Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-12-18

DECEMBER Is, IL
ion In the north. I know . gres
deal about the views, wishes, an,
purposes Of the republican party O
tho nation. Within that entire grea
organization there is not one mar
whose opinion il entitled to be quot
ed. that does not desire peac
and harmony and friendship an,
q patriotic and fraternal union be
tween the North and the South. Thi
wish 10 spontaneous, instructive an,
universal throughout the Norther1
States. and yet, among men Of char
acter and sense there is surely n,
need Of attempting to deceive our
selves 20 to the precise truth. Firs
pure, then peacesble. Gush will no
remove . grievance, and NO Disguise
Of state rights will close the eyes O
the people to the necessity Of correct
ing national wrong. Nor shoult
the South make this fatal mistake O
concluding that injustice TO the Negro
Is not also injustice to the white man
nor should 1t ever be forgotten tha
for the wrongs Of both q remedy viii
assuredly be found. The war, will
all lite costly sacrifices, was fought IN
vain unless equal rights for all classe,
be established in oil the states OF thu
Union and now in words which arc
those Of friendship, however di fIer.
entity they may be accepted, I tell the
mon ofthe south here on this floor
and beyond this chamber, that even
II they could strip the negro Of his
constitutional rights they could NOT
permanently maintain the inequality
OF white men in this nation they can
never maka . mans vote In the south
doubly as powerful a. . white mans
vote in the north.
In memorable debate in the house
Of commons, Mr.. Macauley reminded
Daniel O'C0nnell, when he was NOV
ing for repeal, that the English wings
had endured calumny, abuse, popu-
lar furore, loss OF position, exclusion
from parliament, rather than the
great agitator himself should be less
than British subject; sne Mr.. Ma
cauley warned him that they would
never suffer him to be more. Let me
now remind you that the government
under whose protecting flag we cit
to-day sacrificed myrisds Of lives and
expended thousand Of millions of
treasure that our countrymen of the
south should remain citizens of the
United States, having equal personal
rights and equal political privileges
with all other citizens. And I ven-
ture, now and here, to warn the men
of the south, in the exact words Of
Macauley, that we will never suffer
them to be more.
THuRMAN's SPEECH.
Mr.. THURMAN then submitted an
an amendment to Blaine'a resolution,
instructing the committee to inquire
If any citizen Of any state, had been
dismissed or threatened with diemis-
sal, from employment by reason Of
his vote or intention to vote at tho
election, or been otherwise interfered
With, and whether in 1878 federal en-
ployes had been assessed for election
purposes, and the circumstances at
tending such assessment, its use, and
whether a law WAS thereby violated /;
also, TO inquire into the conduct OF
United States election supervisors,
the number of marehals and others
employed to conduct elections, with
salary paid or promised, and under
what law.
Mr.. Thurman said his side would
have waived all argument had this
amendment been incorporated in the
original resolution, but Blaine had
refused to give way for it. He wish
ed to-day to make only few general
observations. The senator from
Maine had frankly admitted that his
purpose was to attack the democracy
Of the south. There were come doubts
as to the propriety of this iDvestiga-
ton. The session is short and i'm
portant legislation presses; yet no
could make with any sort
of thoroughness or business, the ex-
animation required, within the time
remaining of tho session. He there
fore had wondered why this resolu-
ton was introduced, unless to hang
ON speeches for the purpose of arous-
ing sectional hatred against an almost
defenseless portion of the Union. Re-
ferring to previous speech, the
speaker said he had declared that
there was deliberately formed pur-
pose to array the solid north to rule
the south and nearly half of the north
under the pretense that there was q
solid south. I thought then and /
think now, that purpose more un-
patriotic, more unjust, more fraught
with ruin TO this country, never en-
tered the brain of man. OF what is
it that the senator from Maine COM
plains? That there were not enough
republican votes a. the south. That
10 the amount of it. And how does
he make that out5 He assumes, with
out . shadow of truth produced here,
that negroes south were prevented
from voting or forced to vote the
democratic ticket. He assumes there
fore, that, owing tn these csuses, the
negroes of the south are not repre-
sented by the members in the house of
representatives who come from that
section of the union, or by the sena-
tors on this floor who represent the
southern states. What right has he
to say that the negroes of the south
are not represented by the chosen
representative Of the south and the
chosen senator's of the south2 What
right has he to vote those negroes on
one side himself, and say the men
who bear the credentials of election
do not represent their constituents !?
It is bare assumption ON his part
that he has NO right to make. The
senator ought to have thought of this
when he was framing his l4th and
18th amendments. There were men
then, and of his own party, too, who
told him with long foresight, that in
the end property and intelligence will
rule the land, and that ignorance can
not. These were men Of his party
who foresaw that those people who
have the intelligence, the education
and the property, win not be ruled
by those who have neither, and that IL
10 not necessary to separate . COM
munity into white people and colored
people to do that. The result Of these
constitutional amendments was easy
enough to be foreseen. lam not here
to-day to justify . violation of the
rights of any man, however humble
he may be-whatever may be the
poverty of HE situation. I'll know
my own heart, ! am here % m1ch In
favor Of respecting the rights OF eve
~ man under the constitution 40 the
senator from Maine or any other sem
ator on this door. But do know
that property, intelligence and edu.
cation will assert their supremacy ev-
erywhere on the face Of this globe
Who was 1t that drew tho color line
between the whites and negroes OF
the south? Let me tell you, sir, that
millions Of the peoples money were
expended by the freedmen's bureau
agents In forming loyal Leagues of
negroes and swearing them never to
vote for . democrat. The color line
began there. That bureau contrc lied
the negro utterly and spent millions,