New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-06-18

government from the radical usurpcrs VIII
now control it, adopt and declare as thei
platform
~. That we stand ready to obey the Con
stitutl0n of the United States and the law
passed in pursuance thereof, and the Consti
; tuition and laws of the State of Alabama, s.
long as they remain in force and unre
pealed.n
,, Will however, take the gentleman at hi
word but must be allowed to ask if so VIII
was it even after the several amendment
nag been announced to be part of the Fed
eral Constitution, his State and others re
fused to allow the negroes to testify in thei
courts against white man? If they be
!leved he should be educated (and surely thi
Is right why was it that his school house
were burned down, and the teachers VIII,
naa gone down on errands of mercy to carr,
hight into dark places driven off and in som,
places killed? If they believe the negr,
should vote (another right, as / understand
the Constitution why is it that Ku-Klu,
klans were organized to prevent him from
exercising the right of an American citizen
namely. casting the ballot-the very thins
they said he had right to do?
The protested belief and practice are sadl,
at variance, and must be intelligently har
monized before l can be made to believe tina
they are willing to acknowledge that have
any rights under the Constitution or else
where. He boasts of the magnanimity O.
Kentucky in allowing the negro to vote
without qualification, while to enjoy the'same
privilege in Massachusetts he is required to
read the constitution of that State. He was
very unhappy in this comparison. Why, sir
his State does not allow the negro to vote al
all. When was the constitution of Kentucky
amended so as to grant him the elective fran.
chise: They vote there by virtue of the fif
teenth amendment alone, independent of the
laws and constitution of that Commonwealth
and they would to-day disfranchse him if il
could be done without affecting her white
population. The old Bay State waited fol-
no "act of Congress" to force her to do JUS
tice to all her citizens, but in ante Jellum DAYS
provided III her constitution that all male per.
sons who could read and write should be en-
titled to suffrage. That was case of equal
ity before the law, and who had right to
complain? There is nothing now in the
amended Federal Constitution to prevent
Kentucky from adopting the same kind OF
clause in her constitution, when the conven-
ton meets to revise the organic law of that
State, venture the assertion that YOU will
never hear word about it, but it will not be
out of any regard for her colored citizens, but
respect for that army Of fifty thousand igno-
rant white men she has within her borders,
many of whom l see every time pass thro'
that State, standing around the several de-
pots continually harping on the stereotyped
phrase, ''The damned negro won't work.
l would not be surprised though if she
should do better in the future. | remember
when foreigner was just as unpopular in
Kentucky as the negro is now; when ma
jority of the people of that State were op-
posed to according the foreigner the same
| IrIf fhnv al
class OF people were mobbed in the streets
of her principal cities on account of their po-
litical faith, just as they have done the negro
Tor the last seven years. But what do you
see to-day: One of that then prescribed
class is one of Kentucky's chief representa-
tives upon this floor. Is not this evidence of
returning sense of justice? If so, would
! it not be reasonable to predict that she will
| IN the near future send one Of her now pro-
scribed class to aid him in representing her
interests upon this floor.
MIR. Speaker, there is another member of
this body who has opposed the passage of
this bill very earnestly, whose position in the
| country and peculiar relations to the govern
ment compel ME to refer to him before con-
clude. l allude to the gentleman from
Georgia, [Mr. Stephens.] lie returns to this
| House after an absence of many years, with
the same old ideas respecting State-riehts
that he carried away with him. He has not
advanced step; but unfortunately for him
the American people have, and no longer
| consider him fit eXpounder of our organic
| law. Following its legitimate conclusion, the
doctrine of State rights (Which of itself is
secession), he deserted the flag of his coun-
try, followed his State out of the Union, and
a long and bloody war followed. With its
results most men are acquainted and recOg-
nize; but he, BOurbOn-like, comes back say
ing the very same things he used to say, and
swearing by the same gods he swore by in
other days. lie seems not to know that the
ideas which he so ably advanced for so many
years were by the war swept away, along
with that system of slavery which he intend
ed should be the chief cornerstone, precious
and elect, of the transtory kingdom over
which he was second ruler.
Sir, the most OF us have seen the play of
Rip Van Wrinkle, who was said to have slept
twenty years in the Catskill Mountains. On
his return he found that the small trees had
grown up to be largs ones; the village of
Falling Waters had improved beyond his
recollection the little children that used to
| play around his knees and ride into the village
upon his back had grown up to be men and
women and assumed the responsibilities of
life most of his friends, including Nick
Vedder, had gone to that bourne whence no
traveller returns but, saddest of all, his
child "Mene" could not remember him. No
one can see him in his efforts to recall the
scenes OF other days without being moved
almost to tears. This, however, is fiction.
The life and actions of the gentleman from
Georgia most happily illustrate this charac-
ter This is q case where truth is stranger
than fiction; and when he comes into these
Halls advocating the same old ideas, after an
absence Of so many years, during which time
we have had a conflict of arms such as the
world never saw, that revolutionized the EN-.
tire body-politic, he stamps himself a living
Rip Van Wrinkle.
reiterate, that the principles of estate
rights" for the recognition of which he now
contends, are the ones that were in contro-
versy during our late civil strife. The argu.
ments pro and con were heard in the roar OF
battle amid the shrieks of the wounded and
the groans of the dying, and the decision was
rendered amid shouts of victory by the Union
soldiers. With it all appear to be familiar
except him, and for his information l will
state that upon this question an appeal was
taken from the forum to the sword, the high.
est tribunal known to man, that it was then
and there decided that NatiOnal-rights are
paramount to State-rghts, and that liberty
and equality before the law should be cock.
tensive with the jurisdiction of the Stars and
Stripes. And will further inform him that
the bill now pending is simply to give practi.
cal effect to that decision.
l sympathize with him in his inability tc
understand this great change. When he left
here the negro was chattel, exposed for sale
in the market places, within stones throw
of the Capitol; so near that the shadow o
the Goddess of Liberty, reelected by the ris