The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1878-12-07
The Presidents Message.

ing VINO hOlQS In HIS hands the QeStl-
MES Of nations, for the continued be-
stowal, during the last year, of co0nt-
less blessings upon our country.
We are at peace with all other ma
tions. Our public credit has greatly
improved, and is, perhaps, now stronger
than ever before. Abundant harvests
have rewarded the labors of those who
till the soil, our manufacturing indus
tries are reviving, and it is believed
that general prosperity, which has been
SO long anxiousiy looked for, is at last
within onr reach. "a
The enjoyment of health by our peo-
pie generally has, however, been inter-
rupted during the past season by the
prevalence Of a fatal pestilence-the yell
low fever-in some portions of the
Southern States, creating an emergency
which called for prompt and extraordi-
nary measures of relief. The
disease appeared as an epidemic
at New Orleans and at other places
on the lower Mississippi soon af-
ter midsummer. It was rapidly
spread by fugitives from the infected
cities and towns, and it did not dis
appear until early in November. The
States of Louisiana, Mississippi and
Tennessee have suffered severely.
About one hundred thousand cases are
believed to have occurred, of which
about twenty thousand, according to
intelligent estimates, proved fatal. 1t
is impossible to estimate with any ap-
proach to accuracy the loss to the coun-
try occasioned by this epidemic. 1t is
to be reckoned by the hundred millions
of dollars. The suffering AMI destitu-
tion that resulted excited the deepest
sympathy in all parts of the Union.
Physicians and nurses hastened from
every quarter to the assistance of the
afflicted communities. Voluntary con-
tributions of money and supplies, in
every needed form, were speedily and
generously furnished. The government
was able to respond in some measure to
the call for help by providing tents,
medicines and food for the sick and
destitute; the requisite directions for
the purpose being given, in the conf
dent expectation that this action of the
executive would receive the sanction of
Congress. About eighteen hundred
tents, and rations OF the value of about
$25, 200, were sent to cities and towns
which applied for them, full details of
which will be furnished to Congress by
the proper department.
The fearful spread of this pestilence
has awakened very general public
sentiment in favor of national sanitary
administration, which shall not only
control quarantine, but have the santa
ry supervision of internal commerce in
times of epidemics, and hold an advise
~ relation to the State and municipal
health authorities, with power 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 session of Congress to
provide the means for carrying it into
practical operation during the past sea-
son, is a step in the direction here indi-
Gated. In view of the necessity for the
most effective measures, by quarantine
and otherwise, for the protection of our
seaports and the country generally,
from this and other epidemics, il is re-
commended that Congress give to he
whole subject early and careful consid-
Grafton.
TIE SOUTHERN QUESTION.
The permanent paciHcation of the
country by the complete protection of
all citizens in every civil and political
night continues to be of paramount in
terest with the great body of our people.
Every step in this directionis welcomed
with public approval, and every inter-
ruption of steady and uniform progress
to the desired consummation awakens
general uneasiness and widespread
condemnation. The recent congression-
al elections have furnished 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 infu-i
ences, real or imaginary, had been re-
moved from all of these States.
The three constitutional amendments
which conferred freedom and equality
of civil and political rights upon the
colored people of the South, were adop-
ted by the concurrent action of the great
body of good citizens who maintained
the authority of the national govern
ment and the integrity and perpetuity
of the Union at such cost of treasure
and life, as wise and necessary en-
bodiment In the organic law of the just
results of the war The people of the
former slsFe-holding States accepted
these results, and gave, in every prac-
ticable form, assurances that the thir-
teenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amend
ments, and laws passed in pursuance
thereof, should in good faith, be en-
forced rigidly and impartially, in letter
and in spirit, to the end that the hum
blest citizen, without distinction of race
or color, should, under them, receive
full and equal protection In person and
property and in political rights and
privileges. By these constitutional
amendments the Southern section of
the union obtained large increase of
political power in Congress and in the
electoral college, and the country just
ly expected that elections would pro-
csed, as to the enfranchised race, upon
the same circumstances eff legal and
constitutional freedom and protection
HulCu OOtd1uOU III Ill ul10 ObnCI OO1tCE
of the union. The friends of law and
order looked forward to the conduct
of these elections, as offering to the gen.
eral Judgment Of the country an
important opportunity to measure the
degree in which the right of suffrage
could be exercised by the colored peo-
pie, and would be respected by their
fellow-citizens but a more general
enjoyment of freedom Of suffrage by
the colored people, and more just and
generous protection of that freedom by
the communities of which they form q
part, were generally anticipated than
the record of the election discloses. In
some of those States IN which the color
ed people have been unable to- make
their opinions felt in the elections, the
result is mainly due to influences not
easily measured or remedied by legal
protection but in the States of Louisi-
ana and South Carolina at large, and 10
some particular congressional districts
outside of those States, the records Of
the elections seem to compel the con-
clusion that the rights of the colored
voters have been overridden, and their
participation in the elections not per.