The Lincoln County herald., 1870-06-16
Gratz Brown on Disfra uchisement

6s"'oS "' 'chetsou City recently
lion. b. Grntz Brown expressed som
very liberal views, which VIC copy below
Among the best men of the Radical part,
tho dogma eternal hate is dying out
and now only few Of the narrow. minde,
advocate any longer the disfranc isemen
OF those who we're engaged on the sid'
Of tho south III the latc war. We will
not 60 back to pick flaws 10 the record
of those who may have advocated The
detestablc dogmas Of our State constitu
.ion, or to rail at what in our present con.
dition We cannot prevent, but hail with
right good will any return to reason and
right. Mr.. Brown said:
Our own State Is ono Of those in which
the greatest departure hsd taken place
between the practice Of free government
and the theory Of free institutions. Mis-.
souri, was slave State. Her local laws,
the habit Of political thought, the feel.
ings and prejudices Of our people had all
been violently perverted into sympathy y
with what was held up to reverence as
the peculiar institution Of the common.
wealth. The result was that when the
revolution came, when the aroused con.
science Of the nation invaded our border,
when that resistlcss sympathy with free.
dom in its uprising swept IN upon us--it
Was nnly by d.s-se. .hat 90 go. 60 L.ow
the truth. TWAS by halting steps, it was
by partial approach, it was by forced
marches that We approximoted to even
the results that have been achieved.
Perhaps no better evidence Of this fact
can be adduced to your consideration than
the timid and vacilating and shameful
compromises Of your Constitutional Con-
ventions that undertook to remodel your
fundamental law into conformity with
the behests Of freedom. The first was o
miserable fasco-an evasive, dodglng,
hypocrtical, elimination, unworthy Of
the many men Of brains and virtue who
shared its councils, The second had
faircr scope for action, clearer recogni-
ton Of the issues, and yet in the heated
passions Of that time, it failed utterly to
realize the full scope and meaning of tie
new ideas which has asserted mastery
and left US an incomplete text, full of all
the rancor and hatreds engendered by
conflict, crude with anomalies fatal to
every individual development or corpo-
rate enterprise, redeemed in part by dec.
larations Of freedom to the slaves which
had already been accomplished by act of
war, and yet oblvious totally of that other
and higher freedom upon which alone
free State can repose in saiety-thc equal
suffrage Of all citizens not convicted of
crime and there the issue meets yol.
Whilst you stand here 10 commemorate
the dead who hesltatcd not at the most
ultimate sacrifice in behalf Of the cause
of freedom, you rest beneath a charter of
State government that in
its text Is only bundle of dislranchisc.
ments Of black and white. whose disor;~-
nations are founded upon the color of the
skin and oaths Of the vanquishcd. My
purpose to day, howevar, is not crimina-
lion. l do not say that all measures of
even as to suffrage, are indie.
in war, or that our leaders are
nexcusable who failed to realize how in
adequate was an emancipation that gave
freedom to the body, yet fastened still
closer the shackles around the mental and
moral liberty Of a race dedicated to free
iom. l only wish to bring you vividly
ace to face with the reality Of the situa
ion, and to show you, if | may, that the
1uties imposed upon yourselves BY this
,ew civil order are imperative and instant.
All tho occasion which has ever been
'laimed for restrictive clauses limiting the
uffrage-which is the only palladium of
rec citizens in free republicans
passed by according to the acknowledg.
nent Of every calm, thinking man, and
ipon you devolves the duty-no less sa.
red because you are the living represent
tives Of the triumph Of liberal ideas.-to
onfo'm your Constitution to the pure,
bstract standard of free republic. In
Iced, | may say, that as the danger grew
rom beneath and sapped tho very found
tion Of our national Union, so it is there
hat all thorough and cficacious recon-
truction must begin Fortunately means
re at hand. The instrume entalities are
eady for your grasp The common sense
t the commonwealth has come to the
escue. The wisdom Of your legislation /
las submitted for your approval amend 9
nents and rcvisions of your Constitution, '
,hich wipe out the disgraccful text that
ives the lie to all your heroic efforts, and
'hen the time is propitious, when public !
pinion gravitates toward tho final settle, II
,ent upon tho basis of equal freedom to
u, when even the semblance Of organize d
pposition is disbanded in order that you | d
'ay execute your will and have your
'ay; l say you will do cruel injustice
the living and to the dead; you will
,lsify your high titles to the confidence
the country; you will prove yourselves l.
nworthy to Bear the banners Of new I
nd more glorious civilisstion. If you hes :
ate to seize the occasion and right such T
rong. '''e4e 19 'rIai p 80