The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1868-10-22

f Ul4llE W .MlAA AAAa SLUG anu Ill. EttUaCa
\ Who before thought it worth while to
explain to Sam, or Pompey, or Cuffee,
any thing about laws or principles Of
government Now, they and an their
collfreres are hearing wOndrous things
HabOut the best laws and principles
and methods Of government. Is not
that education? It is the vote which
is to educate those men as well as the
sehool-house. And the vote will al
ways bring the schoOl-hOuse, and the
sehool-house viii always bring the
church, and the church will always
promote the right use Of both, and
! conserve that liberty which has Great
ed it. lGreat cheering We have
begun to find out that, many as are
the evils which are incidental to suf
frage, yet the good which is in it is
far disprOpOrtiOnate to any evils that
are incident to it. 1t is quite in vain
/ to quote to me as an argument against
suffrage, the voting Of those poor
Southern hOrdes-if you choose to
call them SO. / have seen in letters
in the newspapers descriptions, and
did not doubt that they were true, Of
the way that men voted in those
Southern precincts. Quite ridiculous
it was, aud I could not, Republican as
1 am, help laughing; but laughter is
free yet in this country, which ever
side man is on. Laughter. But,
1 bethOught myself, these hordes Of
black voters who don't know the
meaning of a vote, who don't know
what the word suffrage means, and,
perhaps, think it is an idol, or some
thing ofthat kind-they are very ri
diculO1s; but, really, I can point you
out q gang Of emigrants in New York
who will vote before great while,
and whose voting is quite as ridicu-
lous [Applause. I don't think that
Southern plantations have yet come
half way up to Northern New York
wards. Laughter aud applause. I
Ignorant 7otingl The plantation
votes and the emigrant-ship votes,
and they both vote bIunderingly-the
one as well as the other. Men say,
how would you bear to have those ig-
Inorant blacks brought up to vote
alongside of you, an educated and re-
fined white man? l answer, we have
had the poor, ignorant emigrant vot-
ling alongside Of US for long time,
land have had to bear it. 1t is not any
harder for you to bear with ignorant
black men than it is for US 10 bear
with ignorant emigrants. When
Southern men complain that they are
being put through a severe ordeal in
this way, we say to them, you are
mot suffering any more than we have
suffered; we in the North have had
to 90 through this ordeal of free vot-
ling, and have learned to bear it very
well. You protest. We did protest,
but we have got over that. We have
learned that, although it is not for the
time being ajoyous, but a grievous
.tthing, yet in the end it does work
i out peaceable fruits in them that are
exercised thereby. daughter and
Applause. Uncertainty is very an
lnoying to me, here in my own native
land, to hear an unqualified son Of
Erin declare that ought to be hang
ed tO.the' nearest tree, laughter, but
] l have learned to bear it; it does not
hurt me any more. Why? Because
such men know not what they say
they know not what manner of spirit
they are. Of But 1 know that this
untained and rampant zeal is a part
Of that great fermentation which is GO
ing on here, and which, by and by,
will precipitate the lees and leave a
pure article of wine-my temperance
friends will excuse the figure. Laugh
ter and applause know, in other
words, that while this fermentation is
going on, by means of it we are max
ing our best citizens out Of men who
came to US as emigrants-meu whom
we did not originally want to vote,
but who would vote, and have voted, i,
and through votingas well as through
the other influences that surround
/ them here, have become or are be-
coming most worthy citizens. Zap
plause. In twenty years every ship
load of emigrants either dies off or
makes a batch of good voting citizens.
/ Laughter and cheers. Now, the on
IIy question is, will the boiler bear the
| pressure? Laughter. With rs it
will. It has done it. 1t has done it
in most critical times. If we could
bear the pressure while we had on US
the burden Of a gigantic war, five
could bear the burden while we were
taxing our people, while we were
4 ilevying recruits, while the arm Of
this Government was go heavy; If
even then, under those severe tests,
We could still maintain the integrity
of the Commonwealth, and of Ameri-
! can principles, in spite of foreign
i lvotes-if we could stand that test, we
can stand any. [APplause We
did stand it, and now, for one, I not
lonly am not opposed to emigrants
i voting, but, if had the power, I
n would shorten the term of naturalza-
1 ton, not lengthen it. IF a man gave
me substantial, satisfactory evidence
4 that he intended to dwell here, be
i should not be here year before he
lshould be a citizen, because 1 hold it
4 better that man who is going TO re-
side here should bave the responsible
litv of citizenship upon him at once
than that he should remain lawlcss
land without responsibility. Zap
plause 7 / do not say that free suf-
frage has no evils attendant upon its
exercise, but do say that the good
| is immeasnreably greater than the
evil. TApplause. Now 1 do not
undertake to say that it is an agreea-
/ BILE thing to have thu whole fabric Of
Southern society broken up, to have
all the old subordinations and rela-
tions Of rank subverted in a moment.
III do not say that it is pleasant for
the accomplished plantation owner,
educated, perhaps, in Glasgow, or
Edinburgh, or Oxford, or Cambridge,
| to come home to-day surrounded with
wealth and with a thousand men to
serve him, and to find tomorrow that
he is nothing but a plain man among
men. That's not pleasant. But, la
dies and gentlemen, it never has been