The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1868-09-12
The Real Issue.

Frank BLAIR IN the letter which attained
him the nomination of the Democratic Con-
vention for Vice President, says, awe
must have President who will execute the
will of the people by trampling into dust
the usurpations of Congress kno,cn as the re-
construction acts. I wish to stand before
the Convention upon this issue. This is
the real and only question which we should
allow TO control u.s." And the Convention
by nominating Frank on the strength OF
these utterances, thereby endorsed them,
and pledged the party to carry them into
effect.
The realissue, then, before the people at
the coming election is-Shall the Rebels
have increased political power conferred
upon then in consequence of the Rebellion,
and be allowed to reconstruct the Union
they fought to destroy, in accordance with
their views and wishes?
The Fourteenth Amendment is the Con-
gressional plan of Reconstruction. In tare
embraced and embodied all the reconstruc-
ton acts of Congress. When it became a
part of the Constitution all the military bills
passed for the government ofthe States late
ly in rebellion were superseded by it, and
will pass out of existence as soon as they
have resumed harmonious relations with the
loyal States. And the object of the party now
struggling to elect Seymour and Blair, is to
''trample into dust " the Fourteenth Amend
ment, and thus secure control of every de-
partment of the Government.
Before the war federal representation was
apportioned according to the whole number
of free persons and three ffths of all others
the " others being the slaves. When
slavery was abolished, and before the adop-
ton of the Fourteenth Amendment, those
who had been slaves were included among
the free persons, and thus the former slave
holding, and late rebellious, States, under
the old Constitution, were entitled to about
thirty five more Congressman than before
the war. To permit this to remain so would
have been Furnishing the loyal States for
their loyalty, and rewarding the rebellious
ones for their treason for be it remember
Dxaaas sss.-EepresenLarioa
the Representatives. were all white, and were
elected by white votes only. In other words
every white man living in the slave States,
tenths more of vote than any citizen of the
free States, became after the war entitled to
the additional two-tenths. And thus the
eight million whites of the South cast the
votes for, and represented in the National
Councils, themselves and the four million
other persons" among them.
To remedy this gross inequality the Four
teenth Amendment provided that represen-
taton should be equalized, and that none
should be represented but those whom each
State said should be voters.
This was melting out equal and exact JUS
tice to every State and every section of the
Union; yet it disagreed with the stomachs
of the Rebel politicians, and they and their
northern allies, have the unparalleled i'm
pudence to demand that all the Reconstruc-
ton Acts shall be trambled into the dust,
and the rebellious States be rewarded for
their treason, by being allowed to send thir-
ty-fve additional members to Congress.
For the Copperhead party to attempt to
dodge this issue is useless. Frank Blair
boldly announced it as his policy, the Dem
ocratic Convention endorsed it as theirs,
and every Rebel leader in the country has
joyfully accepted and re-echoed it. And
that they will attempt to carry out their rev.
dictionary schemes if they get into power, is
beyond the shadow Of a doubt Look how
it was in Maryland. The Constitutional
Convention of 1864, in which was a majority
of Unionists, recognizing the doctrine that
SO long as the colored man has no vote he
should not be counted in the basis of repre-
sentation, made the white population of the
State the basis of representation in the
House of Delegates. No sooner, however,
did the Copperheads gain the ascendency in
the State, through the aid of returned Rebel
soldiers and the treachery Of an unprincipled
Governor, than they adopted a new Consti
tuition declaring the entire population of the
State the basis of representation, thus max
ing the coored people who constitute one.
fifth of our population political element so
as to put more power in their own hands,
and thereby enable them to rob the loyal
people of their rights.
Loyal men of Maryland do you need any
other evidences of the intentions and de-
signs of the Democrat Copperhead- Rebel
party than you have in your own State p
And with these evidences before you, can
a single one of you fail to vote for Grant and
Colfa1?