The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-10-22

EztTact from a late Speech By Senator Uend
ricks Of Indiana.
CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION.

Before speak further upon the merits
of this amendment, | wish to ask you, my
fellowcitizens, one or two questions. In
the first place, do you believe that this is
a suitable time in which to change the
Constitution of the United States? And
in rejecting upon that question: grave
and important one-I ask you to consider
very briefly, if you please, the circumstan-
ces attending the country when the Con-
stitution was framed and adopted. 1t was
just after the Revolutionary War, in which
all the States participated; war in which
the men of all the States united-in which
the men of New York and men of Massa-
Virginia and South Carolina; in which
men of every section died upon the same
battlefield and were buried in the same
honored graves. After such war the peo-
pie in every section entertained feelings of
kindness and fraternal love toward the men
fevery other section; they mourned for
the common dead, and rejoiced over COM
mon triumph. That was the state of the
public mind when the Constitution was
framed by the great convention over which
George Washington presided. Now, my
countrymen, ask you if we are in con-
dition to-day, as people, to favorably con-
slider change in the form of our govern
ment? We have just come out of the most
unfortunate war in which any people can be
engaged q civil war-a war i'll which one
section of the Union has been arrayed
against another and the passions excited
by that war have not yet altogether subsi-
ded and passed away. There are angry
passions still burning beneath the ashes !;
there is strife yet in the political world,
and men are divided into fierce political
contests yet. | ask you, in such state of
the public mind, is it well that we should
lay hold of the Constitution, the charter of
our liberties-that great instrument we
all should revere9 l say, in my Judgment
that we are not in proper condition, as q
people, to consider the question ola change
i'll our form ofgovernment. | wish to ask
Republican gentlemen one question. Do
you think that you, here in Ohio, ought to
consent to that amendments | refer to you
out of great respect, because the particular
reference now make touches you rather
than Democrats. One year ago, when you
cast your ballot for Grant and Colfax, that
ballot said the States in the, North have
properly the right to control suffrage, for
in the resolution that was adopted in the
platform of the National Convention of
that party, it was declared that in all the
States that had not rebelled it properly be-
longed to the people of those States to reg
ulate the question of suffrage. If you have
supported the candidates and platform
thus plain and distinct, is it right, after
you have carried the election, to talsify the
assurances thus given to the country Task
Republican gentlemen, what assurances have
we of the good conduct of men we vote
for except the promise they give in advance
of the elections And are you, men of the
Republican party, willing thus to democrat
ize our institutions, and to allow politicians
to give their pledge to the people before
the election, and, after they have carried ii
upon that pledge, to prove false to the as
surance thus given 1t is a question in
which you are interested quite as much as
the Democracy appeal to you because
you made the pledge as party. In the
great national Convention you assured the
people that it should be retained to the
States, each for itself, to decide whether
the negro or any other class should be adj
mittcd to suffrage that are now excluded.
THE MEANING OF THE FIFTEENTH AMEND
MENT.
What is this fifteenth amendment? The
first section provides that the rights OF
citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be "denied or abridged because ofrace
color or previous condition of servitude'
And the second provides that Congress shall
have full power to pass all laws necessary
to carry this into full effect. Such is the
amendment. What is the effect ofit9 The
effect of it is to take away from each State
of this Union the control and regulation Of
a question that is important to her as an
independent member of the confederacy.-
If it had been proposed to change the Con-
stitution and laws SO as to give Congress
control over the right to vote for officers Of