Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-08-05
THE AMENDMENTS IN TIE SOUTH
July 18th, 1871

THE AMENDMENTS IN TIE SOUTH
The prospect of the new departure be-
ing adopted by the democracy of the
Southern States is not very flattering.
The largest and most influential portion of
the party take decided grounds against it.
A few express an opinion favorable to its
adoption as measure of policy, to be re-
pudiated at the first opportunity, but they
have but little weight. The Montgomery
Mail is perhaps as good representative
of the new departure democracy as there
is in the South, and the following will show
to what vileness it has to descend in order
to make the amendments endurable to its
readers.
sWhen the l4th and 10Th Amendments
have been once subverted, the structure OF
negro supremacy founded upon them must
necessarily fall with them. In this belief we
are entirely willing that opposition to the l4th
and 18th Amendments shall be shaped to
Whatever policy the wisdom of our leading
minds may determine to be the safest and
surest for effecting the great end we have first
so shaped as to attack the odious amendments
on the ground of their centralizing tendency
with regard to government powers, we are
content to fight the battle on that issue, and
bide the time which must at length set all
things even. But although we leave our ulti-
mate object in the background for season it
shall nevertheless be kept duly alive; SO that
at the proper moment it may be brought
prominently forward to assume that leading
position in the matters for final adjustment
before the bar of right and justice that its i'm
measurable importance demands"
The proposition of the Mail is to accept
in appearance the amendments, but in
wardly to resolve to disregard them. 1t
would perjure itself in the hope of gaining
few votes at the North. A baser propo-
sition never was made in newspaper
North or South. But the Atlanta Intel
ligencer does not believe in practising such
dishonesty, and denounces the amend
ments in the following vigorous language.
''The 10Th amendment is the plague spot on
the face of the great charter Of American free
dom. This is the fruitful source of our woes,
the authority claimed for that infamous brood
of laws which are intended to enslave the peo
pie by destroying the freedom of the ballot
and placing the country under martial law at
the will of the President. This wrong, this
usurpation, can never be sanctioned by one
who stands upon the principles of the Demo
cratic party. If it cannot be stricken from
the Constitution, let it be condemned as the
offspring of usurped power, and the govern
ment placed in the hands of men who will
pluck out its poisonous sting, by repeating the
legislation which is claimed to be authorized
by it, and necessary to enforce it,
We have no doubt that the above extract
expresses the sentiments of the great mass
of the southern democracy. We have be-
fore us articles from the Augusta Constitu-
tionalist and the Mobile Register of the
same tenor as the above, but we pass them
by for want of room, and conclude with
the following article from the Atlanta Sun,
written by the Hon. Alexander II.
Stephens.
"We mean that the people of the United
States at the polls shall refuse to vote for any
man for any Office, high or low, State or Fed
eral, who holds the doctrine that the Consti-
tuition of the United States has been, or can
be rightfully or validity amended by ''gross
usurpation" and ACKNOWLEDGED fraud, perfdy
anu tiOitnCt VIC tneaH tHdt WHen IL major
ity efthe House of Representatives in Con-
gress shall be elected on this sound Constitu-
tional basis that they shall pay not the
slightest regard to that fagitous crime against
the Constitution and the liberties of the coun-
try, known as part of the Fourteenth Amend
ment. so called, which attempts to fix other
qualification" for members of the House
than those prescribed by the Constitution.
Lord Coke said: Parliament cannot create
disabilities" So we say, and SO we would
have each House of the Congress ofthe United
states to declare; and we would have the
four millions of the voters of the United
states, who hold the same opinion, SO to de-
clare their judgment at the polls; and vote
ior no man who does not hold the same opin-
ion." ppm
In the face of such protests as the above,
and with other known facts in relation to
Southern opinion, it is absurd to talk about
the new departure being adopted by the
democracy. What is being done in North
Carolina to uproot reconstruction entirely
is what will follow everywhere in the
South that the democrats can gain ,ba
power.