The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-10-02
CITY INTELLIGENCE.
For additional Local Items see EjJhm Page.

DnMoCRATIC MEETING-SPEECH OF SEN
AToR COwAN.-A large audience gathered i'll
front ol independence Hall last evening, for the
purpose OF listening to the Hon. Edgar CowaT,
Senator 1rom Pennsylvania He was introduced
by John w. Stokes.
Senator CoWan spoke as tollows:-ln what
other city than Philadelphia could people
more appropriately meet to restore a broken
Union? What is the meaning of the phrase,
''All men were created Tree and equal?n 1t means
Just what it said. Not that all men were white,
or all men black, or all men yellow. 1t merely
meant TO assert that all men were entitled to
fair play in a court of justice. Pennsylvania
was free State in l776, Immediately after the
Declaration Of independence.
She is free State now; when the rights which
she now enjoys are taken away, she then ceases
to be a free State. | purpose to examine the
proposed amendments put forth by the present
radical party of the country. What is the first
amendment? II was agreed in the Senate that
all the States should stand upon an equal foot
ing. That is so now. As to the House OF Rep
resentatives it was agreed that the number of
the people should be the basis OF representation.
Those were the terms upon which they were
based.
The first proposed amendment is not very ma
terlal at this time. The second SAYS that if you
don't allow the negroes to vote you shall not
count them in making up the ratio pt repre-
sentarion. Well, we have hundred thou
sand negroes in Pennsylvania and a Congress
man based upon their representation. Ii they
are Lot counted, Pennsylvania loses that Con
grGSsndns SOuJl OdIOlLld WOulu lose nan nGr
representation if such should be the case and
so with the other Southern States in proper
ton. What do they mean when they say these
men shall not be counted? They mean that
they shall vote. | tell you, my friends, that no
person outside OF PENNSYLVANIA has a right to
tell us or to dictate to us who we shall let vote
or who we shall not let vote. 1t is none of their
business. We say. as the President says, that
the state should have the right to let whoever
she pleases vote Massachusetts,, or any other
State, may let whoever they please vote; but
think the State OF Pennsylvania should have
the right 10 say who sha have power within
the borders of the State. You are told that
white man in South Carolina has twice as much
power as white man in this State The facL
has been, down there the white man voted an
the negroes dld not what accounts Tor the
power welded?
l know that the majority in Congress contend
that they do not want TO compel The people to
accept negro suffrage. But II the amendment
proposed does not imply this very thing,
should like to know what II means. If they
don't want to force negro suffrage upon us, then
| they want to take away the power we have.
Inc next amendment says to the Southern
| people, that none OF their leading men should
ever hold Office, as punishment for having en-
tered the Rebellion. That provision is a viola
| tion OF the very Constitution itself The Con.
stitution says that no bill OF attalnder or eX post
! iacto law shall be passed Both bulls or attain
| der, from time immemorlal, and eX post aCto
laws, have been nothing but engines OF tyranny,
The British Parliament passed bills of attain
| der but none half so bad as this. Our fathers
put these things in the Constitution, and upon
| them rest our liberties to-day. There is nOt n
man in the country who IS not as much inte-
rested in the preservation of that intact as they
are in the lives of their wives and children.
| They tell YOU that it is 10 punish red.handed
traitors. That Is well enough to tell TO inaam-
matory people. At the outset OF this Rebellion
we did not treat these people this way. We