Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-02-14

suffrage power which it had the clear
right to exercise.
Mr. Morton here considered the amend
ment to the supplementary Reconstruc
ton bill offered by Mr.. Doolittle, pro.
viding for certain qualifications in case oil
voters not franchised prior to the last re.
bellion-the colored citizens-and pro.
ceeded to show that the inevitable effect
of the adoption of the amendment would
be to leave the rebel white vote largely
in the ascendency, and to put these new
State governments there to be formed again
into the hands of the rebels. The speaker
| denied that he ever endorsed what is now
called the Presidents policy. In the sum-
mer of 1865 he made speech in which
he denied the charge that the President,
by issuing his proclamation of May 30,
| 1865, had thereby left the Republican
party by that act He showed that the
policy Of that proclamation was more rad
ical even than the Winter Davis bill of
the summer of 1864 But, it was all upon
the distinct understanding that whatever
the President did his whole policy or
action was to be submitted to Congress
for its consideration and decision; and il
that had been done all would have been
well. After dwelling upon the course of
events which had forced the conviction
upon Congress that the guarantee Of the
| Constitution cannot be executed without
raising up a new class of voters at the
Southland after giving history of the
| gradual rise and progress of the present
| ideas Incorporated IN the new Reconstruct
| ton bill, and which were, in measure,
| the outgrowth of opposition on the part
of rebels to reconstruction under former
enactmens, Mr.. Morton concluded his
speech as follows
Mr.. President, the column Of RECONSTRUCT
| ton, as before remarked, has risen slowly.
| 1t has not been hewn from single stone.
| 1t is composed of many blocks, painfully
| laid up and put together, and cemented by
| the tears and blood of the nation. Sir, we
have done nothing arbitrarily. We have
done nothing for punishment; aye, too lit
| tie for punishment Justice has not had
| her demand. Not man has yet been ex-
ecuted for this great treason. The
arch fend himself is now at hber-
| ty upon bail. No man is to be pun
ished and now, when punishment has
| gene by, as we all know, we are are insist
| ing only upon security for the future.
We are simply asking that the evil spirits
who brought this war upon us shall not
again come into power during this genera
ton, again to bring upon us rebellion and
calamity. We are simply asking for those
securities that we deem necessary for our
peace and the peace OF our posterity.
| Sir, there is one great difference be-
tween this Union party and the so-oalled
| Democratic party. Our principles are
those Of humanity they are those of
justice; they are those of equal rights A;
they are principles that appeal to the
hearts and the consciences of men; while
on the other side we hear appeals to the
prejudice Of race against race. The
white man is overwhelmingly in the ma
jority in this country, and that majority
is yearly increased by half million of
white men from abroad, and that majority
| gaining in proportion from year to year
until the colored men will finally be but a
handful in this country; and yet we hear
the preiudices of the white race appealed
to to crush this other race, and to prevent
it from rising TO supremacy and power.
Sir, there is nothing noble, there is moth
ing generous, there is nothing lovely, in
that policy or that appeal. How does
that principle compare with ours? We
are standing upon the broad platform of
the Declaration of Independence that all
men are created equal; that they are en-
dowed by their Creator with certain I'M
alienable rights; that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit Of happiness
We say that these rights are -Aot given by
laws; are not given by the Constitution {;
but they are the gift Of God to every man
born into the world. Oh, sir, how glori-
GUS is this great principle compared with
the inhuman-I might say the heather
ish-appeal to the prejudice ofrace against
race; the endeavor further to excite the
strong against the weak; the endeavor
further to deprive the weak of their rights
of protection against the strong.