Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-10-20
The Southern Question.

The Southern Question.
From the report of Mr. Blaine's speech in
Philadelphia, on the 10th, in the Press of
that city, We copy the following in regard to
the southern and labor question, in which he
spoke fully and nrcibly upon those i'm
portant subjects.
THE SOUTHERN QUESTION"
One of the honorable speakers who preced-
ed me referred to the question which 10 many
Of our preceding years has been debated as the
southern question, and which greve to say,
from the discussion of which, the republican
party has been somewhat shamed by unw0r
thy influences. beg TO present one or two
ideas upon that question. | do it the more
readily, because | am here as the guest OF the
young republicans, and | want to speak Of
some facts that antedate their experience.
One of the most common accusations is that
the republican party got NJ more than it de-
served for forcing negro suffrage on the
south. Now | stand here to deny that, and
call all men beyond 80 years of age to attest
what say. Bnt | especially call upon my
friend, with whom served years in Congress
(Judge Kelley to attest the accuracy of my
narrative. When the republican party APP
preached the question of reconstruction there
was not one man IN 10000 that then thought
OF forcing suffrage upon the colored men
of the south. They practically said to
the white men of the south: You
have very large number of men
without education suddenly made
free, they need education, they need
experience. They need training and we will
readmit you into the Union and leave that
question for you to solve yourself" And in
that spirit and to that end we submitted to the
States the fourteenth amendment to the Con-
sttuti0n. | think Am correct in saying that
we voted to bring Tennessee in upon tele
graphic information that she promptly
agreed to the amendment and that every 9TH
er State promptly rejected it. That recon
struction bill said that hereafter, instead of
being citizens of the United States because
we are citizens of some individual State, We
shall be cItiz,ns Of the United States, and in
virtue of that fact be citizens of any State in
which we may choose to reside. In the next
place. we said, "Here is great debt incurred
in saving the Union and we ought not to
leave that debt subject to the adverse MAORI
ty in Congress" and therefore its sacredness
and its obligation to pay 1t was Incorporated
in the amendment.
HOSE w no DIED AND DIED.
And beyond that we said "Here are thou
sands and tens of thousands OF men who have
been bruised and bleeding, and tens of thou
sands of others Who went down to death, and
their widows and orphans must be taken
care Of" and the obligation to pay pensions
was embodied in that amendment. And this
was also embodied, that the active men in the
rebellion should not be permitted to partici-
,,..l ,,t
the United States until their disabli-
ties were removed by a two-thirds vote.
The. provision was put in, "Y0u shall
regulate your own suffrage. but on this con-
diton, that it you exclude any number of
men from the right to vote you shall cut down
your representation IN Congress in the same
proportion as you carry on the exclusion"
We said to the South .'Tou shall come in
under these terms. We no longer submit TO
the old rule, which first made chstels of men
and then said three titths of these chattels
shall be represented in Congress. The rebels
their hands still dripping in the blood of
Union men, said eve shall not be content
with the old three-fifshs representation We
want To exclude the cOlored men altogether
from participation in suffrage, and we want
to count them in our representation and thus
get the five fifths of our representation" 1t
was then that the republican party said to the
white men of the South: "lf you will go
with us to reconstruct the Union all will be
we'll. II YOU reject those terms we will call
upon the whole body of people in the South
and the loval cuiored man, who in the Judge
ment OF the republican Congress was better
voter than any reconstructed rebel who
would not consent to any form of govern
ment. Applause.
", ,hatt hut
struction act they came in, but soon as
they get possession they trampled on every
thing to which they had agreed and said,
You can endow these men with suffrage,
but we will show you that they can't exercise
it :" and from that time to this they have put
thirty-five fraudulent representatives, IN al
most every Congress since they got control.
At first they said 1--WE will not have any
colored representatives here No, they
didn't say that all; they said we won't have
no niggers here" They cut that out. Then
they said ''we won't have any white men that
come from the NORTH so that the carpet
baggers all had to leave.
A LABOR PROBLEM.
In three of the Southern States the ma or
ity of the population is on the parc of the
colored vote and in many districts of the rest
the colored man largely Outvotes them, If al
lowed to vote. | was rash enough few
weeks ago in public speech in Maine to
point out that the Northern workingman was
already and would be still more day after day
and year after year-thrown into competition
and flooded with million and a half of
Southern workers with dark skin, and that
with the rate of wages paid to that million
aud a half of colored men in the South the
competition against white labor was going to
be rulnous.
| repeat here that while you pay 81 rs to
men who are making pig iron in Pennsy lvania
and Ohio, they are making pig iron in Ala
bama and paying seventy-tve cents dsv !;
and those two products must meet in the same
market. The democratic party is answerable
tor it. They wish, on the one side, to break
down the tariff and throw the Northern labor
ing man into competition with foreign ill-paid
labor. and at the same time, by maintaining
the dominance of the Southern democracy to
bring up the / 800, 900 and soon-to-be 2,000,-
600 workers upon not more than halt the
wages that Northern men get, in many cases
49, "a - sr