The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1872-10-19

injustice. We will try as we'll rs we
can to have your children educated and
enlightened, so that the mistakes you
have made cannot be made over and
over again. That is where we stand.
Now, fcllow-citizcns, why do VIC con-
denim prescription: They mistake who
say that there are only two or three
hundred left, now forbidden to exercise
the common rights of American citi-
Zens. 1t is not so; there are Il thousand,
| there are five thousand disfranchiscd in
the State of Arkansas alone, and the
men who hold them disfrunchiSed OK
pcct to carry that State against us by
virtue of that disfranchiscmcnt. But
it is not tho number of the prescribed +;
men who are not under this ban feel
themselves prescribed because others
arc for an offence which was their Of
fence as we'll. So long as you have Il
prescribed class in the country, men all
around them, honorable, generous men,
will feel, l ought to be prescribed tho
same as that man; tho difference was
only by accident; he happened to take
an oath or fill an Office before the strug-
gle that did not, but his guilt wus no
moro than mine. Accident only makes
him prescribed and leaves me free; so
that so long rs there shall be II proscri-
bed class in this country, prescription
will ranklc in the hearts OF millions Of
Americans, who feel that they thcm-
selves are condemned and banned i'll
the act which dooms their leaders. 1t
is not for the sake OF the prescribed
alone that speak ; every community
has the right to the best services of all
its citizens. Men say to me, "Why,
you don't want to elect Toombs or any
body else, do you ~ No, don't want
to elect any of those men; but suppose
other people do, who are you OF who
an. to say whether they shall or not ::
/ is not a question for me; but whether
American citizens, whom you say have
the same rights to vote and hold office
for you, shall be ut liberty to vote for
the men they prefer, or shall be COM
PEELED to vote for the mon you prefer,
The question reaches not several hum
drcdS, but several millions of our pco-
pie.
Well, thcy say, what do the people
care about this the banks are making
money, the people are prospcring,
manufactures are thrifty. Who cares
that Il few hundred or Thousand men
arc disfranchiscd l care. l say Il war
which ended nearly eight years ago
ought to have had nearly all its bloody
plausc. l say that while VIC nave
often been amused with promises Of
general amnesty the Government of the
country has practically been controlled
by men like Senators Morton and
Chandler and Gen. Butler, one of which
Senators is saying: "Wclf, they all
may forgive the rebels if they will, but
I never cam Now, that spirit is not
one which should rule q republican
country; Il republican should be gcncr-
GUS and faithful-gcncrOus to errors
whereof the very last evil consequences
have long since faded away. Grant
that it was wrong, indcfcnsivcly wrong;
the attempt has been nobiy battlct! and
defeated. Grant that the whole Con-
federatc movement was as hcinOus ns
you please still it was utterly defeated
it became Il lost cause, and there is no
more probability, and l may say, no
more possibility, of another serious at
tempt to divide the American Union
than there is of an attempt to disrupt
and destroy the solar system. Never
before did the Union stand so strong As
to-day; never was its future so assured
as to-day, and never did any move
mcnt result in Il more complete and
utter discontinue than the Confederate
movement. Then, / say, seven and II
half years after the last shot was fired
in behalf of that movement, it is time
for amnesty, complete and perfect; ii
is time for oblivion rs offences that so
long since passed away.
Fcllow-citizcns, we stand on thcprin-
cipaIs embodied in our platform those
principles our advcrsarics do not assnil.
They confess judgment, but they in
sinuatc that Il purposcis therein dcclar-
cd which is not our real purpose, and
that we Incan'sOmcthinG utterly differ
ent, and therefore they proceed to at
tribute to us purposes which we mover
cherished, which We positively disavow
and which they ought to know are ut
terly absurd. The most important of
them are utterly forbidden by the Con
stitution, and they know it. No man
can go to Congress or hc chosen Prc9i-
dent without taking Il solemn oath to
sustain the Constitution, which abSO-
lutcly fOrbidS the payment Of rebel
debts or payment for cmancipatcd
slaves. l commend my case to the
sober judgment of the American pco-
pie. / ask them to judge us without
prejudice, without passion, and with
spirits unintlamcd by wrath and ven