Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-03-15
PORTION OF A SPEECH BY HON.
JAMES II. CHALMERS,
OF EKISSK&SEPPK,
In the House of Representatives,
Thursday. February %. 1879.


Thursday. February 27. 1879,
On the contested election case of Rlchardsc
vs. Rainey, from the First Congress
sional District Of South Carolina.
Mr.. Chairman shall leave tn
discussion of the facts in this case
the gentlemen of the Committee {
Elections and the members fron
South Carolina, and address mysel
more particularly to the unwarrant
ed assumption that negroes are al
Republicans and that their suffrag
is suppressed in the South.
! have been twice elected from
the Sixth District of Mississippi. anC
the last time almost without Opposi
tiOn; and as my election has beer
referred to as an impossibility,
deem it due to myself and my dis
trict to reply. The origin and pur
pose of negro suffrage, although bui
recently adopted into our elective
/ system, seem already to have beer
forgotten by many, and | have beer
astOniShed to see how much igno
rance or willful misrepresentation
is constantly exhibited on this sub.
Iject. Such lea ers as Mr.. Lincoln
and Senator Morton made early and
earnest protests against negro suf-
frage, and all the better-informed
negroes understand that the fifteenth
amendment was adopted, not to
benefit the negro, but to swell the
power of the Republican party.
And now that it has failed to ac-
compliSh that purpose, the same
| party would repeal it to-day if they
could. said to the negroes in the
canvass of 1876 that it would not be
long before the Democrats of the
South would be defending their
right of suffrage against the Repub-
licans of the North, who would be
attempting to take it away from
them but the time has come sooner
than 1 expected 1t. General Grant
initiated the movement when he
recommended in his message 10
Congress that suffrage should be
limited by educational qualifica-
tions. The gentleman from Maine
Mr.. Frye] uttered the honest senti-
ments of his party last session in the
Dean VS.. Field ease when, speaking
of negro suffrage. he said 81 some
times wish we had not given it,
because to-day it is putting increased
power into the hands of the South
and none into the hands of colored
men," And now the gentleman
from California Mr.. PagR1 proposes
by act of Congress to declare all the
negroes of South Carolina disfran-
chised. AS the representative of a
eolored district, in the name of my
constituents ] must protest against
this revolutionary movement of
these rebellious Republicans. While
/ have been astOnished at Others,
was still more astOnished at the
message of the President. He tells
US that the amendments which
gave suffrage to the negro gave in
creased representation to the South,
and that we were therefore bound
in honor and good faith to see this
suffrage fairly exercised, and this
he asserts we have not done.
maintain that in Mississippi this
suffrage is fairly exercised; but the
statement of the message as to our
increased suffrage, to say the least
of it, shows an ignorance on the
subject lamentahle in the President
of the United States.
The amendments to the Constitu-
ton which gave suffrage to the
negro tended to cut off rather than |
increase the representative power of
the South. Under the old Constitu- |
tion free negroes were enumerated |
everywhere as basis of representa- |
ton, and the moment the slave was !
emancipated the representative |
power of the South was increased.
Under the old Constitution the |
white men of the North absolutely |
cast the ballot for the free negroes |
of the North, who were not permit |
ted to vote, and the moment the |
slaves were emaneipated the white |
men of the South were equally en-
titled to cast absolutely the ballot |
for the free negroes of the South. |
But to prevent this the Republican |
party commenced at once to tinker /
with the old Constitution, and passed |
the fourteenth amendment, which |
was the most insidious blow ever |
struck at the Southern people, The |
man who drew it understood well /
the Southern character, and knew |
that the white men of the South /
would prefer q reduction of their /
to the enfranchising |
of their former slaves. 1t was an |
artitice of cruel refinement to make
the South her own eXecutiOner, and |
if that amendment had been per-
mitted TO stand unaltered the power
Of the South would have been
weakened forever. But the Repub-
lican party sin its vaulting ambition
o'erleaped ITSELF" The carpet-bag
harpies who spread over the South
saw it was goodly land to be
and they persuaded their
in Congress to adopt the
fifteenth amendment that they
the aid of Negro suffrage
might rule over the South as a con-
quered province. If the President
had remembered the history of
these eamendmentS he would scarcely
have made the mistake in his mes
sage, and he would have had no
for his charge OF bad
them. A Presidential aspirant from
Maine, with more adroitness, insin-
yates, but does not assert, that
electoral votes have been
conferred upon the South by reason
Of negro suffrage, and that "the
Democratic party had seized and
it to its own power"
by refusing to allow the negro to
vote. He kneW that it was emanci-
patton and not enfranehisemsnt Of
the negro that added representative
strength to the South, and that If
tkirty-tive electoral votes are ac-
corded to the South on account of
the negro population only two-fifths
of that strength was conferred by
The South had
of the same strength in
the days of slavery, and then as
now the Republican party de-
the Constitution because it
gave more political power to the
white men of the South than to the
white men of the North, and the
passions of the North were then ap-
pealed to because in this govern
ment, which they then said was 4
white mans government, made by
white men, and for white men,
''five black slaves were counted the
equals of three free-born white
.,ao,, - AID fha Cap,a as.x ,rae |