Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-03-18

this Legislature, disgrace toour com
monwealth, for they are a nod Of ap-
ProYal to the heresies of the people o f
the late rebellious sections of our coun-
try, and they place us precisely in the
position most desired Nby those who
still hunger for our nations life. Mr..
Jewett's resolutions, the discussion of
which in the other wing of the capitol,
cost the tax payers of the State at
least ten thousand dollars, NAV be
placed in the same category. You will
also remember that but a day or two
ago the word loyal was stricken by you
out of a resolution, because, as I sup
pose, it had been too closely associated
with acts that had worked the eman-
cipation Of the negro, to be put into a
resolution of a Democratic Legisla-
ture.
When upon the second Monday in
January last, the Governor of our State
was to be insugurated, and it was un-
derstood in this body that there was a
company Of coiored soldiers in the city.
who expected to parade in honor of
the occasion-men to whom our nation
owes debt of gratitude it can never
repay-men who had endured the wea-
ry march-had faced the black plumed
angel Of death upon the soil soddened
BY blood shed in your behalf and
mine-When / say it was understood in
this body that these mea expected to
parade at the Inauguration, you, by
your vote, would not allow them to
90 kh.a1r E-,1-.l-- - A.N
tered ensign in honor of the occasion.
If the people. of the great State of
Ohio do not remember these things in
judgment against you, they deserve a
return of the barbarism that / had
hoped had passed away; deserve, sir,
as Is the inevitable consequence of this
barbarism, that in the end should de-
scend upon them the days of Nero and
Caligula. Now, why is this? think
l have the reason. The negro was in
danger of being worked out of Ameri-
can politics, and you want him in
again. You hunger for the caress and
you thirst for the smile of those men
who spell the word negro with a dou-
BILE g. You want the politicalsuppor
or rather the political leadership of
those men who believe the colored man
has no rights that a white man is
bound to respect. You have a preiu-
dice against him which you cannot or
will not overcome. He may pay taxes,
he may fight our country's battles, he
may do anything that becomes a man,
but his manhood is not to be recognized
usder your creed, and herein lies the
secret Of the outrage you are attempt
ing to perpetrate by this bill.
/ cannot, sir, regard the attempt
that is still being made in our country
to prove that there is a difference in
the political rights Of men, as other
wise than the latest struggles Of the
idea that induces oppression-that
props up thrones, and that has in the
past created dynasties of despotism.-
This idea, trsnsplanted from the bar
barisms of the old world and the past,
has, during the four score years Of our
national life, been the head wind
against which political advancement
was making its tedious way. NotWith-
standing the lights Of the present
the warnings of the past, and the vel
fare OF the great future beyond Us, this
idea is still active among US. There is
still class of men in our country,
who, blind as the night to the interests
of humanity-deaf as the tomb to the
voice that comes to US even from the
womb Of the future-senseless as the
dust Of our ancient dead to the well
beng of humanity everywhere, are
now endeaVoring to save out of the
debris left by the war from which We
have just emerged, a principle or two
of- that oTerthfown wrong with which
to leaVen, infect, poison, dunn our
body polite again. In our State, here
tofore carrying the brightest banner
that waves over the march of progress,
this effort Is now being made, and this
bill is one Of the tangible forms that
this sttempt has assumed.
Shall it succeed? If this legislature
does not answer no, it will be but a
postponement of the hour of condem-
nation until the people shall arise in
the majesty of their mightiness, and in
the thunder tones of their thousand,
but united, voices heard through the
ballot, shall utter the fat of doom that
will consign all such attempts to the
grave where now lies buried many of
the bsrbarisms of the past.
Because this bill can never become
valid law by reason of its unconstitu-
tionality-because it is 50 hagrantly
unjust as TO be utterly repugnaut to
a majoIity of the people whom We have
the honor to represent. let US have it
from its asylum-let us drag it forth
from its city of refuge, in the pockets
of this judiciary committee, from which
it may dart upon It's enemies and take
them at disadvantage at any time, and
let US slaughter it as should be slaught-
cred every Whelp of the same kidney
that is spawned into existence here
after.