Wyoming democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Wyoming Co., Pa.) 1867-1940, 1869-03-31
The Fifteenth Amendment Ratified.

| By strict party vote the House has rat
flied the Suffrage Amendment to the Con-
stitution, and thus is Pennsylvania enroll
ed ON the list of States which have sur
rendered their highest mark of power to
the general government. From the day
that the dispenser of offices in the White
! House intimated his desire for the adoption
of the amendment, there was no doubt of
the radicals of Pennsylvania. They are as
completely in the power of Grant as DIR.
Faust belonged to the devil
OF all the radicals in the Union those of
Pennsylvania have exhibited the deepest
dupicity and baseness in this transaction.
1 The radicals of Massachusetts, and Maine
did not violate their State constitutions in
ratifying this amendment They had al
ready granted suffrage to the negro, and
they were merely endeavoring to adjust
the Constitution of the United States to
their own. But the radicals of Pennsvlva-
mia deliberately marched through perjury
to the ratification of the XVIII Article
They had taken a solemn oath to support
| the constitution of their State, and they
voted for an amendment of the Federal
Constitution which is not merely in con-
fict with that of the State, but utterly de-
stroys it.
! The radicals of Pennsylvania, very many
of them, owe this opportunity to betray
their constituents and perjure themselves
to the sturdiest denials that they would
vote to interfere with the question of suf-
frage, They have ratified this amendment
and there stands their State Constitution
not altered, but mutilated by their clumsy
and corrupt hands. The radicals of no
| other State in the Union have exhibited
any trace of the hypocrisy which has mark
ed the Pennsylvania radicals on this sub
iect. While they impud-ntly boast of their
philanthropy and love of equality in rat
flying this amendment they refuse to
amend the State Constitution and confer
the blessings of suffrage on the negroes at
once. They preferred to do by indirection
and by violating their oaths, what the rad
icals in other States had the honesty and
ightforwardness to accomplish for them
selves.
! For weeks their tables have groaned with
the heavy burden of the petitions Of the
people against the preparation of this
wrong. The Telegraph, sneeringly declares
that ''bushels" of the remonstranees of the
indignant people have been contemptuous-
| ly thrust aside. They have been implored,
if they had any regard for the rights of
their constituents, to postpone action on
this momentous question until the people
could be heard. But these poor cravens
of the Pennsylvania Legislature do not wait
to hear the thunderous voice of the people
They could not initiate the pluck of the rad
icals of little Rhode Island, who postponed
the vote until the next session of the legis-
lature. They eagerly rushed to ratify an
amendment which cannot confer suffrage
on the negro for years to come, and they
at the same time refused to submit reso-
luton to the people of the State, which if
adopted would settle the question in Penn
sylvania forever, and leave the honor, the
dignity and rights of the great State unim-
paired. These Radicals preferred to infiict
negro suffrage on their State by subverting
at the same time the Constitution they had
solemnly sworn to maintain and defend
Vainly do they imagine that by this
course they have avoided the issue before a
betrayed people. They have stirred up the
wrath that will be quenched until the last
cumberet among their foul and treacherous
crew has been swept from his place The
issue they have cunningly .sougft to pre-
Sent, the people themselves will make up.
It has already been formed. That over
whelming pile of remonstrances which was
foolishly contemned by their up-start rep
resentatives marks the beginning of the
conflict Those remonstrances are the
first expressions of the indignation of the
people against the proposition to betray
them ,tand destroy the just authority of
Aheir'State in the Union. These are the
mutterings that presage the storm. 1t is
.onlSthe.purblind party slave who cannot
read the signs of the coming wrath. No
,I.BraSeipeople surrender their liberties with
out struggle The sons of Pennsylvania
have never yet shown any mark of the
baseness that could encourage these min
ions in the Legislature thus to insult them.
The recent elections all over the State
where the radicals permitted the people to
hold them, like the first -heavy.drops from
out sky charged with tempest, give indi-
cations of the furious storm of popular
wrath which will utterly overwhelm the
traitors and periurers in the October cleo
ton. .-HmriS6urg Patriot.
p The Great Gift Enterprise.