engaged in war with England or
France, could we expect the people Of
the South to fight for us? No. But
they would fght to-day for the great
man of the country, President johnson;
because when they were beaten he treated
them with liberality and magnanimity.
Applause If we were to be at war
with England, what would be our condl-
tion2 A voice, "We'd whale them any
way" Laughter. Could we afford to
90 down South and lose two or three
hundred thousand men more TO subdue
them2 An old Greek had once said that
anybody could commence speech, but
the difficulty was how to end it. That
was the trouble with himself He hoped
however, that having struggled TO pre-
serve the Union, they would be able to
maintain it. The President of the
United States was the man to do that
work, and he would not fail to do 1t.
lApplause.