The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1868-05-28


der the armament. The natural in.
Iquiry then was, what is my interest
and what my duty. I believed it
was my interest to stay in the Gov.
ernment. If l remained here I
must seek amnesty of the Govern.
ment for the past and must ask it's
protection for the furure. If II
yielded that, was in honor bound
to return to my. allegiance, and
make q good citizen If I could.
/ Hence l have advocated every meas
ure frofs that tin.e until this for re-
construction. When the President
of the unsted States proposed his
plsn, advised our people to accept
lit, because we had to follow, and we
had no power to negotiate with him.
! He did not call Congress together.
When Congress. which had ligiti-
mate control of this question cheers
and applausel proposed the Consti
tutional Amendment to the South
ern States, 1 advised such friends as
sought my advice upon, the question
that it was better to accept it, but
the feeling was so overwhelming
against it that no voice could sustain
it then. There was but one issue in
it, and that was the suffrage question
and that Congress left with the
States to settle for themselves. If
we voted the black race, we might
count them in our representation
! If we refused to vote them, we could
/ not count them. That was right.
| lCheers, great applause cries ofright
right. With reference to Federal
debate, there was no question. There
was but one other important question
that was the provision that disquali-
| fed me and others Fl ON holding Off
ce that was now living. I, and 9th
ers like me, will soon pass from the
stage and if we did not, there are
others, and better men to take our
places. Therefore, in my Judgment
we acted very injudiciously. What
followed Supplemental Recon
struction. I advised on the passage
Of the first, of. these acts that we
. should accept it. at that time it
would have been easy for me-. who,
| without vanity, I. may say l had
some popularity in my State, and
four times been elected its executive
and might have retained it. to-, have
courted popularity, but duty dictated
a different course. I followed it and
have received the hearty denuncia
tlons of my people, or a large por-
ton of them for having done SO. l
have been denounced as an enemy
of my race. and a traitor to the
cause which has wrought SO much
evil. I do not think SO. ] think my
course more honorable than that of
the man who was rebel and sought
the same amnesty that I received,
:. and the same protection from the
LGovernment that I received, and
then stays in its bosom prepared to
sting it when an opportunity offers.
When | fought, I fought you openly
and boldly. When / surrendered l
surrendered in good faith and when
l took the oath, l took it with a pur-
pose religiously to observe it. BY
my theory, and / had been taught it
that it was true one, my primary
allegiance was to the State. When
l had formally taken an oath to sup
port the Constitution of the United
States. I understood it to bind me
only when my State remained in the
Union. But she withdrew, which l
believed she had right to do for
just cause, according according to
the necessity of the case, of which
she must be Judge. l did not feel
that / had violated that oath when l
went with my State. But the oath
to which the President of the United
States bound me was very different.
l was sworn to support, not only the
tConstitution, but the union of
States. (Applause.) When I did
that l abandoned the doctrin of Sc
cession for l can not support the
the union of States and encourage
secession from the Union. The Vir-
ginia and Kentucky resolutions that
included the doctrin, rs understand
them, have always been the very
platform upon which the Democracy
had stood. But when the platform
was knocked from under the feet of
my party, I had nothing left to take
hold of. AS I understood, the doc
trines of Democracy were State
sovereignty and the right of seces-
sion The sword has established a
different doctrin, and hence tits that
l am no longer bound by allegiance
to the Democrats party. The Ham
ilton and Websterian construction
of the Constitution has been estab
/ lished by the sword. have acqui-
esced in that. I find the Republican
party standing on the platform to
day, that has been abandoned by the
| Demo ocratic party. That naturally
4 leads me into the Republican party
know tllis is very unpopular doc
trine in the South, but 1 believe it is
true doctrine. But, let me tell you
Mr.. President and gentlemen, that
there are many white men in the
South there are large numbers of
original Democrats there are large
numbers of original secessionists in
the South, who, to-day, stand as
firmly by the Republican party, and
will support the great captain Of the
agc-General Grant. [Great ap
plause. Our. Democratic friends
there have opposed negro suffrage,
and denounced it as an outrage upon
manhood and upon society, and yet.
in the late ELECTIONS there, the negro
who voted the Democratic ticket
was really very respectable fellow
and white man who voted the Re
publican ticket was a scallawag and
a traitor. They tell US there: you