The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1867-12-12
EBENsBURG, PA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER r. L


1t deals separately with each individual,
confines itself to the forms of law, and
vindicates its own purity by an impartial
examination of every case before a COM
petent judicial tribunal. # this does Lot
satisfy all our desires with regard to
Southern rebels, let us console ourselves
by rejecting that free Constitution, tri-
umphant In war and unbroken in peace,
Is worth far more to US and our children
than the qualification Of any present feel
ing. l am aware it is assumed that this
system of government for the Southern
States is not to be perpetual. It is true
this military government is to be only
provisional, but it is through this tempo
rary evil that greater evil is to be made
perpetual. If the guarantees of the Con-
stitutioa can be broken Professionally to
serve temporary purpose, and in a part
only of the country, we can destroy them
everywhere an6 for all time. Arbitrary
measures often change, but they generally
change for the worse. 1t is the curse of
despocism that it has no halting-place.-
The intermitted exercise Of its power
brings no sense of security to its subjects,
for they car never know what more they
will be called to endure when its red right
1hand is armed to plague them again. Nor
is it possible to conjecture how or where
power unrestrained by law may seek its
next victims. The States that are still
free may be enslaved at any moment, for
# the Constitution does not protect all, it
protects none. 1t is manilestly and ayow
ealy the object of these laws to confer
upon negroes the privilege of voting, and
to disfranchiss such number of white
citizens as will give the former a clear
majority at all elections in the Southern
States. This, to the minds of some per-
sons, is so important that violation of
the Constitution is justified as a 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 we'll as the means. The
subjugation of the States to negro domi-
nation would be worse than the military
de-potism under which they are now snt-
fe.ing Il 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 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 or 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
a 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 TO de-
eide upon the management or 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
min ETY. 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
dence is not abandoned, it must be ac-
knowledged 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
left 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.
l need not remind you that the exercise
of the elective franchise is the highest
attribute OF an American citizen, ana that,
when guarded by virtue, intelligence, pa
triotism, and proper appreciation of our
free institutions, it constitutes the true
1 Icr Il