The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1876-06-28

] this floor, and two Senators IN IN
5 other branch, Delaware had the powe
and the right aud the authority unde
the Constitution 10 put her veto upon tn
acts of all the other people and all III
other States
t He Governor AmeS) came to tina
body. | have always thought when on
Was advanced To the high dignity Of rep
resenting sovereign State lie shout,
rise TO the level Of the plane OF the loft,
. duties which deyolyed upon him; tina
he should forget party and party spirit
that he should forge; there was major
ity in his favor and Il minority which
voted against him. | hold to the doc
trine, too, that it is true Of Representa-
tives here, that Il Representative wher
elected here, as Senator when elected
20 the other branch Of the national Leg
islature, should feel that he represented
the whole people, the minority who die
not think him fit for the position as well
as the majority who elected him.
When this distinguished gentlemen
was advanced to this position, in a de.
bate which occurred in 1871, he spoke
the sentiments of the carpet-baggers OF
the South When in the debate upon
that occasion he stood upon the floor OF
the Senate, the question being the con
ferring of the franchise upon the colored
men, he said, aud l quote his precise
language:
at is to be desired that this question
of negro suffrage shall not be settled by
those who believe him unfit for citizen
ship and those who, as his masters,
would have sold him to be cut up on the
butchers block had such Il disposition OF
his body brought in a few more dollars. P"
| Congressional Record, first session
Forty second Congress, page 500.
That was the sentiment uttered by this
chief of the carpet baggers, ami l have
always replied TO it by saying that the
man whose heart could have conceived,
Or whose mind could have thought such
Il thought, or whose lips could have ut
tered it only proved that if he had been
| there himself he would have done what
he suspected others capable of doing. |
regret to say that that sentiment, which
was libel upon every Southern white
man whom he represented and whom he
should have represented, for it embraced
them ALL regret to say there was no
Senator from Mississippi to rise on che
floor of the Senate Chamber in vindica-
ton of the slandered honor and fair fame
of that State. But [ rejoice to say
there was Senator who, though proba-
bly, he had never set his foot on Mis-
sissippi soil or gazad into the face
of a Mississippi man or a Mississip-
pi woman, that there was a Senator
there, rge-hearted and great mind
ed, who rose in his place, although he
came from the far-off State Of Ohio, q
allude to the great-minded, catholic
spirited Thurman, of Ohio)-I rejoice
there was a Senator who did rise in his
place and say:
"Now, sir, if you want the peo
pie of the South : to be orderly
give them good government. Let
them govern themselves according TO
the nature and spirit of our free institu
tons let the intelligence of the country
have fair play let the honesty and
economy that every body will admit
existed in those States before the
civil war, whatever faults they may have
had, once more take place let mere
adventures retire to the background or
hide themselves in the holes from which
they came let once more the people feel
that they have a Constitution that will
be enforced laws that they respect and
once more you will have peace and
order there as elsewhere" - C0ngression-
al Record, Forty-Second Congress, page
1872.
That was the reply which had to be
made by the Senator from a distant
State in vindicatiOn of the white people !
of Mississippi against the SANDER charged |
upon them by their carpet-bag Senator.
But | now say, sir, that he who asserts,
whether he be Governor Ames or any
body else, that there exists in the heart !
of that white people q disposition to deny |
the right of free suffrage to the colored |
man and say more, that he who asserts |
that the colored man, [ meaA the great
body of the laboring colored men of the |
land-the bone, the sinew, and muscle |
that come into contact with the earth |
daily, and like Antaeus, the famed |
wrestler Of old, who gained new life and
vigor every time he touched his mother
earth-I allude to the great body of the
laboring colored men of Mississippi +.
say there is no hostility, there Is no diff |
ference between them and the white
people, and they are rapidly coming |
together, and it is the height Of cruel
barbarity to attempt by thrusting political |
differences between them to create anew /
dissensions which now, happily, are
rapidly passing away.
1t has been said, sir, that the colored /
race was true to the Union, that some Of /
its men fought on the side of the Union.
| am prepared to assert far the great |
body of that race that they had an ordeal |
presented to them, one never before /
presented, and it was this: We were /
battling for what they considered aud /
what othets considered to be their perpet /
ual subiugation. The Union arms if |
successful would, as a necessary incident, |
free them. Yet, sir, the great body Of
the working colored race stood true and I
firm by the side of those with whom they /
had been reared, and upon whose places
they had been BORN They stood by US
during the trials and t7ihulations, and /
hardships and bloodshed Of the long
civil war. They stood by Us when
temptations Of an extraordinary character
were offered for their assertion. They
stood by us when there was not meal in
the larder to be spread for the common
family. They stood by US when the
lambert flames of the incendiary licked
our very house-tops and the craYAling
rafters crurpt .led into ashes upon our
desOlated hearth stones. 1t is SANDER
upon that race to say that they were false
to the soil upon which they had been rear
ed and false to the people with whose
fortunes their own, whether good or for
i'll, had constantly been blended.
That is their history during the war,
and since it no dissension would have
existed, no differences would have been
created if they had beeh left alone to act
q. Il l. 81 1 L e E.