The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1869-03-12

but as surely as God mas made intel
leet superior to matter and the white
man to the black, the country in
which they dwell together must be
governed by white men. They will
not, they cannot, maintain a peaceful
partnership in this matter. Call it
predjudice or what you will, philoso-
phize and moralize upon it as you may,
the fact remains that one is black and
the other is white. and therefore they
cannot cooperate in exercising politf-
ical trusts. do not say that one may
enslave the other-the superior may
be compelled to respect the civil rights
OF the Inferior race-but they cannot
long be co-trustees Of suffrage without
riots and bloodshedding, If the time
ever comes that the political destinies
OF this country, even for one presiden-
tial term, are controlled by negroes, it
will be the darkest day that ever
dawned upon that unfortunate race.
May God in his mercy to them and US
avert that day
Now, sir, it is from considerations Of
expediency that i oppose negro suf-
frage. 1t is the good of the negro as
we'll as of the white man that prompts
my opposition. 1t is my desire that
they may live together in peace and
happiness, as always heretofore in
Pennsylvania, that leads me to depre-
ciate this amendment. And especially
have we in Pennsylvania, right to
complain when, in violation of all pre-
cedent, of constitutional law of your
own party platform, and of the peace
Of our commonwealth, you repeal cur
constitution without giving US right
to vote against your amendment. If
such high-handed wrong does not
wake up the people of Pennsylvania
to the revolutionary schemes of the
republican party; if they can be be-
! guiled by fair speeches into the support
/ Of such a measure as this; if they are
| ready to have the negro thrust into po-
! litical partnership in contempt of their
solemnly recorded will, why then, sir,
sad and siekening degeneracy has
come upon my native State, and, for
| the first time in life / shall blush to
! own myself her son. Africa never so
demeaned herself. The hardy savages
! of the mountain slopes in the interior
/ of that continent never debased them
selves to- the level of the Bushmen and
/ Hotentots of the. Cape of Good Hope.
No, no, sir, they could be torn from kin
dred and homes by the cruel slave ira
| der, and borne away to distant lands to
be slaves, but they never wonld or new
er did, voluntarily surrender to an in
ferior tribe of their own race, much less
toan inferior race. And have we proud
Americans, so lost our ancestral tradi-
tions that we can no longer be inspired
/ even by African example?
We have seen in history the proud
Roman refusing citizenship to the most
inustrious aliens; we have seen Goth
and Hun and Vandal trample Roman
/ gIduuuSE IIllO NucOJ NO nave -AOhSu
over the struggles between the Nor
man and the Saxon, the Cavalier and
the Rounkead, the Briton and the Scot,
all of them jealous of their nationali-
ties and ready to shed their blood in
defence of what they had inherited
from their ancestors. But now, in
this nineteenth century, we are to be
held up as the first example in the
worlds history of a great people sur
rendering political trusts to one of the
lowest and feeblest races of the worlds
population. The Anglo-Saxon of A
merican decent giving up the inherf-
tance which has made him great to the
African? Not to the wild African in the
freedom of his native jungles, but to the
enfeebled, timid, Ignorant descendant
of q race of slaves And these are to
be made voters and law-givers, to be
our judges and representatives Is
there any profounder depth Of self deg
relation than this? If there be I have
not courage to explore it.