The Fairfield herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1849-1876, 1872-01-03
4 Little Sprclmen OF the Speeches in ON
grCSs on The Fourteenth Amendment.


Mr.. Cox, of New, York, said: You
used it as II lash to make them the
southern people adopt negro ouf-
frage. You did not know that it
| W 'uld appl, to Ohio or Mas.,chu.
ss. Oh, no! You did no! lknuw-
~ if YOU d'd, you were reck:ess your
parti an aim>-that it W. uld apply to
Rholc Island. In that State thy dis.
franchise men according to law whom
they do not happen to own $l34 Of
re,.l estate Or property which rents
for more than seven dollars per
| annnm.
You did not know that it would
strike as we'll the Intelligent State Of
Massachusetts, where they require
reading and writing as the prerequis-
ito for The suffragan. But it does.
"The engineer is huist with his own
petard." You thought to strike the
South, to compel them to negro suf-
frage, but you havo struck yourselves
and now you wriggle over it. Laugh
ter. 0 (! it is pitiful. Why do you
not stand by the Constitution, or the
amendments, which you made1 We
Dem oorats have made "new dcpar.
ture" on the amendments at least.
We are taunted for accepting thom.
Very we'll. We stand by the amend
ments as We have always stood, MS you
know, by the old and unamendcd or
ganic law. We tako the amendments
and you are avoiding their effect.
Now enforce your pet ideas Why
do you not Z You have engrafted
them, after much elo9uence and la
Dor, on the Constitution. Your ex-
cuse is that there is no law to carry
out the fundamental constitutional
law l have quoted. For shame You
dodge the "higher law" you
made. You undertook to disfran-
chisc the South, or rather to decrease
their representation unless they ac-
cepted your negro suffrage. Does
anybody hero dispute this, your pitia-
bic predicamcut Is thore any one
who dos not know the constitutional
effect Of this amendment l hear
not one word.
Mr.. Garfield, of Ohio The Ian
guage of this am end ment seems to me
unfortunately chosen, and do not
believe that those who put it into the
Constitution saw at the time tho full
scope and extent of it's meaning. AS
q matter of history, it was intondod to
declare simply that where suffrage was
denied or abridged 10 any State on
account of race, or color, or previous
condition of sorvitudc, representation
should bo diminished in tho proper.
ton O. such dcuial and abridgment.
Aud that was wise and just propo-
sition. But, believe, as matter
of is;orical fact, that when tho arti.
ole was pending in Congress, some one
suggested, iu the spirit of similar
criticism made by Madison in the
Constitutional Convention, that tho
word "sorvitude," or slavery" ought
not to be named in the Constitution
as existing or as EXERCISING any infu-
ence in the suffrage and honoo this
negative form was adopted to avoid
the use Of an unpleasant word. But
in adopting the negative form, with
view to the exclusion uf only two clas-
ses, they did as matter Of fact ex.
olude many classes who wero mani.
festly not in the mind of the au.
thors of the amendment at the
time. Thus they made tho back Of
the blade cut as sharp US the edge
itself. The whole case is striking
illustration of the danger Of attempt
ing to reach an object indirectly where
there was IL direct roud which led to
the same end.