Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-01-28
[From the Cincinnati Commercially
sP r @ III - -
Of "a
HON. ALLEN G. THURMAN,
Mansfield, Ohio, Tuesday, Jan. Fl.

MANSFIELD. O., January %. 1868.
Last night the Democracy of Mansfield
turned out in force to Listen to a speech
from Senator Thurman, who is making a
few campaign speeches in the Eighth Con-
gressiOnal District. The house was full.
about 300 persons being present. all that
could be conveniently seated The Senator's
tion. and he was frequently interrupted by
loud applause. a - &c
SENATOR THURMAN's SPEECH.
Mn. PRESIDENT AND FELLow-crTIzRNs-
1t is my purpose tonight to discuss, as
plainly as possibly can do it, some SUBJ
jects of paramount Importance to us all.
shall not occupy your time with the con-
sideration of minor questions; I shall not
waste your time by defamation; 1 shall
not crafty the passions of any by denun-
citation; 1 shall not seek for applause by
smart sayings; 1 shall speak with earnest
feeling, but yet with calmness. I shall en-
deavor to convince the understanding and
not to excite bad feeling. 1t is true that
much has been done and much is yet being
done. calculated to arouse in the breasts OF
freemen the strongest feelings of resent
ment; but ] adhere to the rule of my life,
to prefer in the consideration of public as
we'll as private affairs, reason and ar gument
to sarcasm and invective. .ii<
RECONSTRUCTION.
The first subject shall consider, is what
is called the Congressional plan of recon-
struction. To any one at all familiar with
the Constitution of the co1ntry this word
Reconstruction" can not but seem strange
and misplaced in this connection. Our
Republic was formed by union of indie.
y,ondapt Cfofoa nurinrr fba fo,r 1opn nd
dreary years of the late war we were told
by those in authority that no State could,
bv any act of its own, withdraw from the
Union or cease to be State within it. The
war was waged, as it was said, to maintain
this doctrine and If this doctrine be true,
then none of the seeding States ever, in
point of law, ceased to be States of the Un-
ion. 1t is true that during the war they
refused to perform their functions as such
States, but, their resistance being over
come. their legal status was what it was
before the war began. With the exception
of Virginia-it that be an nexception-they
had precisely the same boundaries, and, so
far as they yet lived, precisely the same
people, and with scarcely an exception. it,
indeed. there were any at all, precisely the
same Constitutions that existed before the
rebellion. There was nothing, then, for
them to do-nothing, at least, necessary for
them to do, but to send their Senators and
to the Congress, in order
to put the whole machinery of gov
ernment in its regular and accus-
toned motion. This they were all
willing to do the moment the rebel
lion was put down. This they were all anx-
ious to do nearly three years ago. Had
they been allowed to do it, the word "re-
as applied to them, would
never have been heard. But this obvious
and ready solution of our difficulties did
not suit thelviews and purposes of our rul-
ers. A policy, as it was called, conceived
by Mr.. Lincoln and followed by Mr.. john
son, was adopted, by which the States in
question were advised to ratify an amend
ment to the Constitution of the United
States, and also to amend their own Consti-
tuition so as forever to prohibit slavery. and
for ever to repudiate their debts contracted
in the war. To this recommendation they
all asserted, and in good faith performed
what was thus required of them. At first
it seemed that this policy met the approba-
tion of the entire Republican party, few
extreme and unreasonable Radicals except
ed. 1t was expressly approved by the Re
publican Ohio State Convention OF 1866,
that nominated General Cox tor the office
of Governor, and it was earnestly and ably
advocated by that gentleman in all his pub
lie utterances to the people. When Con-
open denunciatiOn from the great body OF
the Republican members; it seemed to be
acquiesced in. But change
soon occurred, and the fourteenth amend
ment to the Constitution was proposed by
Congress, and submitted to the Southern
as well as to the Northern States, for rati-
tication. They were thus treated as
States in the Union, and as there is
no such thing known to our form OF Gov
. fnfn fl,nxy ftrr1
by recognized as possessing all their priin-
tive rights. This fourteenth amendment
was cunningly framed to compel the South
ern people to adopt negro suffrage, or to
lose large share of the representation iu
Congress to which their population enti-
tied them. To have proposed a uniform
basis Of voters would have deprived the
New England States of the immense and
unequal advantages they now enjoy. To
have proposed basis of population would
have given to the Southern States the same
rights that are enjoyed by the people of
the North, and this it was not the purpose
Of the Radicals to permit. 1t was foreseen
that negro suffrage was SO repugnant to
the feelings of the people that the amend
ment would everywhere be rejected in the
South, and as If to secure its rejection,
clause, deeply wOunding
the sensibilities of that people, was also in
SeICeu. 1nUceus IL uidy Ue COuliucuLly al
firmed that the adoption of the amendment
was never expected. Again and again has
it been asserted, by Republicans of high
in their party, that its adoption
never was intended; that it was mere
party and deceptive platform for the
elections of 1866, and that its rejection by
the Southern people was desired, in order
to furnish a pretext for imposing more
onerous conditions upon them. Accord
L. 1,n1 . Iaa ~Dsa .A..1 -
Congress, completely abandoning its FORM
or doctrine that denied the capacity of
State to withdraw itself from the Union,
the doctrine that the Southern
States had committed political suicide, and
that they must be reconstructed before they
could again take their place in the Union.
In pursuance Of this new dogma they were
divided into five military districts, their
StaUe Governments treated as usurpations,
and the whole ten States put under martial
law and the control of military command
ere. At the same time they were required
to hold Conventions to form Constitutions,
Congress prescribing who should and who
should not be electors who should and
who should not be qualified 10 hold office
and the execution of this mandate was con-
fided to military power. 1t is now propos-
ed to concentrate all this military power in
the hands of single man, the General OF
q despot over. ten States of this Union as is
anywhere to be found on the face of the
globe. = 1t was not to be expected that so
radical a'revolution as this, a revolution
that destroys not only the substance, but
the very form of our Government, could
be effected by the ordinary modes Of leg
lslation.
The Constitution creates three distinct
and independent departments of govern
fho EypnntiVp tho otyialotiua nd
the Judicial. The known adherence OF
President johnson to the requirements of
the Constitution made it necessary to an
null that provision which gives to him
veto upon the acts of Congress unless pass
ed by two thirds of each branch. The first
step, therefore, of the Badicals was to Sc
cure majority of two-thirds, to do which
the exclusion of the Southern States from
all representation was Indispensable; and
of I.1x