The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1872-08-23
SUMMERS RECORD.
Rebuke from His Home Paper

Sharp Rebuke from His Home Paper
The Boston AdUerttser, in the fol-
lowing dignified and pungent para
graphs, shows how little claim Mr..
Sumner has to set himself up as
critic Of others:
When, therefore, the colored voters
are told with the gravity of convic-
ton that the President, as soldier or
as magistrate, has done nothing for
them-that he has been, in fact, q
stumbling-block in their way; that
the Republican party, in upholding
him, has become equally worthless;
and that the only way the negroes
can be sure of human rights is by
going with Mr.. Sumner and Mr..
Greely over to the Democracy, they
will naturally inquire, in return, not
what the Democratic party has done
to deserve their confidence, though
that is of some consequence to them,
but what has been the quality of
Mr.. Summers service, and what are
the grounds of his pretension to adj
wise and lead them. And turning to
the record, whatever they may find
there to the credit of Mr. Summers
intentions, they will also find that of
the great measures brought forward
in their interest, and designed to Sc
cure them equality under the laws,
and to protect them in the exercise
of the rights guaranteed to them,
they have been oftener baulked,
hindered, complicated, delayed, some
times defeated, by Mr.. Summers
management, than by that of any
other Senator who has been counted
on their side. His magnificent per-
sonality has entered into nearly ali
these discussions, binding his sa-
gacity, making a muddle of his
judgment, embarrassing and exas-
perating his political associates and
friends.
Take the fifteenth amendment for
illustration. 1t is the capstone of
the Republican edifce. 1t is the
best of the many great achievements
of Republican administration.
Without it reconstruction would
have been incomplete, political
equality would have been a name,
and nothing more, reconciliation
would have been impossible. Of
course, the solid Democratic repre-
sentation in Congress and in every
State Legislature in the Union re-
sisted and three-quarter of their
constituency to-day believe with
Frank Blair that it is void, and would
nullify it if they could. Here was
an opportunity for Mr.. Sumner. One
blast upon his bugle horn were
worth ten thousand men. But he
resisted it with them; they on the
ground of State rights, he on the ex-
treme opposite ground of the abso-
Lutte power of Congress.
After paying his respects to the
monstrous pretention of the right of
a State to disfranchise anybody, he
presented his own objections to the
They were two. l. It |
was an admission that, under the |
as it was, a caste and |
an obligarchy of the skin might be
set up by a State without any check
from Congress, and that the right to
vote was not an existing privilege
and immunity Of citizenship. 2.
That the amendment could not be
ratified in any reasonable time.
this great question, which
,ould not brook delay, would be
handed over to prolonged contro-
,ersy in the States. II need not
lepict," said Mr.. Sumner, in a sol
mn and stately manner, "the evils
which must ensue. A State will be-
,ome for political caldron, into
which will be dropped all the pois-
med ingredients Of prejudice and
late, while powerful political party
hanting like the witches in Mac
,eth,
"'Double, double, toll and trouble,
a. Fire, burn: and caldron bubble
will use this very amendment as a
uddingstick with which to stir the
mass" Both the consti-
utional objection and the unsayory
gure failed, as may be supposed, to
g convincing; but Mr.. Sumner CON
inued to block the progress of the
pint resolution with impractlcable
and when the last of
hem was rejected, and the vote was
bout being taken on the crowning
of the long struggle for the
quality of all citizens of the re-
ublic, the great Senator rose from
is seat and ostentatiously strobe
ut of the chamber.