The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-05-21
Politics and the VariOlOid.

proceed from trivial and seemingly made
quate causes. Some one has recently made
the discovery that the signing of the declara-
ton Of independence was fastened by a
swarm of flies which buzzed about the silk
clad legs of the colonial delegates. The much
bitten statesmen grew angry and impatient,
secuted compromise. were anxious to escape
British rule and the flies, and so signed the
immortal document which our enemies might
with some proprety, denounce as device Of
Beelzebub. In all times historians have de-
lighted to tell of similar trivial occurrences
which have changed the course of nations.
The June number of the atlantic contains
a curious political revelation concerning re-
construction, in the shape of an article from
Robert Dale Owen, entitled "Political Results
from the Varioloid." The paper gives the
secret history of the fourteenth amendment,
and shows that but for the illness of Senator
Fessenden universal suffrage would have
been postponed to the centennial Fourth of
July and universal amnesty might have been
granted in 1866.
Mr.. Owen begins his paper with state
ment of the situation at the close of the war.
Four millions of men, bondmen for genera
tions, had suddenly become freemen. A
domestic system, century old, had been
broken up, and society itself IN the
Southern States had TO be reconstructed.
Mr.. Owen watched with anxious interest the
doings of Congress and the reconstruction
committee. As chairman of a government
commission appointed 10 examine into the
condition of the freedmen, he had opportuni-
ties to study the character of the negroes. He
found them genial, emotional, disposed to
mility, resignation under adversely, and trust
in Divine Providence than the Anglo-Sax !;
and wonderfully free from ill-will toward
their oppressors. But he detected in them
also failures and shortcomings, partly of race,
chiefly caused by the condition of servitude,
extreme ignorance, lack of sef-relance, dim
perceptions of property rights, and small ca
pabity of taking lead in the political ad-
vancement Of society. He came to the con-
clusion that full political rights should be
SldulCQ W GuOn 81 oOtu do tuCy HOlC ittOo
to exercise them, and that general amnesty
should be proclaimed in order to restore good
feeling in the South.
Toward the close of March, 1866, Mr..
Owen called upon Thaddeus Stevens, the
chairman of the reconstruction committee on
the part of the House, and submitted to him
the draft of proposed amendment TO the
constitution, providing that no discrimina-
tion should be made in civil rights by any
state because of race, color, or previous con-
dtion of servitude; that manhood suffrage
should 90 into effect in all the states on the
fourth day of July, 1876; that no person to
whom the right of suffrage was denied should
be included in the basis of representation pre-
vous to 1875; and that the rebel debts should
be forever repudiated.
The sturdy Penn sylvanian, after some dis
cussion, agreed to the amendment, and pro-
posed to submit it to his committee. But he
strenuously objected to the policy of gen.
eral amnesty,so that plan did not take shape.
The amendment was submitted to the COM
mittee, got every Republican vote except one,
and was ordered to be reported to Congress.
But Senator Fessenden was absent from the
sitting, sick of the varioloid. Out of courte-
sy to him the report was delayed, though he
was in sympathy with it. Meanwhile the ac-
ton of the committee got noised abroad. Re-
publican members of Congress became
frightened at the prospect Of negro suffrage,
the delegations from New York, Illinois aud
Indiana held caucuses opposing it, and the
committee backed down. The result was the
substitution of the amendment now known
as the fourteenth. Stevens stated the situa-
tion and relieved his mind in the following
characteristic expression, damn the vario-
loid 1t has changed the whole policy of the
country"
1t is useless to speculate upon the results
which might have ensued had the amend
ment suggested by Mr.. Owen been adopted.
1t is curious to note however, how far the
leaders were behind the people, and how un-
willing they were to adopt that policy of uni
versal suffrage which the country so unmis-
takably endorsed four years later.