The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1870-09-08

Several States had seeded and es
tablished an independent Govern
ment, challenged the recognition
of the Governments of Europe, and
organized an army and navy while our
army and navy were demoralized, our
Treasury impoverished. and the Gov
eminent in debt $105, 600, 600; and so
badly had the affairs Of the Govern
ment been managed that the capital
lists of Europe would loan Us no
money.
Such was the situation of affairs that
this young party, now for the first time
intrusted with power by the people,
could not prOphesy the result of the
rebellion Of the eleven States. It
was claimed that the government was
dissolved. Eleven States had so de-
clared it, and challenged the power of
the government to put down their re-
bellion. This young party buckling
on its armor and summoning the men
of the nation, had accepted the chal-
leuge, and after four years of bloody
strife, during which the flower of the
nation was cut doWn,it had suppressed
it, put it down, and forever settled the
heresy of secession and State rights.
CApplsuse.l And never again SHOULD
we hear of secession or notification.
And this party deserves the admira-
ton of the nation for all time to come
for putting down this heresy.
It's achievements have not stopped
with this great work. 1t has extir.
pated the political cancer from the
land. Call it radical party. for it
has performed radical cures by radi-
cal operations. and only by such OPP
erations could such cures DO effected.
And this was one thing the party did
to deserve public trust-removed this
rock against which it had been feared
tue ship of state would be dashed to
pieces; but the rock had been up
rooted and the ship sailed on. 1t was
a radical operation.
Nor does its achievments stop
with the removal of slavery. for when
this had been accomplished, that the
humble, patient servile race, who had
borne the yoke of slavery for ages
and ages, were made free, it follow
ed, as a necessary and logical result,
that, being born on the soil, they
should be invested with civil and po-
liticaI rights, to which they we're as
much entitled as any. [Applause.1
And this radical Congress that
abolished slavery egainst the protest
of the whole Democracy invested the
negro with those political and civil
rights against this protest repeated,
although the Democracy had in
Weighed against it so loud their clam
ors must have reached high heaven.
Aud what were the rights with
which we had invested them? The
right to contract for work, to contract
marriage. to testify in the courts.
[Applause.] And on the heels of all
this, the Fifteenth Amendment gave
him the right to vote.
Now, although the Democrats seem
to imagine that this amendment de-
prives the States of some rights they
otherwise possessed, such was not the
case, it did not abridge the right to
say who should be voters, it merely
required that the regulation of the
right should be equal, and that States
should not discriminate in the grant
ing thereof to its citizens against any
class on account of race, color, or pre-
vious condition of servitude. The
State could still say who shoc!.1 vote
and who should not. they might ex-
clude paupers, criminals, idiots, or
other non c0mpos naentiS. or women,
or require that voter shall be able
to read and write, but the conditions
must be equal for white aud black,
and only the power to discriminate
against a race had been abridged
The Democrats seem to think the
Fifteenth Amendment invades some
rights, that its adoption was an act of
wrong or fraud, and seem to forget
that it is but proposed BY Congress.
and that until three-fourths of the
people approve it, it has no force. It
is by their approval that it becomes
an integral part of the original
constitution, and the people who
made it have right to amend it. IF
our Democratic friends think it
wrong, and the people do not desire
it. let them frame a proposition and
submit it to the people if ever they
get in power. and if three fourths of
the people approve it, they may cause
all the amendments to disappear.
There is another thing this Repub
licau party has done. It has passed
the Homestead bill, whereby every
head OF family, or every single man
who will enter and reside upon the
public domain for five years. an pay
q fee OF ten dollars, become owner
In fee simple to 160 accres of land.
[ Applause.l