The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1876-02-03
SPEECH OF HON. o. P. MORTON.
In the United States Senate, on the Miss
issippi Election, Delivered
January 10th.

| Il
have received from very many sources il
substantially true, the late pretended
election in Mississippi was an armed rev
olution, characterized by fraud, murder
and violence in almost every form. II
was carried on in some respects under
the forms of law but its real nature was
that of force, the violation of law, and
the trampling under foot of the dearest
rights of great masses of men. A little
less sudden than those revolutions which
have distinguished the States of Mexico
and the countries of South America, il
did not differ from them in character,
and was equal in atrocity.
1t is a matter of the gravest import to
the American people to know whether a
large majority of the people of State
have been overthrown and subjected by
the minority, and also to unders tand
4 upon what pretense or principle such a
result was brought about. The only thing
like principle that could be assumed in
| justification Of such result would be that
| political and civil power should belong
| exclusively to the white race; or upon
the other principle that that party, the
members OF which own the most of the
property in the State. should be allowed
to govern to the exclusion Of the major
! ity, who are generally poor and the most
of whom have nothing to depend upon
| for their subsistence but their labor
apprehend that an investigation of the
Mississippi revolution would show that
the triumphant minority acted upon both
of these principles, and, in various ways,
boldly professed them as its doctrines.
We had hoped that hundred years of
national life had definitely settled the
question that political and civil rights
should not depend upon race or complex
ion, and that equal rights before the law
and in the administration Of government
should not depend upon wealth or prop
erty, but belong alike to to every Ameri-
can citizen.
In proposing an investigation it is
hardly reasonable to demand that the
matters to be investigated should be
proven in advance for that would make
the investigation unnecessary; and all
that ought to be required should be the
exhibition of such probable cause as
would justify the Senate, in the exercise
of sound discretion, in ordering an inves-
tigation. Investigations have often been
ordered by both houses OF Congress upon
common rumor and upon general inn
pressions prevailing in the public mind,
derived from the press or other sources.
If the belief which is certainly enter
tanned by very many in regard to the
character of recent events in Mississippi
is not well-founded, it is of the greatest
Importance to the people that an inves-
tigation should be had, that the truth
may be shown, as the material progress
and prosperity of the State is deeply in
yolved in such exoneration. / can not,
therefore, understand the opposition to
this investigation in any other light than
a constructive admission of the truth OF
the charges which have been made in
regard to the means employed in the
late Mississippi election, by which the
majority was overthrown and the govern
ment of the State reyolutionized. To
shrink from such an investigation un-
questionably betrays fear as to the result.
Before proceeding to what shall have
to say about the Mississippi election, i
propose to indulge in some general OBJ
servations
PRESCRIPTION OF REPUBLICANS BEFORE THE
WAR.
Before the war, men entertaining ad-
verse opinions to slavery, and whose
opinions went no further than opposing
its extension to Territories then free,
were, to a great extent, deprived of the
freedom of speech and of action, in the
fifteen slave States. Men advocating
such opinions were visited with social
excommunication, deprivation of business
and threatened and often visited with
personal violence. Numerous personal
outrages were inflicted in the Southern
States upon men who were charged with
being abolitionists, and to such an ex
tent was this persecution carried, that in
1856 and 1868, the Republican party was
Nz1 a. 20 al al
tickets or to run candidates for the diff
ferent offices in ten of the Southern
States.
Republicans were not permitted to as
semble in convention to nominate candi-
dates, and could not hold public meet
ings in Southern cities and towns with
out danger of mob violence. Not only
were the Republicans of the South thus
deprived of the exercise of those rights
which are the dearest to American free
men, but the Republicans throughout
the North were made to feel that they
are substantially banished from nearly
one half of the States in the Union that
to them those States were almost for
eign land; and, in some respects, worse
than a foreign land. / remember the
personal humiliation | felt, which was
aggravated by the fact that while Repub-
licans were excluded from fifteen States
in the Union, they were tainted with
this exclusion as if it were a crime on
their part. They were constantly de-
nounced as the sectional party. l felt,
as we all did at that time, that the hand
of slavery was resting heavily upon u.s.
This denial TO men of Republican senti-
ments the free enjoyment Of their opin-
ions and exercise of the ordinary forms
Of political action, was a wanton and
gross violation of the natural and consti-
tutional rights of millions of people, and
was bitterly felt and deeply resented.
That this state of things should have
ended in war was not to be wondered at;
for that sentiment which denied to Re-
publicans the exercise of their dearest
rights afterwards hurried the South into
rebellion.
HOW WHITE PEOPLE ARE KEPT oUT or THE
REPUBLICAN PARTY.
Man is a social being and there is no
disaster from which he shrinks so much,
not even that of personal violence, as ex-
clusion from the society of his fellows.
The fear of that exclusion demoralizes
men and often causes them to sacrifice
their principles and their honor. But
the persecution against Republicans went
beyond society and extended to their
business; as merchants they were not
employed; as farmers they were denied
those kindnesses and courtesies that be-
long to every neighborhood, and consti-
tute the chief attraction of agricultural
life. We had hoped when the war was
over that this state OF things would have