Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1869-03-24

amendment is incorporated in it, the pream
bic to the Constitution will apply to it S to
all the rest, and it will be true of it as all the
rest I'VE, the people of the United States,
do ordain and establish it.
| have said there is no limitation as to
the character of the amendments that may
be proposed TO it, and no constitutional ex-
ception can therefore be taken to the amend
ment before u.s. But there is limitation as
to the method OF its ratification. First, il
must be proposed by two thirds Of both
houses of Congress, which two thirds vote
this amendment received. And second, 1t
must be ratified by the Legislatures OF three
| fouri hs of the States, or by conventions In
the States, as the Congress may direct this
to be submitted to the Legislatures of the
several States. it has accordingly been sub
mitted to us, as one ot'the Legislatures spok-
en- of. Ii is, consequently, for us and for
the Legislatures of the other States to say
whether it shall be ratified or not.
And this is the only way in which it can
be ratified. 1t is not in our power to submit
it to popular vote. 1t is simply our duty
to ratlty or reject it. The power of ratiica-
ton has been lodged by the Constitution it
| self IN us, and We cannot shlrk our duty or
shift 1t on to other shoulders. To submit 1t
to the popular vote would be an unconstitu-
tionai way of amending the Constitution, and
| marvel at the men who make so much con-
stitutional clamor proposing plan at war
with the instrument they profess to venerate
so much.
As to all the talk of our not daring to go to
the people on this issue, it is mere clap trap.
| dare to do my duty, and to take the conse-
quence. L am not afraid of the people, or
doubtful of their verdict, The Constitution
has imposed upon me the task of passing
upon an amendment proposed by two thirds
OF both Houses of Congress. lwlll discharge
that task fearlesSly, and as fearlessly appeal
to the people for their approval
Ii Is their privilege to pass upon my action
after, not before, it is done. And am sat
isfed they will endorse what l propose to do,
aud my political friends around me feel,
am sure, the same confidence. We shall go
to them upon our record, in the fullest trust
that they will approve it. Already New
Hampshire has spoken, endorsing Grant S
inaugural on this point, and her people have
just chosen a Legislature that will ratify this
amendment too, in full view of
this issue. Iowa and Minnesota, after once
voting down regro suffrage, last year adopt
ed it by Popular vote, and even some of the
Democrats of Iowa elected negro Justice
OF the Peace. The sober second thought
comes out right, if the first should happen
to be wrong; and L have no doubt the peo
pc of Pennsylvania, believing in the alien
ability of human rights, aud that one man
has just the same rights as, and no more
than, another. will rejoice in the incorpora-
tion of this clause in the National Constitu
tion as a final settlement of long perplex
ing question.
g. But the Senator from Clear6eld tells US
that the right cf suffrage is not a natural
but political right. and, therefore, those
who have 1t can give 1t or withhold 1t as they
please. If this right is mere political
right, to be given or withheld at pleasure,
where did those get it who have it TO give or
withhold? Where did the Senator from
Clearfeld get his right to vote? What right
has he that any other man has not? And if
he has any, from whom did he get it? Ii
he tells me that he got it from the Consti-
tuition of the State, L ask where did those
get it who framed the Constitution? He will
say, they We're the people, and sovereignty
resided in them. But what rights had
they which other men had not? Who gave
them the power to say who should or should
not vote? If you say it was inherent in
them, it follows that it was also as inherent
In the black men OF the land as in them I;
and if you say IL was not inherent, | ask for
the source from which they got it. And |
will ask in vain for satisfactory answer.
The only answer that can be be given is that
1t was simply the exercise of tyrannical
power. There is no escape from this logic.
1t is the inexorabe logic of human rights.
Either every man has the natural right TO
vote. and all men have the same rights, or
those who claim to possess superior rights
must show the superior source from which
they draw them.
For myself, twenty five years ago | learn
ed the full import of that divine declaration,
God hath made of one blood all nations"
and to look upon all men as consequently my
brethren and politically my equals. What
ever rights L had, they could trace to the |
same source. learned also that other al |
most divine declaration, written by the father |
of the old time, not the modern, Democra- |
cy, that all men are created equal, and |
that their rights are Inalienable. That is |
the Democracy which learned at the out
set of my political career, and remain proud |
Of it to day. [ am not ashamed TO extend |
my hand to the hitherto oppressed and down |
trodden black man, and recognize in him /
Man, created by the same Maker, of the |
same blood, and with precisely the same
rights. That is the Democracy wi ich the |
Bible teaches and which the Declaration of
Independence teaches To that [ adhere. |
and scorn that bastard Democracy which |
sneers at Human rights as myth and pro- |
claims universal suffrage humbug
"a hunlbug!' Il thank thee, Jew, for |
teaching me that word" And has it come |
to this, that the leader of Democracy in |
Pennsylvania declares that equality of hu- |
man rights has no existence-is myth |
that one man has just those rights ard no |
other which other men choose to give him
that might makes right; that the strong |
have the right to trample ON the weak, and |
that universally of hdman rights is ''hum-
bug What stride from Jefferson, wit h |
his inalienability of human rights, to the |
Senator from Clear6eld with his theory of |
Of the non-exi>tence of human rights, and
the "humbug of universal suffrage-from
l775 to 1869. The new age is in many things
superior to the old, but give me the old De-
nocracy in preference to the new. The
people of Pennsylvania do not, know, be-
ieve that the doctrine of the equality of
human rights is a ''humbug," and | am
ready, for one, to go to them on that issue,
and give to this apostle OF the new Democ-
-acy the full benefit of his discovery that the
Bible and the Declaration of Independence,
and Jefferson and the fathers. were all wrong
n acknowledging the unity of all races in
blood aud in rights
4. As to the citations of the Senator from
Jlearfeld to show that Pennsylvania has, in