The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1870-03-24

that protection which alone will enable
them to pursue their daily avocation
!, with success, and enjoy their liberties o
citizenship on the same footing with thei
white neighbors and friends.
do not desire simply to defend my
own race from unjust and unwarranted
charges, but also desire to place upor
record an expression of my full and entire
confidence in the integrity of purposes
with which, believe, the present Con
gress and the Republican party will
meet these questions, SO prolific of veal
or woe, not only to my own people but to
the whole South. They have been, SC
far as can read the history of the times,
influenced by no spirit of petty tyranny
The poet has we'll said 90 ! it is ex-
cellent to have giants strength, but it
is tyrannous to use it like a giant" and
how have they used that power lodged
in them by the peopley In acts of cruelty
and oppression toward those who sought
to rend in twain this goodly fabric Of our
fathers priceless heritage, of SO much
hardship and endurance in revolutionary
times? Let the reconstruction enactments
answer! No poor words of mine are need
ed to defend the, wise and .beneficent
legislation WI lch has been extended
alike to white and colored citizens The
Republican party is not infamed, as
some would fain have US believe, against
the whole population of the South. Its
borders are wide. enough for all truly
loyal men to find within them peace and
repose from the din and discord of angry
fac ion, 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 impartial security in his pur-
suit of g liberty and happiness" Ii Ger
tain class Of the South had accepted, in
good faith, the benevolent ovcrtures
which were offered to them
with no niggerd hand, to-
day would not find our land still
harassed with feuds and contentious.
| remarked, Mr.. President, that rose
to plead protection for 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
people of the North owe to the colored
race deep obligation which 1t is no easy
matter to fulfill. When the Federal ar
mics were threatened by death and dis
aster, and somber clouds overriding the
length and breadth of the Republic and
the very air was pregnant with rumors OF
foreign interference, in those dark days
of defeat, whose memories even yet haunt
us as an ugly dream, from what source
did our nation, in its seeming death
throes, gain additional and new found |
p 'wer? 1t was the sable sons of the |
South that vallantly rushed to the rescue,
and, but for their intrepidity and ardent.
daring, many Northern Preside would
mss, to-day, parental counsels or a broth
er's love. Sir, repeat the fact, that the
colored race saved to the noble women of
New England and the Middle Statesmen
on whom they lean to day for security
and safety! Many OF my race, represent
atives of these men on the field of battle,
sleep in the countless graves of the South
If those quiet resting places of our honor
ed dead could speak, to-day, what a
mighty voice, like TO the rushing of
of a mighty wind, would come up from
those sepulchral homes Gould we resist
the eloquent pleadlngs OF yheir appeal
Ali sir, think that this question of i'm
mediate and ample protection for the
loyal people of Georgia would lose all its
technIcalitles, and we would cease to hes
itate our provisions for their instant
relief. Again. regret this delay on other
grounds The taunt is frequently flung.
at US that a "Nemesis more horrible than
the Greek personation of the anger of the
gods, awaits her hour of direful retrlbu
tion." We are told that at no distant day
great uprising of the American people
will demand that these reconstruction
acts of Congress" be undone and blotted
forever from the annals Of Legislative en-
acGment. / enquire sir,lf delay in afford
ing protection to the loyalists Of the State
OF Georgia does not lend an uncomfarta-
bic significance to this Boosting sheer
with which we are often met Delay is
periiops at best, for it is as true in legis
lation as in physic, that the longer we
procrastinate to apply proper remedies
the more critical becomes the malady
that we seek to heal The land wants
such as dare with vigor execute the laws.
Her festered members must be lanced
aud tended He is a bad surgeon that
for pity spares part corrupted till the
gan-grene spread, and all tho body perish
He that is merciful to the bad is cruel to
the good.
Mr. Revels then reviewed the history
OF affairs in Georgia, stating that at an
election in November, 1867, for members
to State Convention, 10000 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
vened. After all this supposing they
had passed beyond Congressional control,
the rebel element in the Legislature as
serted itself, and many of those whose
disabilities had been removed by the
i State Contention, which comprised 8