The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-22

after election, the Ddilg NetDs contained an
article which was to be the first OF a series
entitled ''Can the President prorogue Con, |
gress W 1t was evidently written before the |
election news came in. Well, 1t admitted that |
the President had no strict constitutional right
10 prorogue Conoress; but 1t asserted that |
Abraham Lincoln had several times saved the |
nation by doing that which was not written in
the Constitution, and that ii the President
clearly saw that If ne could not save tine Union
with Congress acting, it would be his duty to
save the Union by driving Congress out and
saving the Union without Congress, and he pro-
missed that the next article should show now it
would be done, but that next article never
appeared. tAppause.)
On the October night that we gathered in
such numbers in front of the Union League to
hear what the people of Pennsylvania. Ohio,
and Indiana had been doing Andrew johnson
was in the Executive Cham Der, at the White
House, hearing only from his parasites and satel.
l1tes. he was hearing that the majority in
Berks county was largely swollen; and he was
hearing that the First Congressional District in
Philadelphia was rolling upa majority which
was terrifying to Union men; and when ne re.
tired Tor the night, he congratulated his friends
upon the endorsement Of his policy by the
people.
In that same spirit this article saw daylight.
as 9ld lhe one IN the Boston Mercury, apaperthen
Just established Tor the sustenance OF the John
son cause; and In that same spirit had Andrew
johnson prepared those interrogatories to his
Attorney-General which appeared i'm the Pubic
Leoger ana Wnlch were subsequently denounced
as the Ladger hoax. These questions were pre-
pared in the White House, and were meant to be
put, and would have been put If the election in
question had sustained Andrew johnson and
his policy. They were in harmony with every
utterance be made from the platform of n car
while swinging around the circle from Wash
ington to ST. Louis and from st. Louis back to
Washington. They were in unison with all the
utterances made to Southern men. They were
in accordance with the shrewd editorial of the
Daily NelCs of Philadelphia, on the morning
after election, which was but the first of series
the second and third of which / hope to see,
at least in manuscript, as part of the secret his
tory Of a conspiracy to overthrow the Govern
ment of the United States. (Applause)
The Committee appointed to devise means of
reconstruction had not completed its work at
the end of SIX months, and when it reported q
measure, 1t was not measure of reconstruc-
tion; it was the preliminary measure of recon-
struCtlon; 1t was TO guard the country against
the repudiation of the public debt, and it was
to guard the country againet the assumption of
the Confederate debt; it was to protect that
bread beautiful, and fertile territory stretch
ing from the Potomac to the Rio rande which
had been drenched in patriot and Rebel blood
from double taXation-frst, for the payment of
the national debt; second, for the payment of
the Confederate debt For it provided that no
state should ever pay the debt 1t had con-
traCted In aid of the COnfederacy. Ii was to
secure equal civil rights-and equal political
power, and it received the sympathy and cor
dial support of every true man.
When that section was read which gives the
OOubASlh DAdtCo, WIFI JlGy sHOulu UG teCOu-
structed, the right to exclude their colored
people, expressed my irrevecable hostility to
the proposition, and others did the same.
(Applause.) Yet when the final test came |
voted Tor that measure; ! sent it before the
country, and l spoke to the people OF the
country on the political condition; and why did
revoke that which regarded as lrrevocable,
and advocate that which loathed from my
lnmost nature, The doctrine that the United
States could embody in its fundamental law
decree that STATE might dsiranChse any DOR
tion of IFS citizens? Why? because l saw, as
others had seen, that in the Republican party,
let the past be what it may, that 1t was the
great party of our country Tor the future; and
because saw in the rising tide of public senti-
ment through the country, that no States could
be organized in the South on any other basis |
than that of human equality, recognizing man
as man. and investing every man with the full |
enjoyment OF all civil and political rights.
(Applause)
Thus when the session of Congress adjourned,
it had asserted its control over the question OF
reconstruction. 1t has passed two laws, one
for providing the people of the South with food,
seed, employment, and schools; another assert
ing the equal civil rights Of all and had sub
mltted to the country, as an amendment to the
Constitution, q provision which opened the way
for jud 1cious reconstruction.
Now let me show you something of the pro,
gress OF the country. The first bill submitted
TO the Thirty ninth Congress was Submitted Dy
the representative of the Fourth District of
Pennsy lvania, upon the subject of suffrage IN
Ine DlStllCJ OF OOluI0 Dla. NApplduSe,I Auu IL
proposed simply to strike out the word 'white'
from any law, whether OF Maryland or Virgil
MIA, or of any ordinance OF the cities OF Wash
ingtOn and Georgetown, that regulated suffrage;
in other words, it proposed to give every colored
man in the District the right to vote. 1t was
referred to the Judiciary Committee, and was
referred back without modification, and when
ii came into the House there were motions to
modify il. Some gentlemen wanted 10 admit
all who could read the COnstitut tion. Some
wanted to admit only those who could read and
write, while some wanted the property qualif-
cation.
There was nearly one-half of the Republican
party who shrank from their own principles,
and were afraid TO apply them, by emphaticaly
declaring that, uLder the flag that waved over
the dome of our Capitol, every man was free
citizen, eligible to all the rights and all the
honors of the country. (Applause.) And It
was adrotly moved to refer the bill 10 a com
mlttee, with instructions to put in some OF these
qualifications.
Now, my 1ellOw-citizena, like David Downs,
we were very near to danger, even to death. |
Yet We did not seem to know it. the Demo- |
Gratis had voted to reCommit that bill, it would |
have been reCommitted. They held the balance |
of power between the two wings of the Repub- |
lican party, and they wanted to do the worst |
thing they could. There Is a power that resem- |
bles alike the wrath and folly of man for his |
glory. And they said, We will make thus bill so |
distaseul to the Republicans that they shall |
themselves vote 1t down. We won't recommit
it, We will vote for absolute, unqualified
negro suffrage. (Applause.)
On the question, ''Shall the bill be recon-
mltted, with instructions " there were few
radicals on the Democratic side engaged IN
conversation. remember l was engaged with
an eminent poet and statesman Jack Rogers,
OF New Jersey. (Appause.) My old friend
stevens had put his cane under his arm, and
was engaged with two or three gentlemen. The
vote being by tehers, when they reported 1t
small number passed over, but when the
other side passed over Won would have thought