Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1866-02-24

choice. and two st ,hs North Of necessity.
In view Of those facss We await further
Bot. sir, there Is duty laid upon rs by |
the Constitution. That duty is declared |
10 these words:
The United State shall guaranty TO
every Stated iu this Union o republican
form OF government.
What does that mean Rad the
tw en,y first and forty third numbers Of the
Federalis', aud you will understand what
the fathers Of the Constitution meant wheH
they put that csnse into our organic law.
With wonderful foresight, amounting at
most 10 prophecy, they appear TO have
forescen Just such c1nting 'ncy as the one
that has arisen. NJ Adisol said that en- H.
surrection nigh; arise too powerful 10 oe
suppressed by the local auhorities, anu
Congress must have authority to put
down and 10 see that no usurping govern.
ment shall be erected on the ruins OF o
State.
What Is q republican form OF govern
msn2 When the Union was formed the
free colored people we're not tenlh OF the
population Of any State. Now, all black
men arc free ci'iz'ns, and we are asked, as
the lamented Henry Winter Davis has SO
clearly stated it, to recogniza, as republi.
can. such despoti,ms as these: ..... t
In North Carolina 63l 900 cilz,ns will
ostrac Re 33I, 900; 10 Virginia. 10000 citizeos
Aill ostracizs 5,833000 citizens; In Alabama,
596, 900 citizens will ostracize $4,000 citizens;
in Louisiana 357 900 citizens will ostracize $50
600 ci,z us: in Mississippi, $4,000 citizsus
will ostracize 536 900 ciiiz ,ns; 10 South Caro-.
lins, 29l 900 citizens will ostracize 4ll,Ooo
citizens. ...l
We are asked to guaranty all these as re.
pulicau governmental Gentlemen upon
The other side OF the House ask US to let
such shameless despOtisms as these be re-
presented here ss republican States.
venture 10 assert that q more monstrous
proposition was never before made to an
American Congress. 1
l am therefore in favor of The amend
ment 10 the Com tituIion that passed the
other day to reform the basis OF represen
! talon. could have wished that it had
been more thorough and searching 10 its
terms. / took it as the best we conG ge
bu, say here, before this House. that
will never, SO long as have any voice in
political affairs, rest satisfied until the way
is opened by which ,hese citizens. SO soon
Us they are worthy. shall be lifted to the
full rights of citizenship. l will not bt
fsctious 10 my action here. II cannot
to day get all l desire, will try sgs,r
TO. morrow, securing all that can be ob
taiued TO day But so long as have any
voice or vote here, they shall aid ip giving
the suf age to every citizen qualified, b!
, intelligence, 10 exercise 1t. ..
Mr.. Speaker, l know of nothing NOR,
dangerous to Republic than to put int,
it's very midst four millon.people stripped
of every attribute of citizenship, robbed o
the right of representation. but bound ,t
pay taxes to the Government. IT they
eau endure it. we caonot The mu. derer
is to be pitied more than the murdered
man; The robber more than the robbed
, And we who defraud four million citizens
} of their rights are iDjuring ourselves vastly
more than We ere iDju ing the black maj
whom We rob.
say that slavery, and The inequality o
rights before the law which are now par
, of our system, are more dangero Gus to q
than 10 he black man whom il disfranchises
! 1t is like foreign substapce in the body
q thorn in the hesb; it will wound an.
E disease the body polite.
l. remember that tbisques,ion Of suffrsg
n caused one Of the grestest civil wars i
}. the history of Rome Ninety years befor
}. Christ, when Rome was near the climax
. its glory, just before the dawn Of th
Augu, tan age, twelve States of Italy {
. which tho franchise was denied rose 10 n
bellioB against Rome. Aud after tbre
years and ten months Of bloody war the
, compelled Rome to its G st cspit ulstio
for three hundred years. For three bur
dred years the Roman eagle had bee
, carried II ::nmpbantiy over every battle field
But when iron Svme, With al her Prid'
and glory, met men who were fighting III
the right of suffrage, she was comp led Il
) succumb, ard give the ballot to the twelv,
States, to save herself from dissolution. -
Z Let us learn wisdom from that lesson aud
u extend the suffrage to people who may on,
. day bring us more disaster than foreign o
Y domes ic war has get done.
n ! must refer for q moment TO the prt
:, position Of ny friend fom Connec,icu
It Mr.. DEMISG, who asks Us to imbed 10 ,t
b imperishable buiwarks uf the Constitute
!? an amendment that will forbid seeession
y the fuure ] want no such change Of Il
is Constitution. They never had. by ih
q Constitution. the right to seeede. II "
l. have not settled that question by war
can never be settled by court. Ths
e court of last resort is higher than an
! other tribunal As the Governor OF OH
r has so well said:
3 Tbese things have been decided in the drea
0 court Of isst resort for peoples and natiOus b
as much as the shock OF armed hosts is MOI
grand than the intellectual tilt Of lawyers.
the q cd Of battles lie o more awful judge ths
|, any earthly court. by go much does the dignii
: of this contest and The fnslity Of this decisiO
4 exceed that OF any human tribunal.
/ care not what provision might be /
m the Constitution; if any States Of thi
'e Union desire 10 rebel aud break Up th
o Union. and are able to do, il 10 spi,e Q
,e ' the Constitution. An want, therefor,
!. = is SO 10 amend our Consiitui lou and q.
"a minister our laws as shall secure liberi
IS. aud loyalty among the ci' izsus OF the reb,
" States. am not smoog hose who believ
Sc that all meu in the SonIh are enemies
ns the eye Of The law Tueir property ".