Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-09-18

resumed, but business activity and profitable
employment for capital and labor have come
also. The chief industry and interest of thi
valley-the great iron Internationally begins
condition, and I therefore heartily congratulate
all classes of citizens in this large assemblage
on the present favorable business situation
and on the bright and encouraging prospects
which the future holds out.
WHAT DID THE WAR SETTLE?
There is subject interesting to every citizen,
and especially to those who served in the Union
army, in regard to which wish to say a few
words. Since our last reunion, in several of
the States and in Congress, events have occurred
which have revived the discussion of the cues
ton as to the objects for which we fought in
the great conflict from 1861 to 1865, and as to
what was accomplished by the final triumph of
the Union cause. The question is, what was
settled by the war? What may those who
fought for tho Union justly claim, and what
ought those who fought for secession faith
fully to accept as the legitimate results of the
war?
An eminent citizen of our State, MIR.
Groesbeck, said some years ago, that "war
tional amendments as part of the legisla-
ton of the war for the Union, and said, with
significant emphasis, ''and they will stand.''
The equal rights amendments are the legisla-
ton of the war for the Union. and they ought
stand. Great wars always legislate. little
more than a hundred years ago this land, where
we now are, was claimed and held by France.
that claim, and the result was the transfer of
the title and Jurisdiction of this entire section
of the country to England. For a few years
its chief ruler was the English king.
The revolution followed, and the question of
its ownership was again the subject of war
legislation, and it became part of the United
States, no longer under monarchy, but under
a free republican government.
STATES RIGHTS.
need not enter into any discussion of the
causes of orr civil war. We all know that the
men who planned the destruction of the Union
and the establishment of Confederate States,
based their attempt on a construction of the
constitution called the State-rights doctrine,
and on the interest of the people Of those
States in the extension and perpetuation of
slavery. The doctrine of State rights was,
that each State was sovereign and supreme,
and might nullify the laws of the Union, or
secede from the Union at pleasure. They held
that slavery was the natural and normal con-
dition of the colored man, and that, therefore,
slavery in this country could and should be
the corner stone of free government.
The President then proceeded to quote at
length from Mr.. Lincoln's speeches, to show
that he held that the States were subordinate
to the general government. He continued:l
These are the great fundamental principles,
affirmed on one side and denied on the other,
upon which the appeal was made to the god of
battles. l do not undertake to review the de-
bate as to the nature and powers of the govern
ment of the Union, and as to the doctrine of
State rights, which began with the foundation
of our institutions, and which was continued
until it was hushed by the clash or arms. 1t
as matter of history all of the political par
ties of the past, when charged with the respon-
sibility of directing the affairs Of the govern
ment, have maintained in their practical ad-
ministration Of it, precisely the same
principles which were held by
Pr sident Lincoln. The principles as
to the powers of the national government which
We're acted upon by Washington aud Jackson,
and which are sustained by the decisions of
Chief Justice Marshall, and by which Lincoln
and the Union armies crushed the rebellion
and rescued the republic, are among the legiti-
mate and irreversible results of the war which
ought not to be questioned.
ACCEPTING THE AMENDMENTS
Touching the remaining important contro-
versy Settled by the war, the public avowals Of
opinion are almost all in favor of the faithful
acceptance of the new constitutional amend
ments. On this subject the speeches of public
men and the creeds and platforms of the lead
ing political parties have for some years past
been explicit. In 1872 all parties in their re-
spective national conventions adopted resolu-
tions recognizing the equality of all men be-
fore the law, and pledging themselves, in the
words of the Democratic national convention,
ito maintain emancipation and enfranchise-
ment, and to oppose the reopening Of the ques-
tions settled by the recent amendments to the
constitution" In 1876, the great political
parties again, in the language Of the st. Louis
national convention, affirmed their devotion
to the constitution of the United States, with
its amendment universally accepted as final
settlement of the controversies that engen-
dered the civil war;
AFRAID FOR THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.
Notwithstanding these declarations, we are
compelled to take notice that, while very few
citizens anywhere would wish to re-establish
slavery if they could, no one would again at
tempt to break up the Union by secession,
there still remains in some communities dan
gerous practical denial to the colored citizens
of the political rights which are guaranteed to
them by the constitution as it now is. In the
crisis Of the war Mr.. Lincoln appealed to the
responded to the call, enlisted in the Union
armies and fought for the Union
cause under the Union flag. Equality
of rights for the colored people,
from that time, thus became one of the essen
tial issues Of war. Gen. Sherman said: ''When
the fight is over, the hand that drops the mus
ket cannot be denied the BALLOT Jefferson
said long before: ''The man who fights for the
country is entitled to vote" When, with the
help of the colored men, the victory was gain.
ed, the fifteenth amendment followed naturally
as one of its legitimate results. No man can
truthfplly claim that he faithfully accepts the
true settlements of the war, who sees with in
difference the fifteenth amendment practically
nullifed.
CoIoRED LABoRERs.
The colored people are the laborers who pro.
duce the cotton which, going abroad to the
markets of the world, gives us that favorable
balance of trade which is now doing SO much
for the revival of all business. The whole
fabric of society rests upon labor. II free la.
borers suffer from oppression and injustice
they will either become discontinued and tur-
bulent destroyers of property, and not produc
ers of property, or they will abandon the com.
munities which deprive them of their inalien'
able rights. In either case, social order and
the peaceful industries upon which prosperity
depends are imperilled and perhaps sacrificed
1t will not do to say that this is an affair which
solely belongs to the distant States of TIE
South. The whole country must
suffer if this question is no,
speedily settled, and settled rightly
Where the two races are numerous, prosperity
can only exist by tho united and harmonious
efforts of both the white people and the colored
people. The only solid foundations for peace
and progress in such communities are equa
and exact justice to both races. Consider the
present situation? Whatever complaints may
have been heard during the progress of recon
struction, candid men must admit that all sec
tions and all States are now equally regarded
and share alike the rights, the privileges, and
the benefits of the common government. All
that is needed for the permanent pacifcatior
OF the country is the cordial co. operation of al
well-disposed citizens to secure the faithful oh
servance of equal rights amendments of the
constitution.