Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1871-09-14


him to take martial possession of Ohio
in order to protect the rights of indi-
viduals. We were right then in OPP
posing that amendment, thus framed
and thus phrased. Then came the
Fifteenth. OF the Thirteenth Amend
ment | should have spoken, which
abolished slavery. No man can point
TO any act OF the Democrats in the
Northern States that ever approved
slavery. There never was Northern
Democrat that advocated slavery.
What were we advocates of? We
were advocates of the Constitution.
We believed we were bound to obey
the Constitution. Thousands and
thousands of us had taken the oath to
support the Constitution. We felt that
those oaths were binding on our con-
sciences. We felt, too, that it was the
Constitution that made the Republic,
aud that when you broke the Constitu-
ton to pecs you broke the Republic at
the same time and when we found that
the right of the Shareholder to hold his
slaves was recognized in the Constitu-
ton, we could not deny it. But what
Democrat in the Northern States ever
proposed to have slavery in the North
ern States? Not one. No such man
ever lived. On the contrary, we all
said those people down there had slav-
cry; it is their misfortune, We are
free from it, and by the help of God,
we will always be free from it, There
fore, we never made any objection to
the Thirteenth Amendment. The Eff
teenth Amendment we opposed, be
cause, first, il was a fraud upon the
people in the way that the thing was
proposed and carried out, and II direct
violation Of solemn pledges of the domi-
nan, party, made in the platform at
Chicago. We opposed it for stronger
reasons than that. We said tina, II
was perfectly INDUSTRIOUS that you should
turn over at least one.half Of these
Southern States to the coutrnl of race
not one in ten of whom could read,
much less write, and of whom not one
in thousand had the least idea of fine
Government under which he lived, and
under which they were now to dis
charge the duties of lawmakers. If
the time should come when they should
be educated up to n proper standard to
enable them to exercise this right with
intelligence and to the welfare of the
country, we said it would be right.
Now, what has been the effect Of this
in the reconstructed States South, with
their preponderance of negro voters ?
The result has been that they are the
worst-goverued part of Gods globe this
day. Those States have been delivered
over to the tender mercies of the carp
et-baggers and adventures of the North
and of the meaner men, the scalawags
of the South and, with the negroes in
combination with them, they govern al
most every one of those States. And
how do they govern them? When the
war ended those States were Frustrated
to degree we can hardly realize-rav-
aged by their own armies as we'll as
ours. The people were PROSTATE
their currency was worth nothing;
thousands and tens of thousands of
their farms lay desolate under the
scourge of war; they were ruined in
fortune, humbled and PROSTATE in spir-
it. That was a time when it behooved
us to take them by the hand and help
them up. Just at that time this Repub-
lican party, these carpet-baggers and
scalawags, took hold of the government
in these States.