The Portland daily press., 1868-10-13

4th DIsIRIcr-HENRY o. PERRY.
9Th DIsTRIcT-EBENEzER KNowLTON.
Campaign speech by Beecher.
The speech delivered by Henry Ward
B"echer at Music Hall, New York, Friday
evening, is remarkable for the characteristic
vividness OF its portrayal Of those truths that
sometimes get overland and obscured by the
specious but illogical delineations OF the Jaco-
bites. Especially forcible is the following
vindication of the governments built up by
freedmen in the South:
Look at those constitutions. In what re-
sp9ct are they oppressive? Have they revo-
lutionizcd the nature OF courts, and intIoduc-
ed foreign principles? Have they, ir any
manner, changed civil affairs and procedure?
In no whit? Have they in any manner
changed the channels and courses OF COM
merce. interfering with that which God
meant should be as tree as the air? In no
single whit. Have those Constitutions intro
duced monarchical ideas? The charge that is
to be made, if any charge at all can be made
to stand, is that thev are too exclusively dem
ocratIc They are Constitutions that COM
pare favorably with ours in the North. In
the light OF the experience of the last fifty
yCdio. tuC OOllobibutiODo Vi OOuIu OdfOIlDd ana
OF Florida aud of Georgia are, in many re-
spects, better than the Constitutions OF New
York and Massachusetts,. They have not on
ly equaled them. but they have carried out
manv of those reforms for which we have
striven, and which yet we are unable to carry
out in our fundamental law; and would ask
no other thing BY which to test the iruit of
this great war urged i'll behalf of the freedom
OF the people and OF the land than to point to
hOco tt11ttp do h tl.N -
black men who for two years toiled unreauit-
ed in the rice fields and the cotton fields. j
will point to these Constitutions and chal-
lenge the world to find Constitution which
compares with them III le9ard to the conserv-
atism Of liberty and the projection oil liberty
through the schools. For destroying class in
fuence will point the world to those Con-
stitutions as unequaled. They are the mar
vel of the time in which we live That which
Southern men object to in those Constitu-
tions is not that they are uespotic. They are
full of liberty. That is the trouble. They
have broken down political distinctions; they
have infused an elemett OF education they
have given every man chance, an equal
chance, in the battle OF life. They have not
give TO any OF those accustomed 10 control
power, either place, or seepter, or influence
And they have made the people the govern
ors OF the people.
Equally convincing is his argument show
ing how potent an educational force the bal
lot is, and how rapidly worthy members OF
the body ponJIc are rtrssae----4 of The most nm
promising material through its viviiying in
fluence: ttl tl.H
We have begun to find out that, many as
are the evils which are incidental to suffrage,
yet the good that is in it is tar dIsproportion-
ate to any evils that are incident to it, 1t is
quite in vain to quote to me as an argument
against suffrage, the voting OF those poor
Southern hordes-if you choose 20 call tuem
So have seen in the newspapers descrip-
tlons, and did not doubt that they were true
OF the way that men vote in those Southern
precincts. Quite ridiculous it is, aud | could
not, Republican as am. help laughing; but
laughter is free yet in this country, whichev-
er side a man is on. But, I bethought my
self, these hordes of black voters who don't
know the meaning of a vote, who don't know
how how to read, who don't know what the
word suffrage means. and perhaps think it is
an :doi, or something OF that kind-they are
very ridiculous; but really con point you out
gang OF emigrants in New York who will
vote before a great while, and whose voting
is quite as ridiculous. | cont think that
Southern Plantations have yet come bali wa,
DIP to >orthern New York wards. Ignorant
NOIIiiS! InC piduJ fUlSo dUu tue cItl-
| grant-ship votes, and they both vote blunder-
insly-the one as we'll as the other. Men
say, how would you bear to have those igno
rant blacks brought up alongside of you, an
( educated and refined white man? | answer
we have had the poor ignorant emigrant vot-
| ing alongside OF us Tor long time, and have
| bad to bear it. IL is not any harder for you
| to bear with ignorant black men than it is
for US ID bear with ignorant immigrants
1 yHn,. fl,oft
| beng put through a severe ordeal in this way &,
we say to them, you are not suffering any
| more than we have suffered; we in the North
|, have had to go through this ordeal OF tree
| voting. and have learned to bear 1t very well.
| You protest. We did protest. but we have
| got over that. We have learned that, although
tits not for the time being joyous, but griev-
| Gus thing, yet in the end itdoes work out peace
| able fruits in them that are exercised thereby.
4 II certainly is very annoying to me, here in
| my own native land, to bear an unqualified
| son OF Erin declare that ought to be hanged
4 on the nearest tree but | have learned to
| bear it; it does not hurt me any more
1 Why? Because such men know not what
they say-they know not what manner o
| spirit they ale OF. But know that this un
4 tanned and rampant zeal is a pa."r OF tha
| great fermentation which is going on ,ssHre
aud which BY and bye will precipitate the
l lees anu ledNe pure dIIIce sOl WlnG-mV
| temperance friends will excuse the figure
| know. in other words, that while this fermen-
tation is going On, by means OF il we are
| making our best citizens cut of men who
| came to us as immigrants-men whom we
did not originally want TO vote, but who
| wnnld vote and have voted and through yot-
ing as well as through the other influences
that surround them here, have become or
are becoming most worthy citizens.
The irreversible nature of the action by
which the freedmen have been invested with
The rights OF citizenship is treated with a
force OF the argument:
It there Re one obligation that rests upon
| us heavIl, and thai every man OF conscience
and honor should leel with ever-growine SEN
sibility, it is the obligation to see TO it that
these poor creatures do not suffer harm. But
| If you still doubt the wisdom of giving suff-
rage to them, doubt it. 1t is giyen-they
| have cot it. There are some things that
have lear ed it is folly to do. In nv much
| younger DAYS once or twice tried runnino
after an express train when | vas ate NJ the
| depot: have given it up; never do IT. now
think that after while LONGER men will
| give up racing alter revolutions and the re-
suits ot revolutiona. Suffrage once nut into
the hands OF men, catch 1t il YOU can For
the sake OF argument i will concede that it
was mJudiclous to give suffrage to the blacks
but that question has gone bv great while
aSo-that IS an old dead issue. 1t is NOT
question any longer whether they sha or 2:
| shall n II have the vote. They have got IT..
You might just as well say that theyought not
to he horn black, but they are born black.
Won might Just as well say that they ought
nor TO be born with curly hair, but they are
horn with curly hair. How are you going to
fake either the one or the other from them +?
You may say that it is not wise to give them
the vote; but the question of to-day is, is it
wise or possible to take it away? That is a
different question; and there are many men,
think, who would side against me in regard
to the wisdom of giving The vote, who would
side with me in the belief that 1t cannot be
taken away.
Mr.. Beecher read extracts from letter he
had received the day before from Democrat,
who asked him several questions, one oi
which was, whether II in 1855 those Southern
Representatives who could take the iron-clad