The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-03-25
Senator White ON the Amend
nent.


This gentleman, who is seriously afflicted
with Governor on the brain, was recently
delivered of spread eagle speech in the
State Senate in favor Of ratifyiug the univer-
sal negro suffrage amendment. He must be
a very verdant politician if be supposes that
a defence of that amendment will be calcu-
lated to advance his gubernatorial preten-
sions. In our judgment, representative oil
the people who usurps the power to rat'y
that amendment, in violation of his own and
his party's solemn pledge, and thus swim
dies his master, the sovereign people, out of
the sacred right of changing their own con-
stitutiou by their own votes. stands ten
fold better chance Of being struck by light
ming, or drawing a first class prize in
lottery, than he does of becoming John w.
Geary's successor. We have not seen the
speech itself, but we learn from the tele-
graphic report Of the Senate debate to
radical paper that ''ho (WhiteJ quoted from
the Constitution and other authorities to
show it was always designed to give the
General Government the ultimate control Of
suffrage"
The late Thaddeus Stevens wss accustomed
to say that William D. Kelly, radical
member of Congress from Philadelphia, was
the first man in the United States to make
the brilliant Giscovery that Congress had
power under the Constitution to regulate the
question of suffrage in the States. The SEN
IL.
share that honor with him. Stevens him
self, we believe, was in favor OF conferrinS
the right of suffrage on negroes by direct
act of Congress, but he was honest and man
to do SO there was no warrant for it in the
Constitution. We do not know of any pub
lie man in this country Of any political repu-
tation who ever maintained that Congress
had any rightful jurisdiction ovsr the sub
ject. On the contrary, the right has uni
formly been denisd by the leading statesmen
of all parties from the foundation Of the gov
ernment down to the preseLt day. The Chi
cago Convention distinctly repudiated the
exercise by Congress Of any such power.
when it declared that the question of suffrage
in the Northern States should be left to the
people of those States to be regulated as they
deemed right and expedient.
1t is just such political trimmers as Sena-
tor White who, in order to conceal a base
betrayal of the rights of the people, have
suddenly discovered that the constitution"
and "other authorities" sanction and ap-
prove their treachery to the people.
All doubt was remoI ed from this question
by the men who framed ths constitu ton, as
we'll as by those who have since expounded
its meaning. When the subject was before
tie Convention Oliver Ellsworth, who was
afterwards the third Chief Justice Of the Uni
ted States, Fpoke as follows:
"The qualifca tions of the electors stood On
the most proper footing The right of suffrage
was tender point, and strongly guarded by
most of the State constitutions. The people
will not readily subscribe to the national con
stitution if it should subject them to be dis
frs RchiSed. The States are the best judges of
the circumstances and temper of their own
people"
Jones Madison, who has been called the
father" Of the constitution, used the follow
ing emphatic language
"The right of suffrage Is certainly one of the
funda mental articles of republican government
and ought not to be left to be regulated by the
Legislature of the Union.'
Alexander Hamilton in The Federdlist
said:
Suppose an Article had been introduced in
to the Constitution of the L nited States to reg
ulate the elect ons for the particular States,
would any man have hesitated to condemn it
both as an unwarrantable transpositiOn of pow er
and as premeditated engine for the destruction
of the State goverLments?"-No. SO.
Judge Story disposes of the monstrous as
sumption that Congress can regulate cleo
tions il the States, or that such purpose
constitution, in the following manner
"What would be said of clause introduced
into the National Constitution to regulate the
State elections of the members of the State
Legislatures? 1t would be deemed a most un-
warrantable transfer of power. indicating pre-
meditated design To destroy the State govern
ments. 1t would be deemed so fragrant a vi0-
lation Of principle as to require no comment"
Story on the Constitution, section Sl9.
We suppose that these distinguished men
knew tolerably well what they were doing
when they framed our present national con-
stitution-q as well as the uufedged
statesmen Of the radical party of the present
day who are making such sad havoc of their
great work.
Here we leave the subject. and are willing
that our readers shall judge between the au-
thority Of such imposing names as Ellsworth.
Madison, Hamilton and Story and the ad
captanddm arguments of Senator Harry
White.