Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-10-13

ry; was not that their argument when
they we're after you 10 give them power
Did they not say that they were kept in
ignorance on purpose TO keep them in
slavery, and that they were imbruited by
the slavery in which they had so long
lived ? Yet the instant their chains are
stricken from their limbs, and they are
made freemen, they are not only clothed
with political power, and with the suffrage,
throughout the South, but the white men
who created this Government for them
selves and their children are in the same
breath dsfranchised. They know that
these men are ignorant and incapable,
yet they give them this lofty power 1t
is apparent to any man that it is in VIC
lation of what they know Of their know
ledge to be the proper thing to be done.
They have given these ignorant, semi
barbarous people, in ten of the States OF
this Union, not only power over the white
men there, but they have given them the
power to share the Federal Government
with you, and to make laws for the peo-
pie of Ohio and the whole North. Yes,
my felow-citizens, three millions Of black
people in these ten States have twenty
Senators on the floor of the United States
Senate, while three millions of white pee
pie in Ohio have but two Senators. So
that negro down there has by this Rad
ical reconstruction act been made equal
to ten white men in the State of Ohio.
They have fifty Representatives in the
lower branch of Congress from the ten
States; more than double the number
the State Of Ohio has; and three million
negroes, in these ten States, have twenty
] Senators and fifty Representatives in the
} two branches of Congress, while three
, millions of white people in the State of
Ohio have but two Senators and but
nineteen Representatives in the lower
, branch of Congress. So that a negro is
equal TO about ten white men in these
reconstruction laws. He is given politi-
cal power by Congress ten times as great
as is enjoyed by white man here, be-
cause they have ten times the number Of
Senators that the same number of
white people who live in the State of
Ohio have.
Gentlemen, what is the reason as.
signed for this thipg2 What is the pre-
text for the disfranchisemen of the white
mea of the South and the enfrsnchise-
ment of the negro, and comforting
share of the Government upon him 2
The pretext is, that all the negroes of the
South were loyal, and that the white men
were disloysL Now, | deny the truth of
both of these predications. deny both.
| assert that the majority of the white
people of the South were loyal to this
Government at the outbreak of the war !
that in every State of the South, except
South Carolina, where the secession ordi-
nance was not submitted to the people,
that in all the other States, the msjority
voted it down at the polls The General
Government armed those who were in
the conspiracy against itself and against
the loyal people of the South, and fur
nished them with arms out of its own ar
senals and aImories, and did not lift
finger to protect the Union men at the
South till these conspirators had estsb-
lished for themselves an absolute, des-
potic and arbitrary government, with
which to coerce the whole white popula-
ton of the South into obedience to them.
say, my fellow-citiz ems, that the duty
of our Government was relative with
the duty of the citizen that it was recip-
rocal. The citizen there had as much
right to the protection Of the Govern
ment as the Government had to the allie
glance of the citizen, and when the Gov
ernmeDt failed to extend its protection
TO the Union men in the South, and not
only failed TO give them protection, but
furnished the conspirators with arms
with which to put down the Government,
it had no right to appeal to them for their
allegiance.
And now, my fellow. citizens, as to the |
loyalty of the black people of the South,
don't we know that the Confederate army |
was provisioned from the first day the |
army was made to the last day that the |
rebellion lasted, that it was provisioned |
by the labor of these negroes? Don't we |
know that every pound of meat and bread |
which went to sustain and keep up the |
Confederate army through the entire |
war, was produced by the labor Of these |
negroes? 1t was they who furnished aid |
aud comfort to the Confederacy. Was
that msnifestiog loyalty to the Govern
ment of the United Ststes2 We know,
moreover, that all the Notifications, and |
breastworks, and parapets upon which |
the blood of our Union soldiers was
cllttCN ~ NAC oOutuf aAC COubtNuStGu huu
built by the labor Of these negroes. Was
not that giving aid and comfort to the
rebellion 2 Was that being loyal to the
Government Of the United Ststes2
Ny fellow-citizens, the pretense is pre-
posterous. The negroes throughout the
war-the vast majority Of them-were
loTal to nothing but their old masters;
loyal TO nothing but the Confederacy.
They provisioned il; they built forti6ca-
tisus for IL; and now. because Of their
loyalty, they are clothed with the suf-
frAge and with political power through
out these States; while those men who
we're abandoned, the white people Of the
South who were loyal and who voted
against the secession ordinances, are
stripped Of the right Of suffrage, aud
made subject 70 the rule Of these ig-
norani, besotted, and semi-barbarous
people.
Well, my fellow-citizsns, whenever a
msu proelsims these principles, no mat
ter What service be gave 10 the Govern
ment during the var-When be pro-
nOunces against these i1irsctions Of the
Constitution, these violations Of every