The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1868-02-01
MR.. DOOLITTLE's SPEECH.
(Continued.(

Mr.. President, congress has proposed,
from time to time, many schemes, but they
may all be resolved into two distinct policies
radically opposed to each other;
l. Reconstruction by the constitutional
amendment on the white basis.
Reconstruction by negro suffrage and
military force.
The first assumed that peace had come ;
that the states were in the Union, with gov
ernments organized, with legislatures hav-
ing power to ratify, or to reject constitution
al amendments and, furthermore that those
governments were in the hands of white
men, with power, as In all the other states,
to admit Or to exclude negroes from suffrage !;
and, in case the amendment were adopted
by three-tOurths of the states, the only effect
OF admitting or excluding negroes from the
ballot In any state. would be to change its
number OF votes i'll the other house of con-
gress, and in the electoral college.
The second assumes that we are still at
war; that the southern states are not states
IN the Union at all, but conquered provinces,
with no legis latures which can either ratify
or reject a constitutional amendment; that
the white people of these states shall no
longer have any power over the question of
suffrage; that congress, by the bayonet, will
distranchise the whites and enfranchise
the blacks and thus, by military power and
negro votes, compel the adoption of new
Union and 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 amend
ment. But how did they reject it BY the
voices OF their legislatures They could re-
ject it III no other way, for it was only to
their legislatures that congress submitted
the question. But how could their legisla
lures reject it if they had no legislatures at
all If they had legislatures which could
reject it, they had legislatures which could
ratlty 1t. To do either is the highest act of a
state Legislature, for it then acts upon the
fundamental law not only of its own state
and people, but of all the states and all the
people OF the United States. Conceding
they mad 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 breathe
But, perhaps, you say if they had ratified
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, finley
voted with you they had right to vote il
they voted. against you they had no right to
vote at all.
Again, sir, all the world knows the whole
object OF the war was to put down the rebel
hon, and to maintain the Union of states
under the constitution. Every act and re
solve OF congress, every dollar spent, every
blow struck, every drop of blood shed, was
to compel the people and the states of the
south to live in the Union and obey the con
stltution. And, now that we have succeed
ed, now that the people and the states of
the south have surrendered to the constitu.
ton and laws, you say they shall not live in
the Union under the constitution at all
They shall first form another Union. and
come into that Union under another or an
amended constitution.
Mr.. President, having thus shown that
this first answer to that question is unrea.
sonable, inconsistent, and absurd | repeat
the question second time. Why press the
negro domination over the whites of the
south What reason can you give2
Ihe second answer is /: because the ne.
gfoes were loyal, and the whites disloyal.-
Let US examine this bold assertion. Is it
true Were the negroes loyal during the
rebellion? Recall the facts. Who does not
remember that at 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 their Qualifications
they fed their women and children. There
were no instructions, no uprisings,no effort
of any kind anywhere outside the lines of
our armies, on the part of the negroes.
to aid the Union cause. In whole
districts, in whole states even, where
all the able-bodied white men were conscript-
ed into the rebel army, the great mass of
negroes OF whose loyalty you boast, under