The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1868-02-21

al College. w
The second assumes that we are still
at war: that the southern States are
not States in the Union ut all, but con-
ouered provinces, WithnO Legislatures
which can either ratify or reject con-
stitutiOnal amendment; that the white
people of these States shall no longer
nave anv power over the question of
suffrage: that Congress by the bayonet
will disfranchise the whites and en-
franchise the blacks; and thus by mill
tary power and negro votes compel the
ad6ption ola new Union and a new
Constitution. Because they rejected
the constitutional amendment Con-
gress now resorts to the bayOnet and
negro suffrage to compel its adoption.
True, admit they did reject the a.
mendment. But how did they reject
it? By the votes Of their Legislatures.
They could reject it ilf no other way;
for it was only to tAeir Legislatures
that Congress submitted the question.
But how could their Legislatures re-
iect it if they had no Legislatures at
all? If they had Legislatures which
could reject it they had Legislatures
which could ratify it. To do either is
the highest act of State Legislature,
for it then acts upon the fundamental
law not only of its own State and peO-
ple, but Of all the people of the United
States. Conceding they had power, as
YOU claim, to reject your amendment,
by what shadow OF right do you deny
to those Legislatures power to choose
Senators in this body? AS well deny
to a living body the right to breathe.
But perhaps you say if they had rat
flied the amendment, then they had
Legislatures which had the right to
vote. But as they voted to reject it,
they had no Legislatures, and no right
to vote. In other words, if they voted
with you they had right TO vote; If
they voted against you, they had no
right to vote at all.
Again, sir all the world knows the
whole Object 0fthe war was to put tdown
the rebellion and to maintain the union
of States under the Constitution. Ev-
cry act and resolve of Congress, every
dollar spent, every blow struck, every
drOD of blood shed, was to compel the
people and the States OF the South to
/ live in the Union and obey the Con
stitution. And now that we have sue
ceeded, now that the people and the
States of the South have surrendered
to the Constitution and laws, you say
they shall not live in the Union under
this Constitution at all.-They shall
first fOrina another Union, and come into
| that Union underanGther amended
| Constitution.
Mr., President, having thus shown
that this first answer to that question
is unreasonable, inconsistent, and alb
surd, | repeat the question a second
time, Why press this negro domina-
! ton over the whites of the South ?
What reason can you give?
4 second answer is, because the ne
groes were loyal ana the whites disloy-
| al. Leu us examine this bold asser-
ton. Is it true? Were the negroes
loyal during the rebellion? Recall the
! facts. Who does not remember that al
! least three-fOurthS of all the negroes in
! those States during the whole war did
all in their power TO sustain the rebel
cause? They fed their armies; they
| dug their trenches they built theil
| fortiicatiOus; they fed their women
and children. There were no insurrec
| tiOns, no uprisings, no effort of any
| kind anywhere outside the lines of Oul
armies on the part of thu negroes to aiC
! the Union cause. In whole districts
in whole States even, where all the a
| ble-bOded white men were cOnscripteo
into the rebel army, the great mass 0i
negroes of whose loyalty you boast, un
der the control of women, decrepid ole
men and boys, did all they were capa
bic Of doing to aid the rebellion.
And, sir, shall we make no allowance
for the great mass of the Southern peO
pie who, by force, by terror, by per
suasiOn, by the abandonment of the
government, and by all the excite
ments, passions, and necessities of ac
tual war, were plunged into that terri
bIe conflict by the Radicals or the SOutf
as by a power they could not control
We all know the influence over any
party or community of 81 small, well
organized minority, strong In will anf
reckless Of consequences. What have
we seen in the Republican party itsel
| within the last three years?
We have seen a comparatively small
number of earnest Radicals reverse an(
absolutely OVerturn from its fOunda
tiGa the policy of reconstruction opt
ed by Mr.. LinU0!n before his re-elec
ton, and sustained by the convention
which re-n0minated him and the party
which reelected him in 1864, Hi
policy was reconstruction upon tht
white basis. The negro was excluded
altogether.
Even the Wade and Davis recon
structiOn bill, which passed Congress
by Republican votes, and which Mr.
Lincoln refused to sanction, but not To-
that reasnn, confined rae0n3truotion K
the white basis alone 1t excluded al
negro suffrage. LII left that questiOn
where it belongs, 10 the white race
to determine in each State for them
selves.
Upon this subject quote and adop
the language Of the Senator from lndl
ana Mr.. AIOrtQn) while GopepnGf Q
that State:
81 call your attention to the fact tina
Congress itself, when it assumed t.
take the whole question of reeOnstru0
ton out of the hands Of the President
expressly excluded the negro from th'
right Of suffrage in voting for the mel
who were. 10 frame the new Gonstltu
tiOns for the rebel States"
"If Mr.. Lincoln had not refused t.
sign that bill there would to-day b'
an act Of Congress on the statute book
absolutely prohibiting negroes from
any participation III the work Of reQr
ganllatiQn. and Of pledglng the gov
ernment in advance to accept of tn
constitutions that might be formed un
der the bill, although they made M
provision for the negro beyond tht
fact of his personal liberty"
repeat, we have seen a little hand
full of Radicals, by their boldness, per
sistency, and force, persuade, caiole, o
drive the great majority of the Repuh