The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1870-08-25
sUrFRAGEAND CIVIL RIGHTS.

lHc ->atioHdi Iscpuohedh So""'t'eS ID
beginning to prepare for the fall campaign.
An address bas ALREADY been issued which
was PREPARED by Senator Wilson. Other
documents will soon be issued and placed
before the people. There is every indica-
ton that the campaign will be an earnest
and hard fought battle. One of the docu-
ments already published gives the record Of
the Democracy on suffrage and the civil
rights bill We give below its opening
paragraphs. In sdhering to the name which
Was selected by honest men for an honest
purpose, the Democratic party has praci-
caIly stolen the livery Of Heaven to serve
the Devil IN. 1t has completely perverted
the name until Il u by-word Of reproech IN
the mouths Of all patriotic men, and has
committed the most terrible crimes under the
stolen garb.
1t originally meant party devoted to
liberty, justice and equal rights. 1t has
been perverted until it means disloyal fac
ton, at war with republican principles, de-
voted to oppression. injustice and tyranny.
Its agency, through a corrupt and disloyal
Democratic administration, IN bringing On
the war for slavery and 6sunion, and its
open sympathy and secret aid and comfort TO
the rebels during the bloody contest are mat
tens Of history, and have been made as famil-
lar as household words to the people. But
its long and bitter struggle, after the war was
closed, and four million slaves emancipated,
% withhold from them all civil and political
rights, is less familiar.
A simple record of its efforts to defeat the
Fifteenth Amendment will present official
evidence, that every Democratic member of
Congress, and the Democratic members of
every State Legislature in this Union, voted
in solid body against this amendment, as
they always A3ye sEainse st1ry other ropo-
sition to secure justice and equal rights to all
men irrespectivs.of ooaor q peevious condi-
ton.
The Democratic party, having brought on
the war, and prosecuted it for four years, re-
solved to secure, under color of law, what it
had failed to obtain by the sacrifice of quar-
ter of million of loyal men and four thou
sand millions of dollars. Andrew Johnson
system of reconstruction was devised TO ac-
complish that purpose II wodld practically
have restored slavery.
When that failed, the Democratic leaders
next exerted their combined powers to defeat
all legislation for the protection of the freed
men. and resisted, with the desperation of
diving men, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
Amendments, the Civil Rights Bill, and,
more hit@iy thm all the Fifteenth Amend
ment and the laws for Its enforcement.
The defeat this guarantee of liberty and
Justice has drawn forth all their energies.
This amendment transferred dOwn-trOdden
race into American citizens, and endowed
them with the equal political rights of all
other citizens Every dishonest scheme was
first used to defeat the amendment in Con-
gre.s. and then to prevent Its ratification by
the required number of States.
An appeal to the record is taken, that the
people may know how persistent and UNI
scrupulous these efforts have been to defeat
this great guarantee of equal civil and polit-
icsi fights to- all classes Of the American
people.
THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.
..Sec. l. The right of citizens of the United
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by the United Ctates, or by any State, on ac-
count Of race, color or previous condition of
,servitude.
..Sec. =. That Congress shall have power
to enforce this article by appropriate legisla-
ton"
On the 18th of February, 1869, this
amendment was adopted by the Senate, by
thirty-nine Republican votes, against thir-
teen Democrats in the negative. Not Re
publican Senator voted against it, not Dem
ocrat for it.-a 7 Eos ETrpN
On the 9th of the same month the House
,,pc,,rred in the aSAe6dmAAt BY vote of one
hundred and ,forty-four. Republicans in the
affirmative. and forty -fUdr Democrats against
it. As in tie Senate, not \ Republican MEM
her o. the House, except three conservatives,
voted against it, not al nenozatic member
for it.
The amendtnesA having thls triumphant
ly passed both Houses Of Congress by solid
Republican vote, against the united protest
of the Democratic members, it was submitted
To the several State Legislatures for their rat
ificatl6n or rsjection. Ii required the APP
prevail Of twenty-eight out Of the thirty-seven
States.
MOI single Democratic State has ratified
the amendment, and not Democratic Mem
Der of Congress, nor of a single State Legis-
laturc, except in Maine and Rhode Island;
or in some Of the Southern reconstructed
States. voted Cor ratification. They have all,
in n solid body, by foul means As well as fair,
fought il at every step. And now, that the
provisions qua ranty to coiOred men the right
Of citizenship and the ballot, they denounce il
~ an outrage procured by force and the bay
one. Ssselse it 6f nd 6iidiAg seleC4 md
avow their purpose to repudiate it.