Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1867-01-25

recommend it TO the eminent favor Of
the General Assembly
THE BARBARLs MS or OUR STGTE
LAWS md CORsTITUTTOE-
The war for the Union IN destroying
slavery struck the barbarous slave
code from our national statute books
and constitution. This result, be it
said to our discredit, was not entirely
wrought out By the education of our
national conscience in the dreadful
school of civil war, but was the fruit
Of the dire exigeney Of the country
which made it absolutely essential to
our national existence TO do right. The
war accomplished a reform in our ma
tional laws and politics which could not
have been effected in twenty years of
agitation. In striking down the rebel
lion it struck down the barbarisms of
our social and political system, and left
our national constitution more thor
oughly republicanized bumanized and
ehristianized- The Supreme Court, be
it said to its shame, is endeavoring to
go ek from the advanced point where
the war left us and undo the glorious
work of revolution Congress-, to its
everlasting honor. has taken the Gov
ernment where the war left it and
pressed forward to secure its highest
aud best results. Commencing at the
emancipation proclamation it has con-
ferred upon every freedman the equal
protection of the law. Taught by the
genius of our Institutions and adnen-
ished by the lessons Of the war it now
endeavors to break down this post-re-
bellion barbarism which deprives loyal
citizens Of the ballot merely on ac-
count of their complexion. So far as
in its power it has placed the policy Of
the National Government upon the just
and firm basis of universal suffrage.
which it has enacted in the District of
Columbia and in all the Territories of
the United States. Its pending meas
Ures of reconstruction, and for the ad-
mission of new states, are framed upon
the same great principle of the equali-
ty Of all men in their natural, civil and
political rights.
These reforms wrought by the war
and by Congress have put the National
Government far in advance of those of
the States. While the Union was i'm
perilled the political systems of the 10y
al states were In no particular jeopardy,
and no exigency demanded or enforced
reform. Consequently these States
came out Of the war with their consti-
tutions and laws iB statB q1so ante BEL
lam. The old barbarisms begotten of
slavery and infused like subtle poison
through every vein and fibre Of the
Republic still remained unseathed.-I
They yet disgrace our statute books,
belle the lessons of the war and brand
with inconsistency our great national
reforms. Indiana and Illinois have
but just repealed the Infamous statutes
which prohibit coIored men from COM
ing within the limits Of those states.-I
But let US not carp at the faults of
others but look at home. Even our
own noble Buckeye State mas traces Of
the old slavery barbarism in her laws
and constitution. With all her enlight- |
enment, progress and Republicanism,
with all her admonitions of the wick |
edness of slavery which she sent three
hundred thousand of her sons to de-
stroy, she yet sanctions by her laws
species of caste derived from this same
slave system which would be a re-
proach to the feudal despotisms of the
middle ages. The heather Buddhist
aristocrats of India, with all their rigid |
clannishness, their religious prejudices
against equality, their ignorant and
bigoted notions Of the inyiolable digni-
ty of political and social rank, are yet
not SO foolishly absurd, SO unfortun-
ately ignorant as to exclude an indi-
viduaI from the rights of any partiou-
lar caste merely on account of the color
of his skin. The Japanese and CeIes-
tial heathens, whom we send our mis-
sionaries to christianize and reform,
whose governments have been the most
thoroughly despotie. and whose social
and political systems have been the
most severely aristOcratic and excIu.
sIve of any in the world, have yet never
stultifed their civilization by denying
its privileges to outside "barbarians, :"
whether American, English, French or
Tartar, merely on account of their com
plexion. Yet free and enlightened
Ohio denies even the ballot for that
very reason, and that only. Her con
stitution says that white" men only
shall exercise a right which her oivili-
zation, her religion and her govern
ment hold to be one of the most pre-
cious that belong to a human being.
She will not let a poor decrepit pauper
enter her pOor-houses except at the
discretion of the directors, if nature
has given him the complexion which
by virtue of an inhuman statute ex-
cludes him from the common charities ,
freely extended TO every other human
being. No black OF mulatto person.
can gain a legal settlement in this
State, and without such settlement,
though he may be an utterly helpless {
he cannot gain admission to ,
any county infrmary though he may {
be raving maniac he cannot have ref \
uge in the State asylums for the insane;
if imbecile he is debarred from the
protection offered by the State for such t
if blind or deaf and dumb, he a
cannot be educated in the public asy- I