Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1870-03-25

din and discord of angry faction, and be
that loyal man white or black, that great
party of our republic will, if consistent
with the record it has already made for
posterity, throw around him the same i'm
partial security in his pursuit of liberty
and happiness. If a certain class of the
South had accepted in good faith the be-
nevolent overtures which were offered to
them with no niggard hand, today would
not find our land still harassed with feuds
and contentious.
remarked, Mr.. President, that I rose
to plead for protection to the defenceless
race who now send their delegates to the
seat of government, to sue for that which
this Congress alone can secure to them.
And here let me say further that the peo-
pie Of the North owe to the colored race
a deep obligation, which it is no easy mat
ter to fulfill. When the Federal armies
were threatened by death and disaster,
and sombre clouds overhung the length
and breadth of the republic, and the very
air was pregnant with foreign interference,
in those dark days of defeat, whose mem
cries even yet haunt us as an ugly dream,
from what source did our nation in its
seeming. death-throes gain additional and
found power? 1t was the sable sons
of the South that valiantly rushed to the
rescue, and but for their intrepidity and
ardent daring many Northern fireside
would miss to-day paternal counsels, or
brothers love.
Sir, / repeat the fact, that the colored
race saved to the noble women of New
England and the Middle States men on
whom they lean to-day for security and
safety Many of my race, representatives
of these men on the field of battle, sleep
in the,countless graves of the South. If
those quiet resting places of our honored
dead could speak today, what mighty
voice, like to the rushing of mighty
wind, would come up from those sepulchral
homes! Could we resist the eloquent
pleadings of their appeal, oh sir, think
that this question of immediate and ample
protection of the loyal people of Georgia
would lose its legal technicalities, and we
would cease to hesitate in our provisions
for their instant relief Again, / regret
this delay on other grounds. The taunt
is frequently flung at us that ''Nemesis"
more terrible than the Greek personation
of the anger Of the gods awaits her hour
of direful retribution. We are told that
at no distant day great uprising of the
Reconstruction acts of Congress be un-
done and be blotted forever from the annals
of legislative enactment. inquire, sir, if
this delay in affording protection to loyal
lists of the State of Georgia does not lend
an uncomfortable significance to this boast
ing sneer with which we SO often meet
Delay is dangerous at best, for it is as true
in legislation as in pbysic that the longer
we pr0crastinate to apply the proper
remedies the more critical becomes the
malady we seek to heal. The land wants
such as dare, with vigor, execute the laws.
Her festered members must be lanced and
tended. He is a bad surgeon that for pity
spares the part corrupted till the gam
creme spread and all the body perish. He
that is merciful unto bad is cruel to good.
Mr.. Revels then reviewed the history
of affairs in Georgia, stating that at the
election in November, 1867, for members
of the State Convention, $1,000 white and
$4,000 colored votes were polled, and a
number of colored delegates elected. A
constitution was framed and ratified, and
a Legislature elected under it was con-
venened. After all this, supposing they
had passed beyond Congressional control,
the rebel element in the Legislature as
serted itself, and many of those whose dis
abilities had been removed by the State
Convention, which comprised a number
of colored members, joined in the declara-
ton made by that Legislature, that man
having more than an eighth African blood
in his veins was ineligible to office. These
very men, to whom the Republican party
extended all the rights and privileges of
citizenship, of which they had deprived
themselves, denied political equality to a
large majority of their fellow citizens.
Twenty-eight members were expelled.
On December %, 1869, an act of Congress
was passed requiring the re-assembling
of persons declared elected by the mil
itary commander, the restoration of the
expelled members, and rejection of the
others who were disqualified. All the
conditions had now been complied with,
and, having ratified the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth constitutional Amendments,
Georgia presents herself for recognition.
The Bingham amendment proposed to le-
galize the organization of 1858, and would
legalize the act of the Legislature in ap-
pointing the Judge who decided in favor
of class distinction in the State as means
of future protection for loyal Georgians.
He desired that these laws should COM
mence from the date Of the present legis-
lation. He asks this in the name of 10o,-
600 white and colored Georgians, and re-
minded the Senate that he who permitted
opposition shared in the crime.
Upon the conclusion of his remarks,
Mr.. Revels received the congratulations of
many Republican Senators and others,
and then the immense audience in the
galleries, which included many persons of
color, dispersed.