Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1869-10-07
The Issues Of the Day.

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CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
For the protection Of the nationa,
freedmen Constitutional amend
nlent has been presented for ratifca.
ton, placing their rightto vote under
the perpetual safeguard Of the Union;
but am obliged to remind you that
this amendment has not yet obtained
the requisite number Of States, nor
can / say surely when it will. The
Democratic party Is arrayed against
1t, and the Rebel interest unites with
the Democracy. Naturally they go
together. They are old cronies.
Here let me say frankly that have
never ceased to regret-I do now
most profoundly regret--tbat Con-
gress in its plenary powers under the
Constitution, especially in its great,
unquestionable power to guarantee a
republican governmental the States,
did not summarily settle this whole
question, SO that 1t should no longer
disturb the country. IT was for Con-
gress to give a definition Of a repub-
lican government; nor need it go
further than our own Declaration Of
Independence, where is a definition
from which there is no appeal. There
1t is, as it came from Our forefathers,
in lofty, self-evident truth, and Con-
gress should have applied it. Or it
might have gone to the speech of
Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg,
where again is the same great def
milton. There was also decisive
precedent. As Congress made a
Civil Rights law, SO should it have
made Political Rights law. In
each case the power is Identical. III
it can be done in the one il can be
done in the other. TO my mind
nothing is clearer. Thus far Con-
gress has thought otherwise. There
remains, then, the slow process of
Constitutional amendment, to which
the country must be rallied.
PUBLIC OPINION AIDA sYsiPATuET-
Ic ADMINISTRATION.
But this Is not enough. ,S< mere
text of Constitutional law is sufti-
cient. Behind these there must be a
prevailing Public Opinionanda sym
pathetic Administration Both are
needed. The Administration must
re-enforce Public Opinion, and Public
Opinion must re-enforce the Admin
istration. Such is all experience.
Without these tie strongest text and
most cunning in its requirements Is
only phantom-it may be or terror,
as was the case with the Fugitive
Slave bill, but not a living letter. 1t
is not practically obeyed. Some
times it is evaded: sometimes it is
openly set at naught. And now it is
my duty to warn you that the ma
tional freedman still needs your
protection. His ancient master is
already in hefield conspiringagainst
him. That traditional experience,
that infinite audacity, that insensi-
bility to Human Rights, which so
long upheld Slavery, are aroused
anew. No longer able to hold him
as slave, the ancient master means
to hold him as dependent, and to
keep him in his service, personal and
political, thus substituting a new
bondage for the old. Unhappily he
finds at the North political party
which the Rebellion has not weaned
from that unnatural Southern breast
where it drew its primitive nutri-
ment; and this political party now
fraternizes in the dismal work by
which peace is postponed; for until
the national freedman is safe in his
rights there can be no peace. You
may call 1t peace, but ] tell you 1t is
not peace. 1t Is peace only in name.
Who does not feel that he treads still
on smotllered fires? Who does not
feel his feet burn as he moves over
the trcachcrous ashes? If / wished
any new motive for opposition to the
Democracy, / should find it in this
hostile alliance. Because l am for
peace, so that this whole people may
be at work; because desire tran
guilty, SO that all may be happy;
because seek reconciliation, SO that
there shall be compIetest harmony,
therefore / oppose the Democracy,
and now denounce it as a Disturber
ofthe National Peace. AIT
The information from the ex-R Rebel
States is most painful. Old Rebels
are crawling from hlding-places to
resume their former rule--and what
a rule! Such as might be expected
from the representatives Of Slavery.
1t is the rule of misrule, where the
Ku Kllix Khan takes the place OF
missionary and schoolmaster. MUIR
der is Embossed. The national freed
man is the victim and so Is the
Unionist. Not one Of these States,
,,Larn INF; iJaf;on with aaafh In its