Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-09-16


be conferred By Law upon ell persons Of
foreign hrth. resident In ths country fer
the ame presC, ibaA, upon renunoiaeion
Of all foreign sllsgiancs, and upon ssh-
ing the oath e aflegianOs % the Unitod
States.
10 maintain and pesysenass thass -
seHtisl pr:1nipies Of the Government of
the United SSatss, Congress has propos.
ed, accordance with the Consultation,
to the kegislatures of the several States,
the Fiftsenth Amendment, which pro-
vides that 1.-THE right of the citizens of
the United States to vote shall not be
denied by the United States, or by any
State. on account of race, color, or pre-
vious condition of servitude, and the
Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by Appropriate legislation"
This amendment has already been
ratified by the Legislatures of twenty
one States, representing twenty-five
millions of the American people,
This Democratic party, so-called, in
Ohio, protests against this amendment
as it protested against the Thir-
teenth and fourteenth Amendments
and declares that it is violative of the
reserved rights of States for the Con-
gress to propose and for the Legislatures
os three. fourths of the States of the
Union, to ratify this amendment. What
is necessarily implied in this declara-
ton of the Democratic party? First.
that citizenship is not birth right, and
from this it results that the majority
may rightfully. in the several States OF
this Union, deprive the minority of all
the privileges and immunities of citizens
of the United States.
Isubmit that no greater political afro
city than this can possibly be committed
by human agency.
Let the people accept this proposition,
and they will become the architects of
their own ruin. Nothing can be clearer
than this, that under the representative
system the rights of the minority are as
srcred and inviOlable as the rights of
the majority. Ifthe majority may right
, fully disfranchsse the minority of citi-
| zens on account of race, color or former
condition of servitude, they may, with
equal propriety, disfranchise citizens for
want of stature or property, or on ac-
| count of nativity. thereby presenting to
theworld the miserable spectacle of a
government wherein a mere majority
subjects to the absolute depetism of their
| will minority of their fellow citizens
almost equal in number to themsel yes.
and. perchance, greatly their superiors
in all the attachments and virtues which
adoru or elevate or ennoble human ma
tnre.
Let 10 one answer what have said
| by the stale cry: "rhis is a white mans
government" Let 1t be borne In mind
that this is the Government of men rep
resenting every people, and kindred,
and tongue under the whole heavens,
and that in the inception of our nation
al struggle for representatives Govern
ment IN 1776, the declaration of the
people was not tina. all white men are
created equal, hut that all men are crs-
ated esuuf, and endowed by their Crea-
tor with the rights of life and liberty.
Let il be remembered that, by the ar
ticles of the Confederation adopted in
ITS, free persons, residents OF these
States, were declared citizens of the
United States, and entitled to all the
privileges of citizens In several States;
and let 1t not be forgotten that in the
Congress of ITS it was proposed to re-
strict the privileges of of citizens of the
United States TO white persons; that the
vote was taken in that Congress upon
inserting the word white In the articles
of confederation, as condition of citi-
zenship; that of the eleven States then
represented, eight States. embracing
three-fourths Of the entire population Of
the thirteen, voted solid against the in.
famous proposition, and that only two
States vbted for it.
This question was thenceforward
closed. aud was never afterwaYd even
entertained by the great men who made
the Constitution, leaving it to the
Democratic party Of 1889 to revive the
atrocious proposition that color shall
determine the birth-right of citizenship.
1t does not require very high Oruer of
intelligence, or an extraordinary amount
of intellect, to enable one to discover
that it logically results from the propo-
sition that if a majority may deny citi-
zenship to minority on account of color,
that it may dsny as well the right of
the minority to live on account of color.
Assuming that this Democratic party
is progressive, and who will venture to
deny it. next year we may look for
Democratic proposition or pronounce
mento that only white men have the
rights of citizenship in the land of their
nativity, and that only white men men
have the right to live on the spot of their
origin.
Mycountrymen, when, by your ballot,
you ratify any such proposition you
thereby do declare yourselves ready to
abrogate the law of the stone table,
which declares, "Thou shalt not kill"
to abrogate the law of the New Testa-
ment, which declares, "You shall do to
others as you would have others do to
you," and you revive and accept the an.
cient Pagan rule that might gives right,
that whoever may be strong enough and
base enough, may rightfully and at his
pleasure, break down and overturn all
the existing sanctions OF law, take away
all the securities of persons, of liberty,
of property and life. Is not right more
than might, and justice more than
maIR
1t is hardly needful to suggest to in
telligent men, born in the nineteenth
century, and being in the light of its
civilization, that this proposition is an
assertion that the mere majority may
arbitrarily deny the rights of citizen
ship and of men to the minority, not
because it was the right, but because it
has the power. The adoption of such
proposition renders the continuance
of representative government in America
absolutely impossible.
1t Is known, the world over, that the
American experiment of representa- tive
government rests upon she great fact
that all men, irrespective of race, color
or origin-nOt by the edicts of tyrants or
usurpers, or by the Constitution ofStates,
but by irrepealable decree of the God of
men and natiops-a a equal In the
rights of person; and upon the further
proposition that the whole body of the
people, of like age and residence, and
possessed of sound mind. have equal
right and equal voice i'll ordaining con-
stitutions OF government, and comforting
and prescribing the powers to be exercis-
ed thereby. That Is the Democracy Of
America, the declaration of America,
and the Constitution of America. Is it
not written In the Declaration, that the
truth is self evident that all men are
created equal?" Is 1t not further de-
clared that to secure the rights of life