New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1878-12-11
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
Delivered to the Last Session of the
45th Congress. Dec. 2, 1873.


REPRESENTATIVES.: Our heartfelt gratitudei is due
to the Divine Being who holds in His hands
the destinies Of nations for the continued be-
stowal, during the last year, Of countless
blessings upon our country. We are at peace
with all nations. Our public credit has greatly
improved, and is perhaps now stronger than
ever before. Abundant haryests have rewarded
the labors of those who till the soil. Our man
ufacturing industries are reviving, and it is
believed that the general prosperity which has
been SO long anxiously looked for, is at last
within our reach.
THE YELLOW FEVER.
The enjoyment of health by our people gem
orally has. however, been interrupted during
the past season by the prevalence of fatal
pestilence, the yellow fever, in some portions
of the Southern States, creating an emergency
which called Tor prompt and extraordinary
measures of relief The disease appeared at,
New Orleans and other places on the lower Mis-
sissippi soon after midsummer. 1t was rapidly
spread by fugitives from the infected towns
and cities, and did not disappear until early in
November. The States of Louisiana, Missis-
sippi and Tennessee have suffered severely
About l00.O 600 cases are believed to have oc-
CURED, of which about 100000 according to in
telligent estimates proved fatal. It is i'm
possible to estimate with any proxlmate TO
coracy, the loss to the country occasioned by
the epidemic 1t is to be reckoned by
the hundred millions of dollars. The
suffering and restitution that resulted
excited the deepest sympathy in all parts of
the Union. Physicians and nurses fastened
from every quarter to the assistance of the af-
fiicted communities. Voluntary contributions
of money and supplies in every needed form
were speedily and generously furnished. The
government was able to respond in some meas
ure to the call for help by providing tents,
IioiDa he ali k 1f,1fa
the requisite directions for the purpose being
given in the confident expectation that this ac-
ton of the executive would receive che
sanction ~ of Congress. About 1.SC0
tents and rations of the value of about
1875, 900 were sent to cities and towns which ap-
piled for them, full details of which will be
furnished to Congress by the proper depart
ment. The fearful spread Of this pestilence
has awakened very general public sentiment
in favor Of a national sanitary administration,
which shall not only control quarantine, but
have the sanitary supervision Of internal
merce in times of epidemics, and hold adj
visory relation to the State and municipal
health authorities, with powers to deal with
whatever endangers the public health, and
which the municipal and State authorities are
unable to regulate. The national quarantine
act, approved April 20, 1878, which was passed
too late in the last hours of Congress to provide
the means for carrying it into practical opera
ton during the past season, is a step in the
direction here indicated. In view Of the
cessty for the most effective measures by
quarantine and otherwise for the protection of
our seapOrts and the country generally from
this and other epidemics, it is recommended
that Congress give to the whole subject early
and careful consideration.
THE COLOR LINE.
The permanent pacifcation of the country by
the complete protection of all citizens in every
civil aud political right continues to be of par
amount interest with the great body of our
people. Every step in this direction is well
coined with public approval, and every inter-
ruption of steady and uniform progress to the
desired consumnn nation awakens general uneas-
mess and widespread condemnation. The re-
cent Congressional elections have furnished u
direct and trustworthy test of the advance thus
far made in the practical establishment of the
right of suffrage secured by the constitution
to the liberated race in the Southern States
All disturbing influences, real or imaginary,
had been removed from all of these States.
The constitutional amendments which confer
red freedom and equality of civil and political
rights upon the colored people of the South
were adopted by the concurrent action Of the
great body Of coed citizens who MAIN
tanned the authority OF the national govern
ment and the integrity and perpetuity of the
Union at such a cost of treasure and life as a
wise and necessary embodiment in the organic
law of the just results of the war. The peo-
pie of the former slave-holding States accepted
these results and gave, in every practicable
form, assurances that the thirteenth, four
tenth and fifteenth amendments and laws
passed in pursuance thereof, should, in good
faith. be enforced rigidly and impartially in
letter and spirit to the end that the humblest
citizen, without distinction Of race or; color
should, under them, receive full and equal pro-
lection in person and property and in political
rights and privileges. BY these constitutional
amendments the southern section of the Union
obtained 8 large increase of political power in
Congress and in the electoral college, and the
country justly expected that elections would
proceed, as to the eafranchised race, upon the
same circumstances of legal and constitutional
freedom and protection which obtained in all
the other States of the Union. The friends
of law and order looked forward
to the conduct of these elections as offering to
the general Judgment of the country an impor-
tant opportunity to measure the degree in
which the right of suffrage could be exercised
by the colored people. and would be respected
by their fellow-citizens. But more general
enjoyment of freedom Of suffrage by the col
ored people, and more just and generous pro-
lection of that freedom, by the communities
of which they form a part, were generally an
ticipated, than the record of the election dis
closes. In some of those States in which the
colored people have been unable to make their
opinions felt in the election the result is main
ly due to influences not easily measured or
remeded by the legal protection, but in
the States of Louisiana and South Car
DINA at large. and in some particular
Congressional districts outside of these States
the records Of the election seem to compel the
conclusion that the rights of colored voters
have been overridden, and their participation
in the elections not permitted to be either gen
eral or free. 1t will be for the Congress for
which these elections were had to make such
examination into their conduct may be APP
tN itv Of tho