The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1871-09-14

and bleedfhg. but who would call tbs
a Confession that the villain who Oul
4 ragged him had done what was proper
] lILaughter.] So when these me
throttled the Constitution and ruine!
the peace of the country, when the,
! made the South almost as ruinous a
in the midst of war, we demonstrates
and opposed them. And, now, be
cause we can not deny that they hav
done it j; because we can not deny tha
the thing has been accomplished be
cause we are compelled to admit tn
/ fact that the reconstruction laws hav'
| been executed and the amendments t.
the Constitution fastened nron US, W.
are told, forsonth, that we admit tina
the Radicals were right and we wer,
wrongi That's logic for you.
The Fourteenth Amendment to tn,
Constitution was passed. We oppos
ed it. Why did we oppose it? Be
cause it provided that all people in chs
United States should be equal before
| the law? There is not one Democra
from the Ohio River to Canada, no
one in the United States opposed i
upon any such ground. That has al
ways been the law IN Ohio; that has
always been the law in the Northern
States. When was there a time WIher
negro was not equal before the Law
to white man in Ohio ? o. ss {
What is meant by equal right be
fore the law is having equal lega
rights not voting. that is a politica
right. But the reason we opposed the
amendment was, first, because of iti
disfranchising clause. 1t disfranchised
the men whose aid was most necessa-
ry to restore peace at the South:-the
men of influence; the men of intel
lect the men of education; the men
whose good will ought to have been
cultivated and they made co-workers
with the rest to aid in restoring har.
mony throughout the land. It said
these men, because they had differed
from us, were perjured men, as if we
had never differed about the interpre.
tation of the Constitution ;as ifWhigs
and Democrats had not differed about
the Interpretation. of that instrument
as if the different parties had not diff
fered about it until the present day.
Again:'e We said the language was
ambiguous, and such as would enable
an ambitious President and Congress
to usurp the power that belongs to
the individual States. and to over
throw every one of the reserved
rights of the people of the States
And were we not right? j For it is
under the ambiguous and loose LAM
guage of that amendment that the in
famous Ku-Klux bill was passed-un-
der a pretense of authority derived
from that loose and ambiguous lam
guage.a t-is1ri5 s'ai5 ,s'iis' 's-si'jLos r.
If f1this interpretation were correct,
the President would have power; in
the State of Ohio to dispiace the Gov
ernor, dethrone the Legislature, turn
out Of Office our judges and establish
martial law from one end of the State
to the other whenever he thinks, or
pretends to think, it is necessary for
him. to take martial possession of
Ohio in ordersto protect the rights of
individuals I'VE were right, then, in
that amendment, thus franz
ed and thus phrased. "a '.edsiig .
81 Then came the Fifteenth. OF the
Thirteenth Amendment I should have
spoken, which abolished slavery. No
man can point to any act of the Dem
ocrats in the Northern States that ever
approved slavery. There never was a
Northern Democrat. that advocated
slavery. What were we advocates Off.
We were advocates of the Constitu-
ton. We believed we were bound to
obey the Constitution. 80. agu4 i
ne Thousands and thousands ofus had
taken the oath to support the Consti-.
tuition. We felt those oaths were bind
ing on-our consciences. We felt, too,
that it was the Constitution that made
the Republic, and that when you
broke the Constitution to pieces you
broke the Republic at the same time;i
and when we found that the right OF
the STAKEHOLDER to hold his slaves was
recognized in the Constitution, we
could not denYoit.asg .3i.s.3 81 sl-..saf.. C
But what Democrat in the Northern
States ever proposed to have slavery
in. the Northern States? Not ONE
No such a man ever lived. On the
contrary, we all said those people,
down there have slavery it is their
We are free from it, and,
by the help of God, we will always be-
free from it. Therefore we never
made any objection to the Thirteenth
Amendment. So. .sfel ,,i,,T s-szf.3q qe..5.. 81
The Fifteenth Amendment we, op-
posed, because, first, it was fraud
upon the people in, the way that the
thing was proposed and; carried out,
and direct violation of solemn
pledges of the dominant party, made
in the platform at Chicago. We op-=
posed it for stronger reasons than
that. We said it was perfectly mon
strous that you should turn over at
least one-half of these Southern
States to the control of race not one
in ten of whom could read, much less
write, and of whom not one in a thou-a
sand had the least idea of the, Govern
ment under which he lived, and un-'
der which they were now to discharge
the duties of laW-makers. If the
time should come when they should
be educated up TO a proper standard
to enable them to exercise this. right
with intelligence and to the welfare
of the country, we said it would be
right. 4a9 Ss4G99s s.
Now, what has heen the effect of
this in the reconstructed States down
South, with their .preponderance of
negro voters? The result has been
that they are theiworst governed part
of Gods globe this day. Those States
have been delivered over to- the ten,
der mercies of the carpet baggers and.
of the North, and of the
meaner men, the scalawags of the
South; and, with the negroes in COM
bination with them, they govern, al
most every one of those States. And
how do they govern them?' When,
the war ended those States were pros
trated to a degree we can hardly real
ize, ravaged by their own armies as
well as ours. The, people were pros-s
trate their currency was worth 10th
ing; thousands and tens of thousands
of their farms lay desolate underthe
scourge, of the war; they. were ru-s
ined in fortune, BUNDLED and pros
trate in spirit. That was time when
it behooved us to take them by the
hand and help them up. Just at that
time. this Republican party, these car
pet-baggers and, scalawags, took hold
of the government in those States. }o
/ Let us go a little into detail. First
take the State of South Carolina.-
The last Legislature of that State con.
- 4. gt.Is y O 90 =