The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-02-18
Morton W.. Morton.

ed Dy inc haQlCal5 rs tcAb uoOA AOA
the coming political campaign. In that
speech Senator Morton defends the re-
construction policy of the party to
which he belongs, and as negro suffrage
is the basis and groundwork OF that
policy, of course he maintains and de-
fends that also. Now, to show Morton
VS.. Morton, we produce the following
extract from a speech delivered by him
at Richmond, Indiana, on the 29th of
September, 1865. On that occasion he
thus spoke of negro suffrage and its
effects upon the country:
The right to vote carries with it the
right to hold office. You cannot say
that the negro has natural right to
vote, but that he must vote only for
white men for office. The right to vote
carries with it the right to be voted for.
When that right is conferred, you can
make no discrimination, no distinction
against the right to hold Office, and the
right to vote in State carries with it
the right to vote for President and
members of Congress, and for all FEEDER
al officers. The right of suffrage bGing
conferred in South Carolina for State
purposes, under our Constitution, as l
have before pointed out, carries with 1T
the right to vote for President and Vice
President and members of Congress.
In regard to the question of admitting
the freedmen of the Southern States to
vote, while admit the equal rights of
all men, and that in time all men will
have the right to vote without distinc-
tion of race or coler, yet believe that
in the case of four millions of slaves just
freed from bondage there should be a
period of probation and preparation be-
fore they are brought to the exercise Of
political power. Let US consider for
one moment the condition of these peo-
pie in the Southern States. You cannot
Judge of the general condition of the
freedmen and negroes upon the planta-
tions by what we hear of the
schools established at Hilton Head, Nor
folk, and other places where few en-
thusiastic and philanthropic teachers
are instructing the negroes. have no
doubt many of them are making rapid
progress, but these are only as one in
many thousands, Ninety mine of every
hundred of the negroes in the South
live on the plantations, and you cannot
Judge of the condition of the great mass
by those who live in the towns. What
is that condition. Perhaps not one in
five hundred-I may say in thousand
can read, and perhaps not one in five
hundred is worth five dollars in proper
| ty of any kind. They have no property,
personal or real. They have just come
from bondage, and all they have is their
own bodies.
Their homes are Oh the plantations of
these men, and they must depend for
subsistence on the employment they re-
ceive from them. Look at their cOndi-
ton. As l said before, only one i'll five
hundred that can read-many of them,
until the last few months, were never
off the plantation; most of them never
out of the county in which they live
and were born, except as they were
driven by the slave drivers. Can you
conceire that body of men, rhite or black
ancestors before them, are qualified TO be
Immediately lifted from their present state
into the JuH exercise Of political power, not
only TO gOrerR themselves and their neigh
Lors, bit 10 take pdrtiR the government Of
the United States! Can they be regarded
as intelligent or Independent rioters! The
mere statement Of the fact furnishes the an
swer to the question. To say that such
men-and it is no fault of theirs, it is
simply their misfortune and the crime
of the nation-to say that such men,
Just emerging from this slavery, are
qualified for the exercise of political
power, is to make the strongest pro-
slavery argument ever heard. 1t is to
/ pay the highest compliment to the insti-
tntion of slavery.
What has been our practice for many
yearsi We have invariably described
slavery as degrading to both the body
and the soul. We have described it as
bringing human beings down to the
level of the beasts of the field. We
have described it as crime, depriving
all slaves of intellectual and moral cul-
ture, and of all gifts which God has
made the more precious. If we shall
now turn round and say that this in
stitution has been blessing TO the ne
gro instead of curse; that it has quail
flied him for the right of suffrage, and
the exercise of political power, zee
shall stultify ourselves, and gire the lie to
those declarations upon Which ICE hare OBJ
tanned political pOWer.
Let me inquire for n single moment,
in what condition is Indiana to urge
negro suffrage in South Carolina, or in
any other Statei Let us consider the
position we occupy. We have, per-
haps, twenty-five thousand colored
people in this State. Most of them can
read and write, many of them are very
telligent and excellent citizens, well
to do in the world, well qualified to
exercise the right of suffrage and polit-
ical power. But how stands the mat
teri We not only exclude them from
voting; we exclude them from testi-
flying in the courts of justice. We ex-
cude them from our public schools, and
we make it unlawful and a crime for
them to come into thu State of Indiana
at any time subsequent to 1850. No
negro, who has come into our State
since 1850, can make valid contract;
he cannot acquire title to a piece of
land because the law makes the deed
void, and every man who gives him
employment is liable TO prosecution
and fine.
sent out the eTwenty-eighth Indiana
(colored) regiment, recruited with great
difficulty and at some expense. 1t has
been in the field two years. 1t has
fought we'll on many occasions, and won
the high opinion of officers who had seen
it. We got credit on eur State quota
for every man who went out. Yet. ac-
cordipg to the Constitution and laws eff
Indiana, more than one-half of the men
in that regiment have no right to come
back again, and, if they do come back,
they are subject to prosecution and fine;
and any man who receives them, or en-
ploys them, is liable to punishment.
Now, can Indiana in this condition
with twenty-five thousand colored
men in her borders, to whom she de.
MES suffrage and political power,
and almost all civil rights-Wih rhGt
face, say, can Indiana go TO Congress
and insist upon giriHg the right Of suffrage
to the negroes in the Southern Statesl If
her Congressman ask to do this, they
will naturally be asked, in turn, what
have you done with these people IL your
own Statei You have had them for
many years. You have long had an
opportunity to make this issue as TO
whether they ought to have these rights.
Their mental and moral condition ia