The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1867-12-12

than the qualification of any present feel
ing. 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 is to be only
provisional, but it is through this tempo
rary evil that greater evil is tu be made
perpetual. If the guarantees of the Con-
stitutioa can be broken Professionally to
serve temporary purposes aud in a part
only OF the country. we can destroy them
everywhere an0 for all time. Arbitrary
measures often change, but they generally
change for the worse. 1t is the curse of
desposism that it has no battling place
| The iDtermitted exercise of its power
brings no sense of security to its subjects,
for they car never know what more thew
will be called to endure when its red right
hand is armed to plague them again. Nor
is it possible to conj lecture how or where
power unrestrained by law may seek its
next victims. The States that are still
tree may be enslaved at any moment, for
# the Constitution does not protect all, it
protects none. 1t is manilestly and avow-
! edly the object of these laws to confer
upon negroes the privilege of voting, and
! to disfranchise such a number of white
| citizens will give the former clear
majority at all elections in the Southern
States. This, to the minds of some per-
| sons. is so important that a violation of
! the Constitution is justified as means of
bringing it about. The morality is always
| false that excuses wrong because it pro-
! poses to accomplish desirable end We
are not permitted to do evil that good
may come. But in this case, the end
! itself is evil, as well as the means. The
| subjugaton of the States to negro domi-
nation would be worse than the military
despotism under which they are now suf-
| fering. 1t was believed beforehand that
the people would endure any amount Of
military oppression, for any length of
time, rather than degrade themselves by
subjection to the negro race. Therefore
| they would be without a choice. Negro
suffrage was established by act of Con
| gress, and the military officers were COM
manded to superintend the process of
! clothing tie negro race with political
! privileges torn from white men. The
! blacks of the South are entitled to be well
and humanely governed, and to have the
| protection of just laws for all their rights
of person ur property. If it were practi-
cable at this time to give them a govern
| ment exclusively of their own, under
which they might manage their own
| affairs In their own way, it would become
grave question whether We ought to do
| So or whether common humanity would
not require US to save them from them
selves. But under the circumstances,
! this is only speculative point 1t is not
proposed that they shall merely govern
themselves, but that they shall rule the
white race, make and administer State
laws, elect Presidents and members of
| Congress, and shape, to greater or less
extent, the future destiny of the whole
country. Would such trust and power
be safe in such hands?
The peculiar qualities which should
characterize any people who are fit 10 de-
eide upon the management of public
affairs for great State have seldom been
combined 1t is the glory of white men
| to know that they have had these quail
ties IN sufficient measure to build upon
this continent great political fabric, and
to preserve its stability for more than
ninety years, while in every other part of
the world all similar experiments have
failed. But if anything can be proved by
known facts, if all reasoning upon evil
6ence is not abandoned, it must be ac-
kuowledged that in the progress of nations
negroes have shown less capacity for
government than any other race of people.
| No independent government of any form
has ever been successful in their hands
On the contrary, wherever they have been
lett to their own devices, they have shown
constant tendency to relapse into barba-
r!sm. In the Southern States, however,
Congress has undertaken to confer upon
them the privilege of the ballot just
released from slavery, it may be doubtful
whether, as class, they know more than
their ancestors how to organize and regu-
late civil society. Indeed it is admitted
that the blacks of the South are not only
regardless of the rights of property, but
so utterly ignorant of pablic affairs that
their voting can consist in nothing more
: than carrying ballot to the place where
they are directed to deposit it.
/ need not remind you that the exercise
of the elective franchise is the highest
attribute of an American citizen, an that
when guarded by virtue, intelligence, pa
triotism, and proper appreciation of oul
free Institutions, it constitutes the true
basis of a democratic form of government
in which the sovereign power is lodged il
the body OF the people. A trust artificial
t ly created, not for its own sake, but solel
| as means of promoting the general wei
fare, its influence for good must necessaril
depend upon the elevated character an
t true allegiance of the eleotor. It ough
therefore, to be reposed in none excep
{ those who are fitted, morally and mentally
: to administer it we'll; for, if conferre
/. upon those who do not justly estimate il
J yeIua and who ara indifferent as tn its n