The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-05-27
The Chicago Platform and its Can
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the country, in its organic, pecunlary,
moral and religious aspect, demands
candid and careful analysis of any
measures of relief which are proposed.
The gravity of the subject, the present
and future of this great nation, will
justify no other. What is really prom
ised, aud the degree of faith honest
men can really put in. the promises, are
the vital questions now. In order to
interpret Alright the present doinGs and
promises of the party in power, we
should bear in mind that the authors
are the party that has exercised unlim-
itea control of the Government during
the last three years-ever since the war
ceased. What then have they really
promised which, in view Of their past
conduct, should command our conf
dence? .......l -.- d.
The first and second sections Of their
platform justify, with exultation, the
humiliation by Congress of ten State
Governments, which were at the close
of the war in full existence, and which
Presidents, Lincoln and johnson, had
restored to their practical relation with
the Nation in all things except the ad-
mission of Representatives, aud Sena-
tors to Congress; also the present struct-
ures now being erected by Congress
through military power in their stead,
andin which they place the making Of
the laws and the administration Of the
State Governments in the hands of re-
Gently emancipated slaves and ignorant
| and propertyless whites-lcss competent
than the negro-to the exclusion of the
intelligent, the enlightened and the
property-owning natives of the ten
States-these to be made the slaves and
victims of this mass of ignorance and
vice, which is now and is to be mou[
ded and managed BY carpet-bag adven-
turers from the Old Free States, while
under the protection Of Federal bay
onets, and at q cost and sacrifice to the
Nation of 0,0O0,000 annually.
They have the braZen impudence
to then affirm to the common sense and
conscience of the nation that this state
of things must be continued and upheld
or anarchy will ensuew Safety, graft
tude and justice" they say demand this !!
When two years ago this same party
proposed Constitutional amendment
known as Art. 14th, they referred
it for ratification to the Legislatures
of the ten existing ate Govern
ments, which they claim now to
be annihilated, aud this amendment
if it had been adopted would
have left the law-making and admins
trative power of these States, so far as
voting was concerned, in the hands of
the then holders, and have left the entire
negro population, every one of them,
disfranchised, without hope of ever ac-
quiring the right to vbte except through
the voluntary concession of their former
masters. ... -...
Now where was the "safety, the graf
itude and the justice" towards the
blacks, which they now put forth with
so much flourish, to justify their present
political monstrosities The party
then aimed to perpetuate its power by
restricting the representation OF these
ten States; and "the safety, gratitude,
and Justice" for the blacks was not in
cluded, and so not mentioned, or prob
ably thought Of by the Christian phi
lanthropists. But when the amendment
failed then the programme was entirely
changed, and 'safety, gratitude, and
Justice towards the blacks, the stone
hitherto rejected, now was lnade "the
head of the corner" Besides the four
teenth article proposed, assumes to
change and break up the very founda-
tion on which the makers placed the
National GovernRient, viz that all
free inhabitants Except Indians not
taXed) were included in the basis of ma
tional representation and were there
fore represented in all the departments
of that government, whether they
were voters or not, and each
of course had the right
to call on his representative and Gov
ernment for protection, which they
were bound to give. But the proposed
amendment clothes each State with the
power to throw any United States cit
izens residing within its limits, out of
this national representation, simply by
denying or abridging the right of any
to vote, and of course denationalizing
and expatriating them with their fami
lies and dependents, by taking from
them all part and lot in the Govern
ment, except what any foreigner may
have. Suppose the people of any State,
as it may do, if the amendment be
adopted - withdraw, withhold, or
abridge by imposinga property or ia
telligence qualification, the right of
suffrage, as to all males of twenty -one
years of age of Irish, German, African
or other descent, not only each male,
but all their families and dependents,
90 out of the national law of represen.
tation, cease to be represented, and as a
consequence lose all right to claim
protection-and what are they then
practically but foreigners! / submit that
no person not within basis of represen-
tation can form any part of the constit-
uency either of the President of the
United States or ofa Representative in
Congress, nor can the latter be said
with any propriety to represent the
former. In case of the adoption of this
amendment then, will not the colorsd
people of the Old Free States, to whom
suffrage is denied, abridged or qualified
as we'll as the white population, whose
right is abridged or qualified by requir-
ing a property or intelligence qualitica-
cation ali be thrown out of the National
basis of Representations, cease to be rep
reser ted and lose the right to claim its
protectionf 1t strikes me this conse-
quence must follow, and if so the pres
emit plan of Reconstruction will be likely
to eject from the Government as many
or more than it brings in; and eject the
intelligent and tax-paying, and bring
{ in benighted paupers-this would leave
a poor chance for elevating and improv-
ing the voters of the Nation. F
This is the amendment which the ten
States declined to ratify, and in punish
meDt therefor Congress has assumed to
annibilate their State governments and
to erect the things they are trying to
establish by military force, with Grant
as the Generalissimo-thsy having dis
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