Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1868-02-28
VOLUME q. NO. ..

counseled and inspired BY the DemocracT q
the North, rejected that amendment. They
were told that they were not bound 20 sub
NIT to any conditions whatever; that they
bad forfeited DO rights by rebellion. Why,
SIR, what did we propose by this amendment?
BY the first section We declared that all men
born upon our soil are citizens Of the United
States-a thing that had long been recopni
Zed by every department Of this Government
until the bred Scott decision was rade in
1851. The second section provided that
where class or race Of men were excluded
from the right Of suffrage they should not
De counted IN The basis Of representation
an obvious justice that no reasonable man
for moment could deny; that iffour million
people down South were 10 have no suffrage
the meu living 10 their midst and surround
ing them and depriving them of all political
rights, should not have members Of Con
gFess on their account l say the Justice OF
the second clause has never been successfully
lmpugned by any argument, | care not how
ingenious it may be. What was the third
clause2 IL was that the leaders of the South.
those men who had once taken an official
oath to support the Constitution of the
United States, aud and afterward committed
perjury by going into the rebellion, should
be made ineligible to any Office under the
Government Of the United States ar of a
State. IL was a very small disfranchise-
ment II was intended to withhold power
from those leaders by whose iustfumentality
ne bad lost nearly half million OLIVES and
untold treasure.
The justice of that disfrauehisement could
not te disproved. An what was the fourth
clause Of the amendment? That this gov
ernment should never assume and pay any
part ofthe rebel debt, that it should never
pay the rebels for their slaves This was
bitterly opposed il the South How could
any man oppose that amendment unless be
was IN favor Of this government assuming
portion or ali OF rebel debt, aud 10 favor Of
paying the rebels for their slaves? When
the Democratic party, North and South,
opposed that most important and, perhaps.
hereafter to be regarded as vital amendment,
they were committing themselves in princi
| pie, as they bad been before By declaration.
TO the doctrine that this Government was
hound to pay for the slaves, and that it was
| Just and right that ne should assume and
/ pay the rebel debt
| This amendment, as | have before said,
1 was rejected. and when Congress assembled
10 December, 1866, they were confronted by
/ the fact that every proposition Of compro-
4 mise had been rejected; every halfway
measure had been spaTned by the rebels and
/ they bad nothing left to do but to begin the
| work Of reconstruction themselves; and in
/ February, 1867, Congress, for the first time.
/ entered upon the execution of the guaranty
/ provided for in the Constitution by the pas
/ sage of the first reconstruction law 4 sup
/ elementary bill was found necessary in
March, another one in July. and I believe
/ awrrAov y tnsfrA rraaa=rasrr b..s
/ the power is with Congress Whatever II
/ shall deem necessary. whether it be iu the
way Of colored suffrage, whether it be in the
way Of military power-whatever Congress
| ~halideem necessary IN the execution Of this
Guaranty is conclusive upon the courts and
/ States.
Sir, when Congress entered upon this
work il had become apparent to ali mer
that loyal Republican State government:
could not be erected and maintained upoI
the basis Of the white population. We haC
tried them Congress had attempted tht
work Of reconstruction through the COnsti
tutjunal amendment By leaving the suffrage
with the white men, and by leaving with the
white people Of the South the question as
to whom the c0lored people should exercise
the right of suffrage, if ever; but when il
was found that those white men we're as re.
hellious as ever, that they hated this Gov
ernment more bitterly than ever; when i
was found that they persecuted the loga
men, both white and black, IN their midst
when it was found that Northern men who
had gone down they were driven out By so
cia tgrauy, BY thousand annoyances, By
| fhe insecurity Of life and property, then j
became apparent to all men Of intelligence
that reconstruction could not take place up
on the basis of the white population, anC
/ something else must be done.
Now, sir, what was there left to do2 Ei
ther we must hold these people continual
IL by military power, or We must use suel
machinery upon such a new basis as woulS
enable loyal Republican State governments
10 be raised up; and in the last resort-and
will say Congress waited long, the natiol
waited long, expeI ience had come to the res
cue ofreason before the thing was done-il
the last resort. and as the last thing to b
done, Congress determined to dig througl
| all the rubbish, dig through the soil and th
shifting sands, and go down to the eterns
rock. and there, upon the basis of the ever
lasting principle of equal and exact justice
all men, We have planted the column Of re
construction; and, sir, it viii arise slowl
but surely, and ''the gates of hell shall nc
prevail against it. Whatever dangers "
appreheud from the introduction of th
right of suffrage to seven hundred thousan
men, Just emerged from slavery. were pu
aside iu the presence of a greater danger
Way. eir. let me say frankly to my fTiuu
from Wisconsin that | approached universe
, enlnred suffrage IN the South reluctantly
Not because ] adhered 30 the miserable dog
, ma that this was the white mans Cover
menf, but because / entertained fears ahoJ
at once entrustiug large body of men ju;
7 / from slavery, 10 whom education had bee
denied by law, to whom the marriage rel;
ton had been denied, who had been mad
: the most ahject slaves, with political powel
p And as the Senator has referred to a speec
! which made in Inniana in 1865 allow me
/ show the principle that then aetuated mt
n for in that speech / said:
I In regard to the question of admittin
I the freedmen of the Southern States TO voti
5 while | admit the equal rights of all mel
Q and that in time all men viii have the rigt
e TO vote without distinction of color or rae
I [ yet believe that in the case of four mlllio
! of slaves just freed from bondage the
E should be a period OF probation and prepa
i alton before they are brought to the exc
S else of political power.
e Such was my feeling at that time, for
: had not then been determined by the blood
+ experience of the last two years that '
: could not reconstruct upon the basis of Il
a white population, and such was the opiniI
# ofa great majority Of the people Of q
+ No. III; and it was not until a year and
half after that time that Congress came
i the conclusion that there was no way L
3 bat 20 resort TO colored suffrage, and suttrai
Il TO all men except those who we're disqua