The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1867-12-07

degrees of their guilt as various as the shades
OF their character and temper. But these acts of
Congress confound them all together in one CON-
mon doom. Indiscriminate vengeance upon
classes, sects, or parties or upon whole conmu-
mites, for offenses committed by portion of
them against the Government to which they
owed obedience, was common in barbarous ages
OF the world, but Christianity and civilization
have made such progress that recourse to pun
lshinent so cruel and unjust would meet with
the condemnation of all unprejudiced and right
minded men,
THE ENsIAVEMENT OF STATES.
The punitive Justice of the age, especially in
TINS country, does not consist in stripping whole
States OF their liberties and reducing all their
people, without distinction, to a condition of
slavery 1t deals separately with each individu-
AL confines itself to the forms of law, and yindi-
Gates its own purity by an impartial examine
ton Of every case before a competent judicial
tribunal. 1T this does not satisfy all our desires
with regard to the Southern rebels, let us con-
sole ourselves by rejecting that free Constitu-
ton, triumphant III war and unbroken in peace,
is worth far more to Us and our children than
the qualification of any present feeling.
/ am aware it is assumed that this system Of
government for the Southern States is not to be
perpetual. 1t is true this military government
, u
temporary evil that greater evil is to be made
perpetual If the guarantees of the Constitution
can be broken Professionally to serve a temporary
purpose, and i'll part only of the country we
can destroy them everywhere and for all time.
Arbitrary measures often change, but they gen.
orally change Tor the worse 1t is the curse of
despotism that it has no hating place; intermit-
ted exercise of its power brings no sense of secu-
rity to its subjects, for they never know what
more they will be called to endure when its red
right hand is armed to plague them again. Nor
is 1t possible to mcclure how or where power,
unrestrained by law, may seek its next victims.
States that are still States may be enslaved at
any moment, for, ii the Constitution does not
protect all, it protects none. 1t is manifesty
and avowedly the object of these laws to confer
upon the negroes the privilege of voting, and to
disfranchise such number of white citizens as
Will give the former clear majority at all cleo
lions In the Southern States. This, to the minds
OF some persons, is 30 important that violation
of the Constitution is justified as a means of
bringing it about. The morality is always false
which excuses wrong because it proposes 70 sc-
complish desirable end. We are not permitted
to do evil that good may come. But in this case
the end is itself evil, as well as the means The
subjugation of States to negro domination would
be worse than the military despotism under
which they are now suffering. It was believed
beforehand that the people would endure any
amount Of military oppression for any length of
time, rather than degrade themselves by subjec-
ton to the negro race, therefore they have been
left without a choice. Negro suffrage was estab-
Gshed by act of Congress, and military officers
were commanded to superintend the process of
clothing the negro race with the political privi-
leges withheld from white mon. The blacks in
the South are entitled to be humanely governed
and to have the protection of just laws for all
their rights of person and property. If it were
practiesl, at this time. TO give them a govern
ment exclusively their own, under which they
might manage their own affairs in their own
way, it would become grave question whether
we ought to do no, or whether common humanity
would not require us to save them from them
selves But, under the circumstances, this is
only q speculative point. It In not proposed
merely that they shall govern themselves, but
that they shall rule the white race mako and
administer State laws; elect Presidents and men,
bers of Congress, and shape. " greater or less
extent. the future destiny Of the whole country.
Would such trust and power b. safe in such
hands! The peculiar qualities which should
characterize any people that are At to decide up
on the management of public ShAirs for great
State have seldom been combined. 1t IL the
glory Of white men to know that they have had
the qualities in sufficient measure to build mp on
this continent great political fabric, and to pre-
serve its stability for mere than ninety years,
while in every other part Of the world all SINH
lar experiments have failed.
AN ARGUMENT FOR NEGRO INPBRIoRIry.
But if any thing can DO proved by known facts !;
il all reasoning upon evidence IL not abandoned,
it must be acknowledged that in the progress of
nations negroes have shown les capacity for gov
eminent than any other race Of people. No in
dependent government Of any form has ever been
whenever they have been left 70 their own do
vices, they have shown n constant tendency TO
relapse into barbarism. In the Southern States,
however, Congress has undertaken to confer upon
them the privilege of the ballot. Just released
from slavery, it may be doubted whether ~
class they know more than their ancestors how to
organize and regulate civil society. Indeed, it
is admitted that the blacks Of tho South are not
only regardless OF the rights of property, but
their voting can consist in nothing more than
carrying the ballot to the place where they are
directed to deposit it, l need not remind you
that the exercise of the elective franchise is the
highest attribute of the American citizen, and
that, when guided by virtue, intelligence, pa
triotism and proper appreciation of our free in
stitutlons, it constitutes the true basis of dem
ocratic form of government. in which sovereign
power is lodged in the body of the people. A
trust artifcially created, not for its own sake,
but solely rs means of promoting the general
welfare, its influence for good must necessarily
depend upon the elevated character and true al.
legiance of the elector. 1t ought, therefore, to
be reposed in none except those who are fitted,
morally and mentally, to administer it we'll for
if conferred upon persons who do not Justly esti-
mate its value and who are indifferent as to its
r.
power in she hands of unprincipled and ambi-
tious men, and must eventuate in the complete
destruction of tho liberty of which il should be
the mnat poMerful conseryatnr | have tharc-