The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1872-08-17
7 demand the prompt applica-


what / could for the complete
emancipation of blacks, L now
insist on the full enfranchisement
of all my white countrymen.
Let none say that the ban has
just been removed from all but
a few hundred elderly gentlemen
to whom eligibility to Office can
be of little consequence. My
view contemplates not the hun
dreds prescribed, but the millions
who are denied the right to be
ruled and represented by men of
their unfettered choice. Pro
! scription were absurd if these did
not wish to elect the very men
whom they are forbidden to
choose.
L have profound regard for the
people of that New England
wherein [ was born, in whose
common school was taught. i
rank no other people above them
in intelligence, capacity, and NOR
al worth. But while they do
many things well, and some adj
mirably, there is one thing which
l am sure they cannot wisely or
safely undertake, and that is the
selection, for States remote and
[ unlike their own, of the persons
, by whom these States shall be
, represented in Congress. If they
could do this to good purpose,
then republican institutions were
unfit, and aristocracy the only
true political system.
Yet what have we recently
l witnessed! Zebulon Is. Vance,
/ the unqustioned choice of a large
3 majority of the present Legisla,
t ture of North Carolina-a ma,
e jority backed by a majority of the
Y people who voted at the election
t refused the seat in the Federal
!. Senate to which he was fairly
S chosen, and the Legislature thus
r constrained to choose another in
S his stead or leave the State un
: represented for years. The votes
of New England thus deprived
4 North Carolina of the Senate o.
t her choice, and compelled hel
;. to send another in his stead-an
t other who, in our late contest,
: was like Vance. a rebel, and q
: fighting rebel, but who had not
= served in Congress before the
= war as Vance had, though the
e latter remained faithful to the
n Union till after the close of his
term. l protest against the dis
d reimbursement of the State-pre
y sumptively, of a number of tn,
j States-on grounds so marrow
s and technical as this. The fac
> that the same Senate which re
IS fused Vance his seat proceeded t.
= remove his disabilities after tina
l. seat had been filled by another
9 only serves TO place in stronge
light the indignity to North Car
l. DINA and the arbitrary, capriciou
e tyranny which dictated it.
thank you gentlemen, that m,
. name is to be conspiciously as
d ISOLATED with yours in deter
'e mined effort to render amnest
\. complete and universal, in spiri
as well as i'll letter. Even defea
!" in such a cause would leave n
n sting, while triumph would ram
a with those victories which N
- blood reddens and which evok
: no tears but those of gratitud
Is and joy.
Ie Gentlemen, your platform which
n. is also mine, assures me that de
mocracy is not henceforth to stan
70 for one thing and Republicanisr
D. for another, but that those term
W are 70 men in politics, as they a
ways have meant in the dictionf
u ~, substantially one and til
or same thing-namely, Equs
re Rights, regardless of creed, @
. cline or color. HAIL this as gel