Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1875-03-03

to the constitution Oh Inc UnlLeu SlaLes Known
as the fourteenth amendment; and when said
article shall have become part of the Constitu-
ton said State .h II bn entitled to representation
| in Congress, and Senators and Rep esentatives
shall BIZ admitted therefrom on their taking the
| oath prescribed by Jaw and thereafter the pre-
| ceding sections of this act shall be imperative
| in said State Provided, That no person exc.u1-
| ed from holding office by said proposed amend
ment to the Constitution shall be eligible to cleo
ton to the convention or allowed to vote tor
members OF such convention.
This act was passed over the veto of Pres-
dent Johnson, and when on it's passage was
characterized by member of this House Hon.
Fernando Wood, of New York. as the most
damuable act Of this most daDna Die Congress.
a resolution of ceDsure was adopted. Parlla.
mentary usage may have been violated, but
history will viudcate the truth of his denunci.
alton of this bill. By it ten States sovereign
States, some of them embraced in the original
thirteen which achieved independence, were
suuihilated and converted into military dis.
tricts, in which property and personal liberty
had no other protection than was found 10
military commission where life itself could be
taken by such tribunal if its sentence was APP
proved by the President of the Unlted States.
It would be supposed that party hate and Sec
tlopal magnty would he satisfied by the pro-
visions of this bill, and that wheo these mill
tary districts" we're allowed to emerge from
this state of vassalage and again be admitted
J into the privileges of the Union they would
have been permitted to come back as soVer.
eign States But not so. When military vas
salage became iusupportable, and these States
we're forced at any cost to get rid OF 1t, they
found their way back into the Union hcdged
n and surrounded by the provisos, conditions.
and limitations of the fifth section. They were
, "A al 9a1a ba tjOp
to frame constitutions 10 mode prescribed by
the act Of Congress; compelled to allow per-
sons to vote who heretofore had not exercised
the elective franchise; compelled to exclude
both from voting and membership many OF
their most trusted, experienced, and peaceable
citizens; compelled to submit their cODstltu
tiops to the examination aud approval OF Con-
gress compelled to adopt the fourteenth
amendment, which hod been rejected by them;
compelled to act against their will as sover
eign State 10 ratifyng this amendment before
they could be allowed aoy other privileges of a
State compelled 10 most cases by the peculiar
provisions to surrender themselves tor long
years to the rule of carpet-baggers and the lg-
norant colored population. Other laws were
enacted decaratory Of this vile law, which
made its provisions more odlous and Opprcs-
sive Time would fail if | attempted to trace
and comment on all.
The fifteenth amendment to the Constitu
ton was adopted, which declares
That the right of citizen of the United
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by any State on account OF racs color or pre-
vious condition Of seryltude.
The fourteenth amendment forces the States
to accept tho colored people as citizens, add
the fifteenth compelled them to clothe these
same colored people with the elective franchise
aud eligibility to Office, while they deprived
thousands Of the best white citizens Of these
inestinable privileges.
| By these provisions nearly all the Southern
States in accepting the terms and conditions OF
these laws AMI constitutional amendments, in
Kidding themselves of their state of military
vassalage, passed under the misrule of carpet
baggers and negroes. Some are still under this
nisrue, while most of them have alter years
of trial secured the governments to the real
bona 6de people of the States, and are DOW en-
Toying toerably good governments, administer,
ed by themselves, under which all persons OF
whatever color are protected IN the enjoyment
of all their rights.
l The fate of down-trodden South Carolina
seems almost hopeless. Still under the State
government forced upon her she remains, and
will it is feared loug remain monument to
the hate of sectional malignity. Louisiana
would be free but for the unauthorized and
tyranuical interference of the Federal EXccu-
tive. This policy of reconstruction was not the
emanation of craftsmanship, was not designed
to restore these States to equal privileges 10
the Union, was not pursued to briog back ma
terial prosperity to these States but was co.,
ceved 10 hatred and Intended to raise up
brace of voters subservieDt to the dictates of the
radical party and designed to be the means of
controlling the politics of these States. What
has been the effect of this policy upon the ma
terial interests of these States? The people,
boroe TO the very dust by the ravages Of the
war, stripped of their labor, with nothing but
their baked lands to pay their debts and make
living for themselves and their families, have
been Systematically robbed and plucdered by
these governments forced upon them by the
reconstruction policy, and which were ruu by
persons having little or 20 interest 10 them,
until many Of them became bankrupt, and the
people, unable TO pay the tax4s necessary TO
pay the debts contracted by these govern
meuts, are being sold out by the taX-gatherer,
and their lands returned delinquent will 5000
be sold for the taxes due on them. The whole
southern country is today langulshing in al
most hopeless bankruptcy caused mainly by
the effects of this policy of reconstruction.
The debts of these Southern States have
been increased more than 5000, 900, 900, as fol-
lows:
| Alabama
Debts due July /, 1861............ ,939, 654 81
Debts due July l, l87l........... 3S, 3ol, s67 81
| Arkansas:
Debts and liabilities in 1861. 4O36 e52 81
Debts and liabilities in 1871 .... ~, 16l ,265 81
| Florida:
| Debts and liabi tiles in l868-..-. 1906 80
Debts and liabilities in 1871 ... Is, 1853, AT 81
Georgia: 49,, -
| Debts and liabilities in 1860 about. O,0,OOO %
Debts and liabilities in 1871 .... "A III, 500 w
Debts and liabilities in 1861 ........ 1OO79O74 "a
Debts and liza abilities in 1871 .... II, 1874 4T3 81
| North Carolina:
Debts and liabilities in 1861. "... 9.699, 500 90
Debts and liabilities in 1871 .. "a, $751;, ACT s.
South Carolina:
.nah4o md lia hlifias in 1851 ----- nQ NM 90