The Van Buren press., 1879-01-14
\ Rcniuiscenee Suggested by Mr.
EiaIne's Speech.

Baltimore sun one statement made
/ by the Senator from Maine, will bear cs
pocial examination. Mr. Blaine said
that he doubted :. If ii be in the power
ol the most searching investigation to
show that in any Southern state duflag
the period Of Republican control, any
legal voter was ever debarrcd from the
ircest exercise of his suffrage, We sup.
pose that Mr.. Blaine has forgotten the
days, although he was then IN active
member of congress, when thirty thou
sand voters Of Maryland, eighty thou.
sand in Tennessee, and sixty thousand III
Kentucky were dsfranchiscd under III,
genious test-oath and moral intimidation
devices but there are other facts IN
connection with the history of the adop-
ton OF this very same fourteenth amend
mcnt which Mr.. Blaine must have for
gotten, and which illustrate his readiness
to adopt the most wholesale and cXsten-
sive scheme of distianchisement was ut
that time, and even before its adoption,
predicted by its author, not because out
rage and fraud were expected at the
polls, but because the southern white
men were permitted to vote ut all until
the fabric Of reconstruction was, as the
phrase went, 4" consolidated The four
leenth amendment, the acceptance of
which, it must be remembered, was made
Il condition sine qaa non to the "recon-
struction" Of all southern states, was the
work of the Joint committee OF fifteen
ON reconstruction in the 39th congress OF
which committee rhaddeus Stevens was
chairman. This committee, on the 3oth
OF April, 1866, reported to the house 4
Joint resolution providing for an amend
ment to the constitution. This amend
ment was substantially that which is
now known rs the fourteenth amend
ment, except the third section which
read as follows: "Sceton B. Until the
4th of July, in the year 1870, all persons
who voluntarily adhered to the late in
Surreetion, giving it aid and comfort,
shall be excluded from the right to vote
for representatives in congress and cleo
tors for president Of the United States"
This section which was ardent y suppor
tod by the leading republicans, including
Mr.. Blaine, who spoke i'll its favor, was
stricken ont in the senate, on motion OF
Mr.. Reverdy Johnson, by II unanimous
vote. In the house, however, the reso-
luton, with the section included, was
adopted By n vote of l2S to 81, Mr..
Blaine's name being recorded in the
affirmative. 1t will be seen from this
that Mr.. Blaine was in favor of the dis
tranchisemcnt of practically the entire
white voting population OF the southern
states, and, as he coniesses, he supported
negro representation and suffrage III
those states from no other motive than
because he wanted to add 80 votes to the
republican strength i'll congress. But he
must have known ut the time, from the
vaticination of Mr. Thaddeus Stevens
that the South could only be kept repub-
lican by continuing the disiranchiscment
of the southern whites. Without that
" vital proposition, as Mr.. Stevens said,
q the amendment amounts to nothing. |
do not care the snap OF my finger
ii be passed or not, if that be
stricken out II that section were not
retained, he said. before The amendment
could be got to work, :" that Sde OF tie
Hoasc rW be fIed tetd getting secesSioa-
io@iSts and Kissing roPperheads. Give us
the third section, or give us nothing "
As Mr. Blaine voted with Mr.. ..SleY.p, IS,
= solid south would be the ucccs ,arv
result OF the defect in the fourteenth
amendment. Mr.. Blaine and Nj. Ste
vrns, in short, both knew the truth of
what Mr.. Thurman tohl the senator on
Wednesday, that in the end the inteli,
gcnre and property Of the South were
bound to rule that section and to CON
troll its representation, just us the same
clements controlled in the North.