The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-09-23

you, my Confederate friends, you obliged
the people of the North you compelled them
to declare for impartial suffrage; for you
would not accept reasonable terms without
il. Whether we were right or wrong, we
tried to avoid imposing this condition. We
tried to secure settlement without it; but
rather than have no settlement at all, we
made clean thing of it and sent the pillow
right through the fields. Applause.
But, say our friends who object to impair
tia suffrage, the colored race is ignorant, and
does not know anything about political du-
ties at ALL am sorry to say they have not
been educated; but I should like to know
whether. the people are not to blame for it.
If am not mistaken, can find on the stat
the teaching of these men. Applause.
Men who would not let you learn, must not
object to your ignorance. A man who will
not let you touch drop of water when he
has plenty of it, must not complain be-
cause you are thirsty. am sorry that there
were so many people here to whom the BIZ
BILE was scaled book. .'~
There is one thing that the black man OF
the nation have known better than the Con.
federates; they have better understood it
than those men at the North. who are
great deal mcaner than the Coniedcrates,
who fought against us-it is that flag. Ire
mendous applause, continuing several min
utcs They knew it when they saw
it during the war, and it was to
them as a token from Heaven speak
ing of liberty and Union. Applause.
Wherever they saw it fluttering in the breeze
or coming over the hills into their part
of the country, they knew it meant liberty
for all men. Applause and cheers | say
to my friends in the North, about what l
say to them here. Remember that when
your boys got out of Andersonville or Flor
ence and tried to make their way through
| the swamps to the Union lines, there was no
one of them, by day or by night, who was
afraid to speak to black man. Applause.]
| Wherever those flying men saw black man,
| they w.nt and spoke to him; and, If there
was hoe cake left they were sure of having it
If there was single dugout IN the creek, the
| boy in blue was sure to have it to get to
the gunboat with. Iput it to you, would it
of people unprotected You say you do
not love the colored man. That is not the
| question. 1t is question of fair play. If
| your ship was wrecked at sea, and your
cook came Out and saved your life, when you
got out in q fair sea, you would not throw
him overheard because you did not like his
color [Applause.] By reason of their love
for the flag, by reason of their kindness
to all Union soldiers, by reason of their good
order, and for many othel virtues, 1 hold
that the black race is entitled to share in
the government of the country. Applause
! I ask my Confederate friends, lift they could
have been told that four years of war were
coming upon them, whether they would have
supposed the colored race would have re-
NAMED as quiet as they did There is no
such example in history. Their wives and
| families were left unprotected, while they
went to fight those whom the black people
believed to be their friends. Finally, we
white people of the North found that it was
next to an impossibility to put down this
rebellion while the system of slavery contin-
ned, and SO we proclaimed emancipation to
all men, as war measure, in order to take
out from under the rebels four millions of
people who were working for them.
The next step was when colored men came
into our lines and were idle, to decide
whether they should be put to work or sent
back b 49; Gen. Grant said early in the war,
it saves soldier set ee4f 6G6ad p cam At tbe 1
bellion was prolonging the struggle bey.nd
all expectation. We found that we were
getting beyond our voluntary enl,stments.
Then the question arose whether they might
not have the privilege of helping maintain
the Union and the flag. We decided that
they might bear arms and we had nearly
100000 colored men in the United States
army. bear testimony from my own OBJ
servation and knowledge, that they made
good soldiers. Applause I do not say
that they made better soldiers than the white
soldiers, but on the bloody battlefield of
! Olustee, had colored regiment in my bri
| gade, and out of about $40 men. not well
trained to arms, from 800 to $50 were killed
or wounded within ten minutes. They stood
up to the fight better than old soldiers would
have done; for old soldiers would have
dndged back to some better position. They
died there. saw them upon Morris Island
at the siege of Fort Sumter, and saw them
| in Virginia. Their blood was as red, their
heart was as true to principle, and believe
their sacrifice was as acceptable to God of
justice as the sacrifice of any white man.
| [Applause.l ~ a5tr.5 ~.
believe in justice to these men. We could
not give them protection without impartial
suffrage. l know the dangers by which you
will be surrounded. Men will rise up and
talk to you about making war upon the
people whom you do not like, and. urge you
to tax their propertymore than its share. and
in other ways to wrong them. You viii be
in danger from demagogues We trust you
to resist them. We trust your natural sa.
gacity to find who your true friends are, and
to do justice to all men. TApplausc. II
there be class in Gods world who ough!
to have learned equal justice, it is you. Now
that you have the ballot in your hands, use
it as kind and just men. [Applausc.l We
want you so to use it as to give all the peo
pie fair chance at the courts and under the
laws of taxation. Show that you are worthy
of the liberty that God has sent you so sud
denly, by using it as God intended yet
should use it. [Applause.]
In order to secure the results of the war
it was necessary to give impartial suffrage
We point to the fact that seven States ar,
back in the United States with new Consti
tutions believe there is hardly State il
this Union whose Constitution is so well de
vised upon fair and impartial justice as th'
Constitution of North Carolina is to-day
| [Applause.l When our Confederate fricnel
talk about exclusions and punishments,
/ point them to this fact there never were Sc
many people in North Carolina who had tn
right to vote as there are to-day. Their
| never was time when so many of them hat
fair share in the government. There il
not man in this State above twenty on
years of age who has not been convicted o
crime who is not a voter. (Applause) i
is the first time you have had a free gov
eminent. All we ask of the Democrats