The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1867-05-09
The Constitutional Amendment
And the Republican State

The Constitutional Amendment
And the Republican State
| Convention.
The Cincinnati Commercial, in an
able article, embracing fact and fall
lacy; dexterous1y mingled, declares
that the Constitutional Amendment
will be repudiated by the people.
and says ''The Republican "Con-
tefttion will, we expect, have to re
pudiate the botched job Of the Leg
islature"
This advice is not sound. And in
saying that we shall not deny that
the 'job of the Legislature was
botched, for botched it was, misera-
bly, botched. The case stood in this
wise: The welfare Of the Union de
manded enfranchisement of the
blacks in the rebel States A loyal
element at the South was an abso
lutte necessity for the gathering of
the fruits of the victory Of loyal
arms. That element. must come
from the blacks. If we demand the
acknowledgements of the blacks in the
rebel States we intist; iii common
honesty, grant it in the loyal States.
Hence the Amendment became an
absolute political necessity in Ohio
Had we denied it, the defeat of the
Republican party was a foregone
conclusion. The Amendment in the
shape in which it was passed, was
the nearest to the right thing that
could be attained. There were
enough Republicans in the Legisla-
ture to opposed to the enfranchise-
iitent clause, stark naked, as to defeat
it. They presented it with the con-
dition of disfranchisement of rebels,
deserters and draft skedaddlers at
tached, and said to the Legislature.
''Take that, or take nothing And
the Legislature passed it i'll it's pres
ent shape.
The gfound Of the Cincinnati
Commercials objection, of course,
is the clause attached which disfran-
chises deserters And that clause
never should have been Affixed
And for three REASONS IN the first
place, it brands many honest soldiers
as deserters who really were not so.
In the second place, even towards
actual desefters we should allow a
charitable oblivion to Wipe out their
error. In the third place, the clause
is Of no practical force, and it is the
refinement of folly to load dewn an
act with dead weight
Notwithstanding all this, however,
it would be folly for the Convention
to repudiate the doings of the Leg
islature. Practically the disfran-
chisement of socalled deserters
amounts to nothing Who is a de-
sertcr? Not one merely marked as
! such on the muster rolls. That of
itself, is no evidence of desertion.-
1t is really no evidence Of even alb
sence from duty. Only conviction
before regularly constituted Court
is evidence of desertion. We pre-
sumo there are not one hundred
such convictions Of Ohio soldiers
There is, therefore, nothing of that
clause save powder for Dem ocfatic
use. And use it tire Democrats will,
and they have a right to do So
But to man who thinks for himself,
and who wishes to come to a right
conclusion, the cluuse is but words
without practical significance.
The Commercial fl cures it out that
under the Amendment 4,074 blacks
will be eEfranchised, and under the
clause leveled at deserters $4,000
soldiers will be disfranchised hence
for every black man enfranchised, six
white men will be disfranchised.-
While the figures of the Commercial
rs to deserters may seeminly be right,
they really are wrong, for they are
taken from the Provost Marshal's
books which are not violence.
What should the convention do ?
There is no reason why the Conven
ton should pass resolutions indors-
ing all the acts Of the Legislature
There is no reason why the Conyen-
ton should notice the Legislature.
The Convention will lay down plat
form-a custom much more honored
In the breach then In observance, for
party platforms are mere rattle traps
at best-and in that platform declare
it's principles. One of these is the
enfranchisement of the blacks Lay
that down, without regard to what
the Legislature has done, or has not
done. We see no occasion to repu-
diate anything. The Convention
will not be responsible for acts of
the Legislature, and if the Conven-
ton does not like the disfranchise-
ment clause of the proposed Amend
ment say nothing about it. The Re
publican party will then be right on
the record. even should the Amend
ment be defeated. Defeat of the
Amendment does not, necessarily,
carry defeat Of the partys but if the
Convention gets up an issue with
the Legislature the effect may be
perilous. If the C0nvehtion cannot
swallow the dofngs of the Legisla
ture, then let those doings alone,
| but do not let the Convention throw
them up. it does there will be
trouble iii the camp Clerelaad
RGrdld.
THE Democratic party opposed
the war after it had been forced up
on the country by their friends of
the South, and wished them to sue
ceed in breaking up the Union; it
opposed the abolition Of slavery,
preferring that the Southern people
should live by. unpaid labor, thus
preventing white laboring men from
settling in the South. On the prin-
ciple that the laboring man is the in
ferior of the wealthy aristocrat, it
now opposes impartial suffrag ge.-
That party was always the enen1J Of
the laboring man, and always will
be SO, from the fact that it has been
controlled by men Of the South who