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

"a l-AO al PAAuoDs RI 44oOA az NAOoS
I constitutions. In what respect are
I they oppressive? Have they revOlu-
tionized the nature of courts, and in
troduced. foreign, principIes2 Have
they ia any manner, changed civil ar
fairs and prOceduFe2 In no whit
Have they in any manner changed
the channels and courses ofcommerce,
interfering with that which God
meant should be as free as the air?--
In no single whit. Have those con-
stitutiOns introduced monarchieal
ideas? The charge that is to be made,
ifany charge at all can be made to
stand, is that they are too exclusively
Democratic. They are constitutions
that compare fav0rably with ours in
the North. In the light Of the exper-
Iience- of the last fifty years, the con-
stitutiOns of South Carolina and Of
Florida and of Georgia are, in many
respects, better than the constitution
Of New York or Massachusetts. They
have not only equaled them, but they
have carried out many Of those re-
forms for which we have strived, and
which yet we are unable to carry out in
our fundamental law; and I would
ask no other thing by which TO test
the fruit of this great war urged in
behalf of the freedom OF the people
and of the land than to point 10 these
constitutions, made by the votes of
black men who for two years tOiled
unrequited in the rice fields and cot
ton fields. Twill point to those con-
stitutions and challenge the world to
find a constitution which compares
with them In regard to the cOnserva-
tism of liberty and the protection Of
liberty through the schools. For de-
IstrOying class influence will point
the world to those constitutions as
unequaled. They are the marvel Of
the time ia which we live. Applause. ]
That which Southern men object to in
those constitutions is not that they are
despotic. They are full of liberty
That is the trouble. TApplause.
They have broken down political dis
tinction;s they have infused an element
of education; they have given every
man a chance, an equal chance, in the
battle of life. They.have not given
to any Of those accustomed to control
power, either place, or scepter, or in
fuence. And they have made the
! people the governors efthe people
| CApplause.1 Tie trouble is with all
these things, thatthe blacks are made
citizens. That is the root of the
whole matter. The blacks are made
citizens. Well, many persons say
they are not fit to be made citizens
Well, what are they at to be? They
certainly are not fit to be slaves. 1t
is the poorest stuff that was ever made
"a slave. FApplause.1 A machine
that is madestO run by wind can not
be anything ifrun by. water and a
machine that is made to run by water
can not run by steam. Now, God
Almighty made man machine Of
internal motive power, and when you
apply external motive power to man
you perveFt the machine, and make
out of it the very worst thing that
man can be put to. Man was not
made to be slave, but to be a self
governing creature. All men were
made so. The same wheel is put in
to the headof the poor wOOlly African
as is put into yours-conscience, faith,
hope, similar reason, pereeptive, re-
! hective reason; the love of children,
the love of companionship, and aspi-
ration to these things, are in the max
ing up of the cOlOred man as much as
in the making UP of the white man,
and to attempt to make animals Of
men, machines. Of men, is amOst mon
| strOus violation of the order of nature
and the DEGREES of Almighty GOd.-
We have simply confOrmed to Gods
original decree when we have made
men citizens in the South, and am
sure that it ought not to be an ofense
| in a Northern community that those
constitutions for the first time have
proclaimed liberty to all that are in
! the land. applause. But it is said
that while The black people should
have their Political rights preserved
thev are not fit for the exercise Of suf-
frage. Fellow-citizens, there has
been a question in my mind whether
we could secure suffrage best for them
/ by precipitating it suddenly, or by
D. conailating heir late masters, the
whites, so that they should accept it,
delayed a little longer-accept it, as
best for them, Suffrage is best for
every man-for every woman, as well
as man. ] never have had doubt as
TO that fact Cheers ] Suffrage be.
longs to every creature in society that
is competent to think, to choose, 10
be responsible before God and before
man for his moral character and his
actions. 1t is as broad as humanity.
And to say that the blacks were not
fitted for i'll No man is fitted for il
until he has exercised it. Why, vot-
ling wisely comes from voting often
not at tie same election. Laughter
and applause. Voting right comes
| from the education which the duty of
voting imposes on men. Voting
right does not belong to the color OF
/ the skin. It does not belong to ma
tionality. 1t does not belong to any
particular faith. It springs out of
| the wisdom of that selflove which
God has given to every single living
man. Tt is the same in one as in an
other. I know people say men should
be educated to vote. 1 say nothing
educates men to vote. But if they
/ are not intelligent, this is the opening
of door toward it. Can a man
aim his rife often without learning to
aim it well? In the very blunders
that he makes, in. the very misses
which he marks upon the board, he
/ is being trained. There are a thou
sand men interested, in the South
where black men vote, to persuade
them, on the one side and on the 9th
er; and do you suppose that those
naughty Southern candidates would
trouble themselves to pour into the
black ear. the. reasons against such
and such policies, fit were not that
those black men carry the talisman Of
vote? Why, [ tell you that the vote
makes men orators. ] tellyou that a