The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1871-03-02

promptly refused. They did not intend
tn the people should have anything TO
do with framing their own: organic law.
This measure, the Senator declares, had
become ''a political necessity" for his par
ty and could not be trusted to the peol1le.
What further? The two Senators who
sat here from my own State, neither Of
whom sit here now, voted for this amend
ment after the people of Missouri, IN the
election Immediately preceding, had voted
down negro suffrage by thirty thousand
majority, and the Legislature, elected by
that very vote, ratified the amendment, IN
defiance of this overwhelming expression
OF public sentiment.
A similar state of facts occurred IN Kan
sas, when, IN the election preceding, negro
suffrage had been defeated by fifteen thou
sand majority. In the State of Ohio the
majority against negro suffrage was fifty
thousand. and yet her Republican Senators
and Representatives and her Republican
Legislature promptly oisregarded the pub
he will by proposing and ratlfying this
amendment. In the State Of Michigan
the people refused to give suffrage to The
negl oes by a majority of thirty four thou
sand. Her Senators aud Representatives
were equally regardless of the wishes CT
their people, and hastened to fasten upon
them an organic law for which they had
proclaimed their detestation. l could go
on and enumerate many more of the
Northern States in which the people had
expressed their will with equal emphasis,
and were treated with equal contempt by
| their Republican Senators and Represen-
tatives, Among the number were the
States of New York, Connecticut and New
Jersey; and, indeed, think that none of
| the Northern States can be excepted, not
one.
do not know single Northern State
outside of New England in which the
people, whenever the question has been
| submitted to them, have not rejected the
proposition to allow negro suffrage; and
| yet these gentlemen hurried the matter
| through without constitutional quorum
in the State of the Senator from Indiana
and in my State, after the people had con-
demned it by thirty thousand majority six
months previous, the Radical Legislature
adopted one half of it on a telegram, mot
waiting to receive an Official and authentic
copy, such was their haste to show con-
tempt for the popular will of the State
Then the question is raised by the State
Of Indiana in these resolutions in reference
to the ratification of Virginia, Mississippi,
Texas, and Georgia, without the ratifca-
ton of which States the amendment was
not adopted If adopted at all, we have
seen. that it was adopted against the re-
monstrance of all the people Of the North,
and simply by coercion IN the States of the
South and yet that amendment is now
TO be considered as one of those sacred
things upon which no man must lay his
hands. Because the perfdious represent
atives of the people have betrayed their
trust and fixed yoke upon their necks,
they are not to vince when they are CALLED
and if some States, by a fraud obtaining
the signatures of the presiding officers, ,oi
the two Houses, enact into a law that
which they had no right to enact, and
contrary to the forms ordained in then
own constitution, we have no right to
examine it, or hold to proper accountable
ity those who have committed the fraud
and perverted the forms of law to give
effect to their crimes.
Sir, if constitutional amendments car
be adopted in that way, we might well
have constitutional amendments here thai
would create what the gentleman pretendt
so much to apprehend. If constitutional
amendments can be adopted in this mode
against the remonstrance of the entire
body of the people Of the North, or vast
maj ority of them, as indicated by the facts
to which l have referred, and which are
not contradicted in the Senate, and cannot
be contradicted, why may we not soor
have one declared adopted which provides
for President and Senate for life, anc
why may not other aristocratic and mon.
arehical institutions be1fxed upon us y
coercing these carpet bag States, or IN ocn-
l loIo them Qdnni
another fundamental condition, and by
misrepresenting and defying the will o.
the people in the States of the North
And then we shall be told, in the language
of the Senator, that we have no right tc
say word we have no right even tc
expose the perfdy by which the people
have been betrayed and we shall be de-
nounced as revolntionists If we do.
This is no idle apprehension. Each
day ushers in some new and monstroui
usurpation of power on the part of tht
dominant party. The indignation excited
by each successive infringement of the
rights of the people is pretext for still
further eneroaehments. The plea of ''po
litical necessity" by which tho Senator
iustifes the adoption of the fifteenth
amendment, is always ready, and has be
come the law of the existence Of that par
ty which, having forfeited the confdenc,
of the people, is now compelled to retain
power by fraud and force. Hence the hil
to employ the army to enforce the fifteenth
amendment, which has grown out of tina
measure, and the bill now pending IN tn,
other House enlarging the powers of th'
President for the same purpose. 1t IS tn
I fungus growth from rotten system, NOR
poisonous than that which produces
Sir, had occasion to be very grateful
to the Senator of Wisconsin who sits near
est to me Mr. Carpenter] for the speecl
which he made in this hall the other day
able and learned as it was, vindicating tn
position of the Democratic party have Ia
ken upon this subject, The argument l
one which is familiar to US in Missouri
We have labored under disqualification
and disabilities fixed upon Us by con
stitution of our Estate by which more tha
one-half the citizens were deprived Of tn
right of suffrage and the right to hold o.
fee, and even to practice professions b
. which they earned their bread.
, The Democratic party, as the Senate
from Indiana says, opposed all this recon
! struction. He says the Democratic part
! could not discriminate between loyalt
E | and treason. Inc -Uemocratlc party
thinks, believed that the South, after hay
, ing committed treason, ought not to hay
! been punished. Well, sir, it is quite cel
/ tain, if they were to be punished, the
! ought to be punished nnder the COnstitr
! tion. The Government has no power
! punish them outside the Constitution
! The Congress of the United States has I
power to go outside of the Constitution
I find punishments to inflict upon therebe
or criminals, of whatever degree they ma
be. ~.
II Mr. Morton Will my friend allow II
, to ask him question:
! Mr. Blair. Certainly, sir.
Mr. Morton. 1 ask the Senator fro
a Missouri this question whether the Den
. ocratic party did not make the issue
. the country IN the election of 186
= squarely, that the reconstruction &C
were null and void, and ought to be di
Mr.. Blair. think they did.
! Mr.. Morton. And were they not bea
= en- on that overwhelmingly O.