The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1874-11-18
The Civil Rights Bill.

The Republican party has met the
shock of crushing defeat at the polls.
To its leaders the people have said,
"Stand back!" The business of the
hour is to inquire the reason of this
action of the people. The Republic
can party saved the Union when it
was in peril; it abolished slavery; it
pushed to adoption the recent great
amendments to the Constitution; it
reconstructed the State governments
Of the South, in accordance with the
fundamental doctrine of equal civil
and political rights to all men, While
the Republican party fought for the
vindication Of these great principles,
the country stood by it. The lives
and property of citizens were freely
offered and as freely sacrificed to es-
tablish the unity of the nation and the
equality before the law Of every per-
son in the patton. 1t is beyond be-
lief, but it is fact. that precisely at
this point of time and at this conjunc-
ton of affairs, when the amendments
to the Constitution guaranteeing equal
civil and political rights to all black
as we'll as to all white men had been
triumphantly adopted by the people,
the Republican party was visited with
q spasm of doubt as to the expediency
of carrying the amendments into effect
by appropriate legislation! Expedi.
ency, the trick of the crafty politi-
clan, for the first time in the history
of Republican party management,
usurped the place of right, chilling the
high and generous impulses of the
rank and file, and striking a deadly
blow at the very source of party fealty.
In word, the Republican party,
through its representatives in the
lower house of Congress, refused to
pass the civil rights bill-refused to
carry out the spirit of the Fourteenth
amendment to the Constitution! Here
was decadence of moral courage, a
shrinking from the performance of an
imperative duty, halt in the pres
ence of the demand of millions of fell
low citizens for equal rights, and a
neglect and refusal to do justice
There is no parallel to this attitude oil
the Republican party during its whole
history, and it shocked the moral
sense of the great masses OF its mem
bership. Republicans Indignantly ex-
claimed: By what authority does the
party of emancipation, of equal citi-
zenship, and of free suffrage stop te
consider the expediency of adopting {
measure which is warranted by the
Constitution, and conceded to be right
The solemn language of Presiden
I.incoln's last inaugural required t
the minds of the people:
"Fondly do we hope, fervently d.
we pray that the mighty scourge o
war may speedily pass away. Yet
| God will that it continue until all tn
wealth piled by the bondsman's tw
hundred and fifty years of unrequite'
toll shall be sunk, and until every dro
of blood drawn with the lash shall b
paid by another drawn by the sword
as was said three thousand years age
so still it must be said that the judg
ments of the Lord are true and right
eous altogether"
This grand and reverent sentimen
of heroic purpose, which inspired tn
heart of the President, also pervade
the hearts of the people, and move
them to secure forever the fruits Q
the war by incorporating in the Con
stitution the following unequivocs