Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-05-22


buy from America. They have to buy
our tobacco; they must look to us for
their petroleum, crude and refined ;
and for cotton and am ready to pay
a higher price for so much cotton goods
as myself and family may consume, or
for so much tobacco as may chew or
smoke, when L am conscious that
through these taxes l am relieving the
citizens alike of Pennsylvania and Ten
nessee of so much taxation, and impos-
ing it on Johnny Bull and Johnny
Crapeau. Applause. Where was the
sympathy of the Shareholder with the
negro when he took all their toll, and
sold their babes, like cattle, at the
shambles1 Great applause.
Again 1 heard them say, ''these Rad
icals have no sympathy with the lower
classes, no sympathy with the colored
man, or they would give to them what
we mean to give, the right to hold Of
fee and sit on juries" Do they mean
to do if If they do, in Gods name
why did they not do it in the past
eighty years? For that length of time,
except at brief periods, they governed
alike the General and State govern
ments. Let me ask the oldest colored
man present whether they ever invited
him to sit in the jury-boxf Let me
ask you all what offices they offered to
confer upon the colore3 manl A
dozen voices, in differen parts of the
house, cried "None none none !"
and one voice said "Leftwich." Laugh
ter. If 1 remember rightly, in 1876,
and from that time down to 1888, the
free-colored man was a voter in Tenn
essee. Was he ever asked by the DEM
ocrVtic party to take seat in the jury
box? Voices: mo, never" Was
he asked to accept Officer The hand
of God is on the plow, and He means
to turn and overturn until justice shall
be meted out to all. And when the
ballot was restored to your hands, num-
bering as you do in this State over
three hundred thousand, the sure
pledge was given you that the jury-box
and official position must come to you
depending on your merits. Both par
ties are already bidding for your votes
and / as a Northern man, who was
your friend when but few dared to adj
vocate your lights, say to you, do not
be csjoled; think for yourselves UOte
as you fought during thS tCar, for The UniOHi''
Great applause.
Now, my friends, this war was not
begun for the establishment of freedom.
Its Inauguration was not ascribable to
the people of the North. The good
book tells US that He who controls the
destinies of nations, can make the
wrath Of man to praise him. He sees,
as man does not, the end from the be-
ginning; and it seems to me that this
was His war. / do not know why it is,
but our greatest blessing come to US
through suffering. What anguish,
what physical suffering, how much does
the FIRST smile that plays over the un-
conscious features of the sleeping in
fsnt repay its mother? Is it not
through the garden of agony and the
crossof Calvary that we reach our high
est and surest hopesl Is not the road
TO eternal rest and bliss through the
storm of war, the terrors of ship
wreck, or the slow agony with which
the strong man parts with his life on
the sick bed His chiefest and high
est blessings must still come to him
either through suffering or yicarious
endurance. So the great enfranehise-
ment of our country has been wrought
out by God through period of suffer
ing.
You are told that during the war the
North was not suffering that the
Southern armies were meeting fresh
hords of Germans and Irish, and 9th
era inported from foreign lands to
fight our battles. You have probably
been disabused on that point. If not,
permit me to tell you that there Is
scarcely q home in the North in which
there is not an empty plate at the table
and q vacant chair at the heart-side.-
When the traitorous guns fired on Fort
Sumter, and Abraham Lincoln called
for seVenty-6ve thousand men, the
plow in the hands of the owner stood
still in the furrow, the merchants desk
was deserted, the workshop lost its
hum of busy industry, and the college
halls were left vacant. Professors led
youths of highest promise, and of rar-
est prospect, under the heavy KNAPP
sack and the musket, not to fields Of
fame. but crowded in common to the
rank and file of that great army that
suffered as you suffered. Your braVest
met our braVest, to suffer for the great
wrong of two centuries, the great in
of having, while oppressed
and counted as nought, before the
State and God, for millions of human
beings, and holding practically the
great national life, that we believe all
men equal, while failing to remember
the woes of those who still toiled on at
unrequitted labor, praying to a just
God to do unto as as we do unto 9TH
srs; laying as nation in our inter-
course with Him in whom we live,
move and have our being. This was
His war, to purge that wrong. l re-
how, to avoid it, the North
yielded point after point, until further
would have been our en-
'lavement.
Had, my fellow citizens, the teach
ngs Of the great trainers of our Gov
srment been remembered by the North
md adhered to by those of the South,
his war would have been impossible.
When, in 1778, the Congress Of the
United States, or rather the Conven-
ion which met for the framing of the
articles of confederation, was in session,
south Carolina desired to protect slave
y, and proposed to insert the word
white" before freedmen, in the clause
suffrage. In that ConYen-
ion they voted, not by individual
but by States. Eleven States
we're represented. Eight States voted
Igainst inserting the word "white,"
md consequently retaining suffrage to
he colored man South Carolina voted |
or its insertion, but the eleventh State |
lid not vote, its delegates being equally |
liVided. So, then, eight of the States
,ut of the eleven stood for the equal !
reedom of all men, irrespective of col !
" or descent. Jefferson had penned !
he Declaration of Independence, de- |
daring all men to be free and equal,
With certain inalienable rights, among |
which were life, liberty and pursuit of
happiness. Madison had prevented |
he word slave or slavery from being !
'mbodied in the Constitution of the |
United States. 80 that posterity might |
lot be reminded, when reading that !
that so odious an institu-
ion had ever been sanctioned by the
ramers of the Constitution. Conse-
Iuently slaves of that day were spoken
Il as 'other persons" in the clause, |