The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1868-02-13

Constitution of the United States.
and had afterward committed per-
jury by going into the rebellion, p
should be made ineligible to anv
any Office under the Government Of
the United States or of State. Tt
was very small disfranchisement.
1t was intended to withhold power
from those leaders by whose instru.
mentality we had lost nearly half q
million lives and untold treasure.
The justice Of that disfranchisement
could not be disproved. And what
was the fourth clause of the amend I
ment2 That this Government
should never assume and paw any
part of the rebel debt; that it should
never pay the rebels for their slaves.
This was bitterly opposed in the
North as well as in the South. How
could any man oppose that amend
ment unless he was in favor of tbis
Government assuming a portion or
all the rebel debt and in favor of
paying the Iebels for their slaves?
When the Democratic party North
and South opposed that most i'm
portant and perhaps hereafter to be
regarded az vital amendment they
were committing themselves in prin-
ciple, as they had been before by
declaration, to the doctrine that this
Government was bound to pay for
the slaves, and that it was Just and
right that we should assume and
pay the rebel debt.
This amendment, as have before
said was rejected, and when Con-
gress assembled in December, 1866,
they were confronted by the fact
that every proposition Of compro-
mise had been rejected; every half
way measure had been spurned by
the rebels themselves, and they had
nothing left to do but to begin the
work of reconstruction themselves;
and in February, 1867, Congress for
the first time entered upon the exc
cution Of the guarantee provided for
in the Constitution, by the passage
of the first Reconstruction Law. A
supplementary bill was found neces-
sary in March, another one in July,
and 1 believe another is found nee
essary at this time; but the power is
with Congress. Whatever it shall
Edcem necessary, whether it be in the
way of colored suffrage, whether it
be in the way of military power
whatever Congress shall deem nee
essary in the execution of this guar
antee is conclusive upon the courts,
upon every State, and upon the peo-
pie Of this nation.
Sir, when Congress entered upon
this work it had become apparent to
all men that loyal republican State
governmen could not be erected
and maintained upon the basis of
the white population. We had tried
them. Congress had ATTEMPTED the
work of reconstruction, through the
constitutional amendment, by leav-
ing the suffrage with the white men,
and by leaving with the white peo-
pie of the South the question as to
when the colored people should ex-
ercise the right of suffrage. if ever;
but when it was found that those
white men were as rebellious as
ever, that they hated this Govern
ment more bitterly than ever; when
it was found that they prosecuted
the loyal men, both white and black,
in their midst; when it was found
) that Northern men who had gone
down there were driven out by So
cial tyranny, by thousand annoy
!, ances, by the insecurity of life and
property, then it became apparent
to all men of intelligence that recon
struetion could not take place upon
the basis of the white population,
| and something else must be done.
Now, sir, what was there left to
do? Either we must hold these
people continually by military pow
er, or we must use such machinery
upon such a new basis as would en-
able loyal republican State govern
, ments to be raised up; and in the
last resort, and I will say Congress
waited long, the nation waited long,
experience had to come to the res
cue of reason before the thing was
done-in the last resort, and as the
last thing to be done. Congress de-
termined to dig through all the rub
=. bish, dig through the soil and shift
, ing sands, and to go down to the
| eternal rock, and there, upon the
basis Of the everlasting principle of
! equal and exact justice to all men,
i, we have planted the column Of re-
construction; and, sir, it will arise
slowly bat surely, and "the gates of
4 hell shall not prevail against it. %
Whatever dangers we apprehend
from the introduction to the right
e of suffrage of seven hundred thou
sand men, just emerged from slavery,
were put aside in the presence of a
t greater danger. Why, sir, let me
: say frankly to my friend from Wis
consin, that approached universal
e colored suffrage in the South reluct-
| antIy. Not because / adhered to
the miserable dogma that this was
the white mans government, but be-
[ cause 1 entertained fears about at
once intrusting SO large body of
men just from slavery, to whom edu-
cation had been denied by law, to
whom the marriage relation had been
5 denied, who had been made the bas-
est and most abject slaves, with po-
litical power. And as the Senator
has referred to speech which
made in Indiana, in 1865, allow me
to show the principle that then act
uated me, for in that speech I said:
In regard to the question of admitting the
? freedmen of the Southern States to vote while
! a.imit the equal rights of all men. and that
in time all men Will have the right to vote
without distinction of color or race, vet be-
lieEe that in the of fnir m ilinns of slaves