Indiana American. [volume] (Brookville, Ind.) 1865-1872, 1867-10-25
WHOLE NO. 3O4.

withdrew their Senators and Represen ia
tives from congress will be restored to th
political status in the Union, on the term
already provided by Congress. or not a
allat least not until mojority of III,
people of all the represented States shall
so determine by the election of a Congress
willing to surrender the fruits oftbc yicio
J ries won by the Union armies If they
wish to make a trial Of the people on thi.
question, and prefer to remain as they are
until such an impudent appeal csn be
made and acted upon by the loyal States
they have the privilege Of doing so.
The South made one griesous blundel
when it spurned the generous offer ofresto
ration contained in the ConstitutonaI
Amendment. 1t will repeat the mistake
II II votes down the present. reeons'ru,t on
project. in the expectation thst change
of few thousand votes in favor Of tho
Democratic party, on other questions than
reconstruction. will frighten the Republi-
can Congress into a surrender of the posi-
tion it has taken touching the restoration
offho revolted South.
There is another class of people in the
South which receive the news from the
North with feelings OF profound sadness
the negroes, faithful friends of the Union,
when the rebels who are now rejoicing
were in arms for the destruction of our
Government and the permanent disruption
of Union, 1t is not surprising that they
are filed with CONSERVATION. After. fur.
Dishing two hundred thousand soldiers to
the army of the nation, and giving all as
sistance within their power to the national
cause, they can uot comprehend the action
Of the people of the North in elevatiug a
party which is their bitter and unrelenting
enemy. They feel that the ascendancy
OF the Democratic party is full Of peril to
them. They know it means their reduc
tion TO form Of seifdom, little if any,
better than the condition Of slavery from
wiieh they have been emancipated They
know it means merciless apprentice codes,
like those passed by some Of Andrew John.
sons rebel Legislatures, by means Of which
their children may be taken from them
and compelled to work for white masters
without compensation. 1t means labor
laws, such as these passed by tie bogus
Legislature of Mississippi, making the
colored man, while nomiually free, in fact
slave, disqualifying him from purchas n
or leasing land, and, under the guise of
cunningly devised vogrant laws, selling
the whole race into servitude.
There is no question that four fifths Of
the Democratic party in the Northern
States would vote this day to remand all
the blacks into slavery. if their votes could
accomplish il and the whole Of them would
give n ready sanction to any oppressive
laws that the southern Democracy might
enact in case they could become possessed
Of the political power Of the late slave
States. The fate, however, of the co,orcd
people Of the South is in tn cir own hands.
they now have the protection Of the bal
lot, and il will be their own fault il they
loso it. All that is needed to make their
liberty secure is, that they shall all vote
at The el etions 20 be held Under the re, O.,
slructon laws. In some States they com.
pose an actual majority Of voters, and in
the others there are enough white Repub-
llcans who will vote with them, to carry
the elections against the reactionary, rebel
Democracy. The Peunsy lvania aud Ohio
elections presage the danger that threatens
the colored men Of the South, and that
danger should, and we predict it will, cause
them 10 turn out en- nlasse at the elections
and cast their votes rs n unit in favor OF
recon,tructiou on the Congressional plan.
II they DO this their future is secure
II they fail their fate must be decided
not by themselves, but by the votes Of the
people of the North ia tho Presidential
md Congressional elections Of 1868.
lie. them and the white Unionists Of
the South but b, true to .aeEiselvos. aud
reconstruction will bO fact accomplished
before Copperheadism can by any posi-
bility control the Government. Journal.