The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-12-04

adoption Of the Constitution. Mr. Alexander
H. Stephens, in his great cornerstone
speech, delivered at Savannah in 1861, and
acting as "Vice-P President" OF the so-called
Southern Coniederacy, took up this subject,
and treated it with his usual candor and ex-
haustiveness. After stating that the new"
or Confederate Constitution had forever put
at rest all agitating questions regarding
slavery as the proper status of the negro,
which he asserted to be the immediate cause
Of the Rebellion, he said, speaking of JeE-
ierson and his compeers -" The preU0tling
ideos entertained by him and most of the
leading statesmen at the time of the .forma-
ton Of the old Constitution were, that the
SnslGUement Of the African race acas IN Uio-
tdtiOa Of The laos Of nature; that G aVas
'orong in principle, socially, morally, and
politically. y Those ideas, bo,c-
ecer, ecere Fundamentally prong. THey rested
upon the assumption Of the equality. of racee
This wds an error. II ,ods a sandy foa,nda-
ton; and the idea Of a Government built
upon 1t, when the storm came and the wind
blew it fel.-
sour new Government Is founded on
erdctty the opposite ideas. Its foundations
are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great
truth that the negro is not equal to the white
man; that slavery, subordinaton to the supe-
rior race, is his natural aud normal condition
This, oar nelC Government, Is the, first In the
history of the aCorld based upon this great
physical, philosophical, and moral truth"
1t will be seen from the above extract that
the very ideas which the Age falsely ascribes
to. the founders OF our Government, Mr.. Ste
phens asserts to have been the fundamental
ideas of the late Rebel Government; while he
asserts that the opposite ideas, viz, those
resting upon the equality of human rights,
were the foundation OF the old Government
erected by Jefferson and the statesmen of the
Revolution.
The theory of the Age is simply the de-
testable theory invented by the late Chief
Justice Taney to defend his infamous dec-
sion in the Dred Scott case. How villa
nously it belied the facts of history, may be
seen by the following extracts from the
conclusive dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice
Curtis -
"To determine whether any free persons
descended from Africans held in slavery we've
citizens under the Confederation, and conse-
Quently at the time OF the adoption OF the
Constitution Of the United States, it is ONLY
necessary to know whether any such persons
Confederation at the tine of the ADOPTION of
the Constitution.
''Of his Here can be no doubt At the time of
the ratification OF the Articles OF Confederation
all free native-born inhabitants of the States
OF New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York
New jersey, and No'th Carolina, though
descended from African slaves, were not only
citizens OF those States, but such OF them
had the other necessary qualifications, possessed
the franchise OF electors on equal terms with
other citizens. y .HI. .a.iN
1T has been often asst rted that the Cons.itu-
ton was made exclusively by and for the white
race. II has already been shown that in five
OF the original thirteen Sta'es colored persons
then possessed the elective franchise, aad
were among those by whom the Constitution
was ordained and establ shed. IL SO, IL as not
tgue, in point of fact, That the Constitution wds
made ercttsiUety dy the ootae race; and that 1t
was made exclusively for The UItlte race is IN
my opinion, not Opg an assumption not lOar-
r0nted by anything IA The Constitution, but con-
hddicie0 by tS opening declaration that ii 9Ods
ordotnfd and established 6y tie people of the
United Stotes, for themselves and their posteTatl.
And as free colored persons we're then citizens
of at least five Stae!, and so in every sense part
of the people of the United States Mey aoere
among those FOR aChO0l and 1ohose posterity the
Constitution GcdS ordained and estdbhshed.r
the status of the colored citizen in this coun-
try is without any foundation in truth, and
was concocted to meet certain case.
The Age, too, is equally unfortunate in
regard to the facts of contemporaneous his
tory, when it asserts that in those States
where the right of suffrage has been granted
to colored persons, it has "always been with
such restrictions as mark the difference be-
tween the white and colored races" In seye-
raj of the States colored citizens exercise the
elective franchise, and in only one of them,
we believe, are there such restrictions" as
the Age asserts to be universal. In New
Yoik property qualification of $3.50 is re-
quired of colored citizens, but not of whites.
We have followed this subject out some
what at length, since, by constant and relte-
rated assertions, the theory borrowed by the
Age from the Dred Scott decision has obtained
a sort oi credence not only totally unwar-
ranted by the facts of history, but absolutely
at war with them. The sentiments of the
founders of the Government towards the
colored man were well up to that OF the most
enlightened radicals of to-day. In the broad
circuit Of nearly hundred years, we are out
returning to where the fathers of the republic
stood when Jefferson declared all men TO be
created equal, when Colonel Greene led a
Hack regiment in the battles OF the Reyolu-
tion. and when the Articles OF Confederation
made every free colored inhabitant of the
thirteen States citizens of the United States.
The Report of General Grant.