Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-01-28


est Constitutional rights of the Judicial De-
partment. 1t concentrates all powers In
the hands OF the Congress, and overriding
the rights of the States, the liberties of the
people, and the powers of the CO ordinate
departments of Government, 1t gives US a
consolidated government, with all its pow
ers in one of its departments. A more
| thoroughly revolutionary scheme was new
er inaugurated, and If it be successfully
carried out. 1t will be In vain for the peo- I
pie hereafter to rely upon written Consti-
tutions or the forms of free Government
The checks and balances devised by our
fathers to protect the States and the people,
| will have proved worse than useless; and
instead of Government OF limited and
strictly defined powers, we shall have an
| unrestricted Government of majority of
u Congress. ' t
EFFECTs OF THIS RECONSTRUCTION POLICY.
And now, my friends, let us look at some
of the effects that have already resulted
from this reconstruction policy. Dreadful
as was the disorganization of society Mt the
South,resulting from the war, impoverished
as was the condition of her people, so much
accustomed are Americans to the dominion
/ of law and order, and so recuperative are
their well-knOwn energies and character
that had no obstacle been interposed, no
stone laid in their path, not six months
would have elapsed after Lees surrender
before quiet would have everywhere pre-
vailed, and the South would have once
more been on the high road to comfort, i.
not to prosperity. But what is the fact
For more than two years her state has ap-
| preached almost to anarchy, and the suf-
/ ferings of her people for the very neces-
saries of life have been almost without
parallel. One year ago your purses were
open to relieve their distress, which you
were then told was but temporary,
and would soon pass away
| No txAk <ls1N.- g.. TO- fhavn
ever, and high officials assure US that not
less than three millions of human beings
are almost destitute of food. An appropri-
alton of thirty millions of dollars for their
relief has been seriously proposed, and
even that, we are told, Is but measure of
be exaggerated, and very probably they
are, but the fact that destitution exists to a
degree seldom known in the annals of man.
kind, cannot be denied by any one who re-
CARDS the truth. 1t is found in the state
ments of men of all parties and of all Oc-
cupations, but it is yet more significantly
shown by the records Of your own govern
ment. Those ten States that formerly paid
their full share of the taxation OF the cOun-
| try, If not more. are now so reduced that,
in the last fiscal year, Ohio alone paid So
3S7. 600 more taxes than them all. l speak
of the taxes derived from internal revenue
| alone. - E =
The amount paid by the whole ten of the
Southern States for the last fiscal year was
$l9. .693.7 In the same year Ohio paid
$25.0Sl .409. Nothing could more clearly
demonstrate the Impoverished condition of
che South, and nothing more clearly shows
how that condition imposes upon the peo-
pie of the North a burden of taxation that
does not properly belong to us. Every year
that the South is kept in this condition lays
additional burdens upon you; every day
draws additional tribute from your pock-
cts; every hour makes it more difficult for
you to support life. 1t is not then, the
South alone that is concerned in this mat
ter; the North is also concerned
What impoverishes the one section
impOverisheS the other; what makes des-
olate the homes of the one makes desolate
the homes of the other; what causes the
Southern child to cry for bread stints the
portion that the Northern mother gives to
her offspring.
8E NEGRO SUFFRAGE.
"But," say the Radicals, "these evils are
but as dust in the balance compared with
the great object to be attained by our re-
construction scheme, the elevation OF the
negro by means Of negro suffrage"
My friends, of all the delusions 1 have
ever known, this idea of political equality
between the black and white races seems
to me the greatest. For more than four
thousand years the history of this world
has been written, and in all that time there
| Is not one recorded annal of a civilized
negro Government; there is not one in
stance of political equality between the
two races that has lot proved injurious to
both and yet it is proposed to confer upon
an inferior race the dominion over one
third of the Republic, and to make it a ball
ance of power that, nine times out of ten,
would, for that reason, control the whole
country. There can be but one end to this
scheme ii it be much longer prosecuted. 1t
is impossible that the race to which we be-
long can submit to negro domination it is
impossible that so Inferior a race as the
negro can compete with the white man in
the business, much less in the politics of
the country. a7ei sa- -as
The determination of the negro, or his
expulsion from this country, must be the
inevitable result of the Radical policy, if
persisted in. But before that happens,
what untold evils may await US, what an
archy, what confusion, what impOverish-
ment, what distress! Worse than Mexico,
worse than the South American Republics,
will be the condition of large portion of
this country, if that policy prevails. And
here let me caution you, my friends, that
the question of negro suffrage was not set
tied by your votes last October. 1t is true
that YOU voted it down in Ohio, but it is
equally true that what you refuse to per-
NIT here you are asked to impose upon
others. 1t is equally tue that what you
have solemnly condemned, a Radical Con-
gress may impose upon you in spite OF your
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES upon you by an
amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, ratified by other States,
though rejected by Ohio. H.au r
If you would guard against negro suf-
frage. if you would guard against political
equality with the negro, you must not be
satisfied with sending its opponents to the
Legislature of your State, but you must
keep its advocates out of the halls of your
Congress. You have faithful representa-
tives in your General Assembly; see that
you have an equally faithful representative
in your Federal Congress.
5.f4e TAXATION.
Now, my friends, have few words to
say on another subject. I want to call
your attention to the subject of taxation.
We hear it every ywhere said that the times
are hard. and they are hard. Now l want
to call your attention to what it is, princi-
pally, that makes them hard. Is it want
of currency in the country? Why, we
have nearly four times as much currency
In the country as we had before the war,
and vet times are harder now than they
were in 1850; that is to say there is four
times as much currency actually issued,
but there is not four times as much cur
rency in circulation. That is the trouble;
and that leads me to say to you that it is
not the absolute amount of currency that
has been issued in any country that makes
money plenty or easy, but it is the activity
of business that makes money plenty, and
the want of activity in business that makes
it scarce. When every man can get en-
ployment, then money circulates from
hand to hand, and money is plenty; but
when business is stagnant, then, no matter
how much money there is in the country,
it remains unemployed, and money is tight,
and the people suffer- We must, therefore,
look to the cause of stagnati on in business;
and the first thing is the enormous taxa
ton under which this people groan-a tax
alton far greater than ever was imposed