The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-03-31

Senator sawyeps Speech ON the Georgia Bill.

Senator Sawye's Speech on the Georgia Bill.
The following are extracts from speech de-
livered in the United States Senate, on the 18th
inst, by Senator Sawyer:
If we should strike out what is known as the
bingham amendment" it is well understood
that we should be sanctioning a proposition
made by those who now administer the govern
ment of Georgia to extend the period of their
official life two years.
am not sure that the exact language of the
Constitution of the State of Georgia, and of
one of the ordinances passed by the Convention
which framed the Constitution, does not give
pretext of the prolongation OF the official terms
of the State officers.
A more complete mode of depriving the gov
eminent of Georgia of its Republican charac-
ter than the insertion of section in its constl-
tuition, giving power to the Legislature to per-
State can hardly be imagined Yet this is
precisely what is claimed now. And if we
strike out the Bingham amendment, and pass
bill precisely similar to the bill passed in the
Mississippi and Virginia cases, it will be inter-
preted as a sanction by Congress of the exer.
else of this power We have been forewarned
that such is the intention. The Bingham
amendment is opposed because it interferes
with the exercise of this power And If at the
end of the two years for which this prolonga-
tion of official tenure is proposed, this Legisla-
ture of Georgia should again deem it to be for
the interest of the colored people or the loyal
people, or any other class of people In Geogia,
that they should have new lease Of power,
why should they not again change the time OF
election, and once more begin anew their Of
fetal terms? Would there be, logically, any
termination to this lease of power?
Can Republican Congress afford TO permit
a course so utterly subversive of the first prin-
ciples of Republican government2 II you, do
not propose to recognize Georgia as entitled to
equal rights with other States; if you propose
to keep her out of the sisterhood of States, to
deny her the right to be represented here and
in the national House of Representatives; II,
in short, you propose to keep her in provis-
ional condition, then you may appoint her
Governor, her judges, her sherifs, her Legisla-
ture. You may control and direct all her poll
cy. You may tax her and rule her as you will.
Her people destroyed her legal State govern
ment. They rebelled against the authority
which they were bound to obey as paramount.
They made war on the national Government.
They were conquered, and are subject to the
will of the conqueror. believe you have all
the rights of conquest over her people, and if
she is not fit to be restored to her forfeited po-
sition, use your authority in such way as to
fit her in the shortest possible time and to the
highest possible degree for such restoration.
l do not object to her being kept an inchoate,
provisional State long while yet if any con-
siderable proportion of her people are so little
loyal as to allow them to make war Oh all those
who love the United States Government, and
1oxrc IF hot ruu1
enforced. But if you regard her admission to
representation now as essential and necessary,
if you think the ends of good government IN
Georgia are only to be compassed by having
her Senators and Representatives admitted to
their seats in Congress, if you purpose now to
invest her with the garb of State in the Union
of States, let her come in with government
Republican in form and substance; lether peo-
pie feel that they are free to elect their own ru-
iers at the times appointed in the Constitution
they have made and you have approved.
You have invested the colored men of Geor-
gia with the right to vote. Her own Supreme
Court has decided that the colored man, under
her constitution, has the right to hold Office
You have caused the colored men elected to
the Legislature in 1868 to be restored to seats
from which they had been unjustly ousted.
Under the auspices of your military command
er and of the Governor the Legislature has
been so reorganized that its legislation will be
in the interests of freedom and justice. You
have thrown around every citizen the protection
of the Civil Rights bill you have caused to be
ingrafted upon the Constitution of the United
States the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend
ments; you have complete power to enforce
the provisions of the Civil Rights bill and
those Amendments; you have hedged around
the rights of all citizens by all sorts of defences
Enactments could hardly do more. What can
not be done to defend the rights, the lives, the
liberty and property of the citizen by the pro-
visions already made, and those now proposed
to be enacted by Congress, and which will
doubtless be enacted soon, can hardly be con-
sdered within the scope of Legislative enact
ment.
Let us not deceive ourselves. Pass this
measure without the Bingham amendment,
and we shall ere long have the Georgia ques-
ton" before us again. Can it be supposed that
bitterness party strife, outrage and violence
will be decreased by measure which is in pal
pable violation of the organic law you have
approved and enacted for Georgia? Will
Democratic citizens Of Georgia be induced to
Join the Republican party because. having just
punished them for infractions of that Constitu-
ton, you now permit nay enact violation OF
Its Splrlt ano purposes ny ooA o"h Po'i'A0~
If Georgia be not in condition to elect
State officers who will do all that such officers
can properly do for the reign of order and law,
then let us hold her under the power which the
rebellion of her people has rendered paramount
to all other power as she is now placed
Mr.. President am aware that it is an un-
gracious task to oppose men who call upon us
for a particular measure of relief. listened
to to- the eloquent appeal of the Senator from
Mississippi N SSH Mr EsSels) Yesterday and wished !sS
in my heart could vote with him on this bill.
feel all he feels know as well as he does
the evils which he so eloquently depicts. I will
go lust as far as he will in any measure which
Seems s to me to be a lawful, a constitutional, q
fit measure for affording safety and protection
to that race of which he is so worthy, so able
representative. I know their excellent quail