The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1874-10-17
From q Speech of Ec- lice Presi-
dent COlfOE.

The Fourteenth Amendment to our National
Constitution declares all of our people citizens Of
the United States as we'll as Of their respective
States, and guarantees TO them equal protection
under the law, irrespective OF race or color. And
that solemn constitutional pledge of the Republic
must be maintained against all enemies, if we do
not wish eur land TO become byword and re-
proach among the nations Of the earth. Ofcourse
all crime and violence cannot be extirPaed be-
fore the millennium Bat the era of political iu-
timidation, outrage and assassination must cease,
if we do not wish 10 lie irretrievably disgraced
Every citizen, no matter how poor or friendless,
must be protected in the South in the exercise OF
his free speech and Tree ballot exactly as those
who fought TO destroy the nation are protected in
their liberty and property, their politics and per-
sons, at the North. This of violence on ac-
count of political opinions must end. Twenty
years ago in Kansas, white men were threatened,
outraged, murdered, because they preferred lib
erty there to slavery. a few years later, the
wholeSouth became the arena Of similar violence !;
and you cannot have forgotten how poor white
man who dared to defend liberty and the Union
was barreed up al Friar's Point, Mississippi, and
the barrel rolled into the river, that he might die
the most horrid of deaths, TO punish aim for his
principles. And need not repeat the sad stories
of recent political assassinations which in spite
Of all attempts 10 palliate them stand out before
the world 10 ell their wicked aud nexcusab,e
enormity. And hence assert, 10 conclusion, as
at the commencement, that the continued ascend
ency OF the Republican party is matter of far
more importance TO the nation than to the party
itself. Its overthrow would be hailed with exul
tatien by everyone who ever wore the kukux
mask, or who had enjoyed the numbering OF Rad
icals, or who had participated in the burning of
negro school houses The deeds Of violence which
have shocked the civilized world and would dis
honor even barbarism itself would be multiplied
ten-fold in their jar AT the defeat Of the power
under whose restraint exposure aud puniehment
they have so long and so unwillingly chafed -
For they have realized that whenever the arm of
the State was in any way so shortened that it
either could not or would not defend and protect
those whose votes established the three great
amendments OF the Constitution have insisted tina
the arm o. the nation should be extended to de-
fend even the bumblest or poorest Of our people
in the rights guaranteed by these amendments as
potentially rs if they the richest proudest
in all the land.
1t is certainly fitting that one rs entirely out
side, in thought and desire, of public life as am,
should speak thus plainly. For it concerns the
citizen even more than the politician If abroad
the most friendless Of our citizens should be mo-
Tested because Of his principles, the nation would
insist, through its navy and army, adequate
redress and punishment. And on our own soil
the citizen is entitled to the same protection
If the nation claims the right 10 come to your
house or mine, South or North, and compel US to
enter its army, and to bleed and die for it's pro-
lection, we have the right to claim the protection
Of the nation in all our rights of citizenship, il
needed for allegiance and protection are one
and nseparabIe, now and forever And the
South understands right well that those who es-
tablished 10 the Constitution equal protection for
all, intend to go to the fullest extent of constitu-
tioual power in the maintenance of those rights
against all enemies, open or masked, at home as
well as abroad.