The Van Buren press., 1870-02-22
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, lo7O.
Speech from Boles, n. C.


purportiug to have been delivered by our
member of Congress. Thomas RolEs.
His subject is the admission of Virginio
the mother of Presidents, the "old
Dominion" the former pride of America
For policy sake Congress has dsgrac
ed itself by imposing upon some OF the
Southern States, terms, not imposed up
on others. In their partisan fury, they
have blindly destroyed the equality of
States by attempting to create pretend
ed equality of individuals. The legisla-
ton of Congress in reference to recon
struction has been altogether partial and
discriminating and perhaps necessarily
so-acts of Congress may be, in certain
cases, special In their nature, but the Con
sttution, the fundamental law, whether
of the State, or United States. should be
general and impartial. Any conditions
imposed upon States, in the form of com
pacts, at the time of their admission, are
in the nature of constitutional provisions
and arc irrepcalable by the State or gen.
eral government, acting separately -
These compacts should certainly never
limit the future control, by the State,
of her internal political policy. The
question of suffrage is pre-eminently one
Of peculiar importance to the States, and
no compact should be entered into or
required by the general government,
which is not equally applicable to all
States We are aware that Boles and his
party have long since hooted this doc
irine from one end of the South to the
other---but this does not change the truth
oft
In this speech before us, we have a
striking instance Of the great evil Of
teaching children and men of limited
abilities, doctrine unfounded in etern-
al truths. Boles as a circuit judge, be-
trayed want Of legal acumen, that is
only equaled by his want of political in
formation. The whole fabric of recon
struction has been beyond the pale of the
Constitution as openly avowed by the
great leader, Thad Stevens. 1t has been
aperfect Pandora box of political .here-
sizes. The evils of the doctrines under
lying the Reconstruction acts, are begin
ming to bear fruit, and like the seed sown
in sandy SOIL the fruits are first seen
springing up in feeble minds. Boles
thinks the only opinion warranted to
Southern men, under the constitution as
now understood, is the firm belief in the
utter want of loyalty in, followed by
clean strained abuse Of, ones constituents
A Southern member who would dare to
speak well of his constituents, would, ia
the opinion of Boles, and others of his
stripe, be radically disoyal, and worthy
to be classed with the bloody Democra-
cy.
SO Boics abuses his own county round |
ly, and in the most approved Radical
style And in order to make his abuse
appear justiiiable in the eyes of honor
able men, he reads passage from a let
ter, giving garbled statement of case
of killing in Yell county, winding UP
with "many other murders have been
committed there by the haters IF tie Fed
erai Union, who, since they cannot vent
their spleen against the soldiers of the
government, pour out their long pent-up
wrath upon some poor defenceless color
ed woman" The colored woman killed |
as mentioned in the letter he reads from,
is the only case we have heard of, but
Boles says, all these "haters of the
Federal Union" are making speciality
Of killing "poor defcncclcss colored wo-
men," What says the Transcript to all
this?
Boles is opposed to the admission of
Virginia, but is forced to vote for it, by
the cry "admit Virginia something
like he was forced to become a Clerk in
a Confederate Quartermaster's Office and
Conscript Officers Office. All his public
acts seem to be ".forced" But he re
serves to himself the right to vote to put
Virginia under military rule, if she does
not give protection TO loyal mon by m
equal administration of her laws This
is one of the serious evils of reconstruc-
ton. Members of Congress think they
can vote New York, Massachusetts, or
any other state, under military rule, if it
does not administer its own laws in ac-
cordance with the peculiar views of Con
grcss. And Boles thinks this is q duty
the exercise Of which may be called for
"withiD less than three years" Oh.
shades of the mighty dead and this is
"member OF Congress" Filling place
equal in dignity, to the place occupied by
Clay, Calhoun, Webster and their glo-
rious cotemporaries. Our government
may weather the storms Of the present
and future under the guidance of such
men, but if it does, its powers of endur-
ance are truly marvellous. If Boles were
alone no danger would be apprehended
u