The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1866-08-16
The Rights of Citizenship.

Hon. John A. Logan, in n speccl
delivered at Salem, Illinois, on the
4th of July, in advocating the con
stitutional amendment, stated that
the section comforting the right OF
citizenship upon freedmen did not
confer tho right Of suffrage, bu'
only protection of great natural
rights, being equivalent to n dec
laration that "every man is n hu.
man being )" and that "you have
no right to go out ard murder
him ; you have no right to take
his property ; you have no right to
take his work without paying him
his wages ; You have no right to
abuse that man or trifle with his
rights and privileges. " Ile ex.
planned why he, Douglas Demo
crat of 1860, advocated this pro.
vision in the following emphat;s
and eloquent language:
"Sir, when you ask me how ]
became such a great advocate OF
universal citizenship, can answer
the question. have had my pre-.
iudiccs, just rs other men in this
land, but when | marched with the
columns Of loyal men on Southern
soil, and saw the flag of treason
dcfantly founted in our faces
when | looked around mo and ask
ed for friends, appealed to the
white man in vain he was the
friend of the traitor-the sympa
thizer with rebellion ho owed al
legiance, he thought, to treason,
and not to tho Government of the
United States. But at the deep,
dark hour of night, tho poor color
I'D man, bowed down by tho chains
ofslavery, would crawl through the
marshes, through the thickets,
wade tho rivers and come into our
picket lines, into our camps, and
tell you where the rebel forces lay,
and how You might attack treason
and destroy it. [Cheers.] That
is the reasen why cared not when
found n man that was my friend
IA friend to my country. though
his skin was black, / could trust
him sooner than | could the white
traitor.
=" Hence | want him to have the
protection of the law am in Ia.
vor of his having it and ever shall
be until he gets il. | ask yon, my
countrymcn, ask you, mothers,
who are sitting around this little
group, that have fond sons that lie
away far Off beneath the hot burn.
ing sands of Georgia, whose faces
you will GEE no more on earth,
whose graves you can never visit
again, perhaps, and the old fathers
too, and the little, prattling babe
that often asks his mother, "Moth.
er, when will my father again re-
turn to me I" to have tho laws OF
this land modified, that while
traitors in the South have their
gatherings. day after day. to strew
garlands of flowers upon the graves
of rebel soldiers, that they may
live in their memory as long as life
shall last, II somo poor, old. de-
crepit negro. who gained his liber-
ty by tho march and prowcss of
American arms, shall come along
with a little basket of flowers to
strew upon the grave of some poor
loyal soldier, that he shall have
the right to do it, and that no per.
son shall have the right to inter.
fere, and that he is to be protected.
Emotion. These rights they
ought to have. We ought to be
willing to give them to every hu-
man heirg on top OF Gods earth.
| hope this is not treason-at loast
| don't believe it is. Laughter. ]
| belioTa it is but doing justice to
those people and to ourselves. 1t
is q Christian act on our part, and
we should not fail to perform it,
If we do, we fail to perform a duty
that is incumbent upon us toward
men who have saved tho Govern
ment, and wrenched it from the
hands of treason, when they were
fastened upon its throat"