The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-02-29

bellion until hostilities, actually begun,
had organized an irresistible military
power over them. Then the majority
were compelled to succumb.
1t should not be forgotten that ale
glance on the part of the citizen and
protection on the part of the Govern
ment are correlative duties. Has
Government the right to demand the
one if it do not afford the otherf Has
it the right to punish the citizen for
yielding to a superior force against
which it makes no attempt to protect
him Such claim would be mon
strously unjust.
We know very well that the radicals
of the South had powerful organiza'
! ton. They were as bold, as earnest, as
reckless of consequences and as restive
under constitutional restraints as the
bOldest of the present radicals OF the
North.
Mr.. NYE. With the permission of the
honorable Senator from Wisconsin, l
should like to know what he means by
"the radicals of the Southf'
NJ. DOOLITTLE. mean the seces-
sionists.
Mr.. NYE. All!
Mr.. DOOLITTLE. / will not leave
you TO misunderstood, sir, to whom re-
| fer.
was speaking Of the radicals of the
South and the EXTREMIST radicals OF the
North, and say they are similar in all
the main elements of character cher
ishing even to fanaticism opposite ex-
tremes of opinion, equally removed
from the truth. Had they exchanged
places and educatiOns, in all human
probability the radical of the North
would have been most violent radical
at the South, and the radical of the
South an equally violent radical at the
North.
Mr.. President, it is a striking fact,
showing how easily extremes sometimes
meet, that the radical cry of the seces-
sionists of 1860 is identical with that of
the northern radical of to-day, namely,
THE Union is broken; the constitution
in all the States of the South is gone.
Down with the old Union, down with
the old Constitution we are outside the
| Union and outside The Constitution; We
will have a new Union and q new Con-
stitution to suit ourselves or we will
have nene ut all" The cry was the
same, the purpose the same-pOlitical
power. The radicals of the South rails
ed that cry to build up their power up
on negro slavery: the radicals of the
North to build up their power upon ne
gro supremacy, upheld by the bayonet.
And, sir, shall we make no allowance
for the great mass of the Southern peo-
pie who, by force, by terror, by persua-
sion, by the abandonment of the Gov
ernment, and by all the eXcitements,
passions, and necessities of actual war,
were plunged into that terrible conflict
| by the radicals of the South as by n
power they could not cOntrolf We all
know the influence over any party or
community of d small, well-organized
minority, strong in will and reckless OF
consequences. What have we seen in
the Republican party itself within the
last three years
| We have seen a comparatively small
number of earnest radicals reverse and
absolutely oveTturn from its founda-
tions the policy of reconstruction adopt
ed by Mr.. Lincoln before his reelection,
and sustained by the convention which
renOminated him and the party which
reelected him in 1864. His policy was
reconstruction on the white basis. The
negro was excluded altogether.
Even the Wade and Davis recon
struction bill, which passed Congress by
Republican votes, and which Mr.. Lin
coin refused to sanction, but not for
that reason, confined reconstruction to
the white basis alone. 1t excluded all
negro suffrage. 1t left that question,
where it belongs, to the white race to
determine in each State for themselves,
Upon this subject quote and adopt
the language of the Senator from In.
diana Mr.. Morton while Governor OF
that State:
Il call your attention to the fact that Con.
gress itself, when it assumed TO take the whole
question OF reconstruction out Of the hands oi
the President, expressly excluded the negro
from the right of voting for the men who were
to frame tho new constitution for the rebel
States"
III Mr. Lincoln had not refused to sign that
bill there would to-day be an act OF Congress on
the statute books absolutely prohibiting negroes
from any parti cipatiOn in the work Of re0rgan
ization, and pledging the Government In ad
vance 10 accept Of tine constitutions that might
be formed under the bill, although they nadr
no provision for the negro beyond the fact OF
his personal liberty
Irepeat, we have seen little hand.
ful of Radicals, by their boldness, per.
sistency and force, persuade, cajole, OF
drive the great majority of the Repub.
lican party away from their own avOw-
/ Il Of ha
white basis, and compel them to adopt
the policy of universal negro suffrage,
to establish negro governments, and
now, at last to propose in the bill on
your table an absolute military dicta-
( torship in all the States of the South.
shall say nothing unkiud of the SEN
ator from Indiana; admit his patriot
ism and eminent abilities and his al
most incompatible services during the
| late war to put down the rebellion. Bat
if anything were wanting to demon
stratc the power which these Radicals
| have had over the mass of the Re-
publican party in changing their opin-
! ions and reversing their palicy, we
have only to point TO the able Senator
! from Indiana himself once among the
most powerful advocates of the Lincoln
johnson policy of restoration upon the
white basis, now bound hand and foot,
and dragged in chains at the victorious
chariot wheels, to grace the triumph OF
Wendell Phillips aud the Senator from
Massachusetts,, Mr. Snmner.l Even
his great mind now lends its powerful
influence to favor the establishment OF
governments based 1poR universal ne
gro suffrage, to hold, it may be, the
balance of power in this Republic under
the control of the bayonets Of the regu-
lar Army.
! ] we'll remember the effect produced
by the speech of the Governor of Indiana
in 1865. 1t came at time TO be most
gratefully remembered by me, for was
engaged in a struggle at that time
| against the Radicals in my own State,
to prevent them from changing the
creed and reversing the policy upon
which the Union party fought and mas
tered the rebellion, and by which alone
their victory was achieved. endeav-
ored 20 demonstrate the same truths set
forth in that great speech, and when ii
came, with its irresistible eloquence
and unanswerablc force Of argument,
ryjOiced to lean npon his strong arm for
support. Like him, had on more
/ than one occasion attempted TO prove