The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1872-09-12
THE ISSUES OF THE PRRsH.
DENTAL CANVASS.
SPEECH OF
HON. w. p. HARRIS.
AT vIoKsBuR14, AUG. %, 1872.
From the Herald.
Judge HARRIs said /:

From the Herald.
/ Judge HARRIS said:
In addition to the personal qualification
afforded by the presence of so large an atI-
dlence, was the important evidence it Afford.
ed that deep interest was felt here in the
/ political events of the current wear. His
purpose was to speak Of these events: of
what they mean and what they teach IL
rightly interpreted, these events were full
Of Significance If they bear no other fruit.
| they serve to reveal state of public opin-f
ion and state of feeling in the United
States which aside from their influence on
existing parties, convey a powerful admo-
milton which no future administration win
venture TO disregard.
THE TRUE IMPORT OF THE POLITICAL EVENTS
OF THE YEAR.
These events declare to all parties and to
all leaders of opinion, that the party, IL par
ty there must be- which offers to take uDon
itself the duties of administering the affairs
of this nation must be essentially national
paFty--a true representative of the natiopal
mind and heart. recognizing the rights and
the necessities Of every class of men and of
every part of the whole country. They
moreover declare that the people of the
| United States. alienated by one of those af-
HlctIonS common to national life all over
the world, and suffering from its effects, de-
mand cordial reunon-to be to every in
| tent reunited under their common constitn-
ton, and if on the one hand or the other,
imDelled by re5entments or by necessities
real or supposed, we have allowed ourselves
to be carried beyond its Just limits, we
must all come back within its bounds that
safety and happiness are to be found in
maintaining it, and that the paramount duty
Of this day and time is to endeavor To
breathe into it new life and energy that it
may shelter and protect every State and
every human being in this broad land! If
the Grant party will not, if the Democratic
party cannot, effectively carry out these be-
hests of the nation, then they must not rule
the nation. and the people of the United
States will build up party which will
obey them and let no man, and no party
stand in the way. Such is the decree plain
ly announced in the events of this year.
The action at Cincinnati and that which
took place at Baltimore, were not party
movements i'm the sense in which we have
been accustomed To interpret the move
ments of political bodies; while party lead
ers were ponderng to the best way to
guide them, these movements, possessed of
strange vitality and OF momentOus impulse,
marched steadily on to contamination. 1t
turned out indeed that the preservation of
existing parties was not the object, and that
the true meaning of it all was rather the
dismissal of parties not up to the work that
was before the country. 1t says to the par
ties and to the leaders: adjust yourselves to
coming events in the way that seems to you
to be best The business just now is to
take care of the country.
TAIN FUNDAMENTAL PoINTs-sLAVERY.
These occurrences revealed that the Nor
thern people and the Southern people had
each in their turn, come to understand and
to estimate rightly, the existing political
conditions anu tendencies. We, on our part,
have come to understand thoroughly that
slavery was but the accident, not the prin-
ciple of our existence as people; that the
constitution which once sheltered ii, shell
tered something else besides, and of higher
and more permanent value. Its loss was but
IA temporary evil in any sense, and whatso-
ever of evil that is legitimately connected
with it is temporary, and must year by year
grow less and less, and, under wise and con-
siderate national treatment and temperate
management here at home soon disappear.
Slavery is extinct, and we regard that eX-
tinction as final and what is more 60 the
purpose, feel that we can live, nay, under
any fair administration OF government,
State and National, flourish without it. We
| have resolved not to lie down and die with
! it. and have a consciousness that it was new
| er essential. No man, no statesman, no pa
! triot, wants 1t revived. An instructed peO-
! pie that would in this day voluntarily con-
| meet themselves with it, would be worlds
wonder.
| sUFFRAGE-CoLoRED MEN BADLY TAUGHT.
| Impartial suffrage is thing established.
| 1t is no longer ia the field of politics in this
| country. 1t stands Embedded in the State
/ ana NHEl0Dal 1OuSttJuIlODS. L Is III lHG
! Constitution of this great Republic just as
| the Senate, the Judiciary and the Presiden-
/ cy are there; and as unalterably there, and
| we are resolved to work ont the problem as
! it stands We cannot take the ballot from
the colored men if we would; indeed they
! themselves, whether 1t is to turn out a bles-
sing or curse, cannot get rid OF 1t. They
I cannot escape it without they leave the uni
ted States. Its as indelible as citizenship.
What is strange, the colored people are the
| only people in the South who don't seem to
| know this. Under the teaching they get at
i the hands of these who assume to direct
/ Them they are made to believe that freedom
and the ballot franchise are staked on every
election. and will always be at stake on
election day. But they will after while
/ learn that these elections are traught with
no such tremendous consequences. Salary
! and perquisites are generally the largest
stake that is up. Suffrage is thing that
never recedes. Its progress may be slow
| but it takes no step backward. l recollect
no instance in history where, being once con-
| ferred. it was afterward taken away. 1t
| was taken from white people here, but that
was done by the sword. To discuss it. is to
yield ii.
Emancipation thrust upon us a problem
| difficult to solve. On the one side was this
vast body of laboring men, in some States
majority of the male population, free and
yet without influence in the government.
| On the other side was the apprehended evIl
/ of Introducing suddenly so large mass OF
uninstrueted men into the electoral body.
It was plain to see, however, that under the
| tendencies in the United States, and indeed
/ everywhere where representative govern
meut exists il was simply question OF
! time The labor movement of this day
would have achieved it. If there be mis-
chiefs in 1t we plainly see that they are only
to be remedied by working out the prob
| lem in good faith. Bad pol1cy-a policy
! which looked merely TO party supremacy,
/ and reckless of all consequences-sough to
make the uninstructed class the sole basis
/ of State governments throughout the South.
This mischief will not survive the coming
/ Presidential election.
| ADMINISTRATIONS MUST BE REPUBLICAN, ON
THREE GREAT PoINTs-wHAT THE
SOUTH sREs IN THE cINcN-
MATT RESOLUTIONS.
j .rni., y no. hncnma annarenr To every