The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1868-09-02

Sc', 0G.,
AT Leavenworth Kansas, on Friday, 31st
of July, General Francis P. Blair deliver.
ed before the State Democratic Conten.
ton and the citizens of the town, in ratifi-
cation meeting assembled, the following
speech upon national topics:
SPEECH OF GEN. BLAIR AT LE1vENwoRTn.
Feldst- Citizens of Kansas. congratti.
late myself on my good fortune in having
to address so large and enthusiastic an au-
dience as now behold. I do not assume
to myself that this is personal compli
ment to me. am too well aware that, on
the contrary, your presence here tonight
is rather due to your devotion to the great
cause in which we are all engaged, and in
that sense l accept is as greater ,compll
ment than if it was a mere personal ova-
ton. The cause to which we are devoted
and of which am one of your representa-,
tiyes, is one worthy of your most profound
devotion. 1t is cause in which the en-.
| thusiasm which T see here tonight, so far
as have observed. has prevailed through
out the country. IT is the cause of popu.
lar rights, the cause of civil government
| the cause of constitutional liberty. It is
the cause, the worthiest of all for which
man has arrayed himselfin times past, and
| it will become you-it will become all Of
us--to evince our devotion to that cause
which has showered upon the nation SO
| many blessings since its foundation. This
cause is in peril; the cause has received
| from the party in power the most violent
shock; it has been undermined, and is al
most on the point of being overthrown
But the people Of the country are rallyine
to defend this cause.-the holiest and best
| in the woodland in their might / confide
in their strength / am willing to abide
They alone can rescue this nation from the
impending peril, and it is for you, and for
all citizens of this country who love demo.
cratic institutions, to come up rs one man
and sustain the best and hottest cause in
the world. Applause l do not speak
mercy empty rhetoric on this subject. /
could advert, and will advert, to the par
ticular transactions by which this cause has
been brought into peril.* call your atten-
ton to the aggressions which have been
made by the Radical party, Hing them
selves Republicans, upon the fundamental
principles of our Government, those great,
underlying principles on which all civil
liberty depends. They have sought by va
rious measures, which the Constitution has
prohibited, to entrench themselves in pow
.er in this Government. s1'hey-losing the
confidence of their own race-losing the
confidence of the white people, have sought
to give the power in portion of the States
of this Union to another element-the
black race-hoping. after losing the conf
dence of the white race, to niaintaih and
perpetuate their supremacy by giving polit-
ical power in ten States of this Union to
the black race. Applause, and cries of
"Shame.! Shame =" Now, my fellow
citizens, I take the broad ground that the
white racei is the only race that has shown
itself capable of maintaining free institu-
tons and free government, 7 applause; !
that nowhere, in any country or at any
time, have the blacks shown themselves ca
pable of establishing or maintaining con-
stitutional government, or any other kind
of government. Prolonged cheers Yet
the people of the Southern States have
been DISTINGUISHED, and the ignorant blacks
the same people that the Republican par
ty has declared were imbruted by slavery,
whom we all know to be ignorant, whom
we all know to be semi-barbarous, whom we
all know have never been capable Of crea-
ting, establishing, or maintaining free
government-are made to predominant in
all those States Not only are they made
to predominant in the Southern States, but
the three or four millions Of semi barbarous
blacks have the entire control of those
States, and send twenty Senators to the
United States Senate, while the four mil
lions of white people of New York send
hut two Senators. It would take New
York. Pennsylvania, Ohio. Indiana, Hin
OILS, Missouri, and enough of the ether
great States of the Union put together,
containing twenty millions of white people,
to counterbalance the three or four million
blacks in the South. So that the negroes
are not only put above the white people Of
the South, but above the white people of
the North also; and three or four millions
of blacks are made equal in the Senate Of
the United States to more than twenty
millions of the free white people of the
North. Cheers and cries of "Sbame! ~
Fellow-citizens, we all very well know
that this is political trick to keep what
is known as the Radical party in power.
They don't believe in it themselves They
voted it down in the State of Kansas by
10000 minority, but Notwithstanding the
the people have voted down negro suffrage
in this State, your two Senators and Rep
resentatives still insist upon sustaining the
State governments erected on the negro
vote of the South. You don't understand
the danger in which our ainstitutions
are from the iguoral,t blacks and yaga-
bond earpet-baggers of the South. Pro-
longed applause, and cries of Eyes we do;
and Wen save the country YETI The
people have never essented to these so
called reconstruction acts. In the election
Of 1866, so far from presenting. that issue,
they lodged it--they presented an entirely
different issue. the Issue they submitted
then was what is known as the fourteenth
amendment to the Federal Constitution.
which conceded to all the States the right
to regulate suffrage for themselves. That
was the issue upon which the last Con-
gressional election was held. After they
had attained power by admitting the doc
trines on which the Democratic party had
always stood, they went to work to dis
franchise the white people of abe South
and enfranchise the blacks, denying to the
States the rights which were contained in
the fourteenth amendment. As soon as
they showed their hands the elections of
1867 declared against them In New York,
Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, Ore