The record-union., 1891-01-30
THE DEFEAT OF INGALLS,.

senator luSillS Oh hd1lSaS was The ell
bodiment and exponent of the best tradi-
tons of the Republican party. He repre-
scented State where the leading canons
of thought were adhered to with the
greatest intensity. The State of Kansas
was very citadel of Republican tenets.
The party itself, as a national party, had
its birth in the contention between the
two doctrines of State sovereignty and
national unity. The legal principle under
lying the war grew out of the issue, Has
Congress right to legislate as to slavery
in the Territory? The doctrine of squat
ter sovereignty, as advocated by Doug
las, left the question of slavery to the
people of Territory equally with those
of State. The doctrine of States
rights, advocated by jeff Davis, Breckin-
ridge and compeers, carried that species
of property recognized as property in the
slave-holding States into Territories on
equal footing with property recognized
as such in the free States. A pro-slavery
Supreme Court in the Dred-Scott case de-
cided that slavery went wherever it was
not prohibited. Slavery was the rule and
freedom the exception. Slavery could
exist wherever there was not legal prohi-
bition and was, therefore, national, while
the institutions of the free States were
1ectional. The doctrine of States rights
rotted into treason and rebellion. The
secession of South Carolina and the con-
tention of constitutional right of Sc
cession was a logical outgrowth of the
States rights doctrine. The war was fought
and victory was won, and the victory,
when crystallized into legislative ex-
preston, resulted in the adoption of
three amendments to the Constitution of
the United States. The second and most
important was the Fourteenth Amend
ment, which declared that no State should
deny to any citizen the equal protection
of its laws. Thus, since the organic law
of the Republic declared that no State
should deprive any citizen of the equal
protection ofthe law, it took upon itselfthe
duty of protecting citizens of the United
States against all wrong and injustice
The doctrine that it is the duty of the Gov
eminent of the United States to protect
any citizen of any State in his right to
vote, when denied that right either by
mob violence or by legislative enactment
is essentially Republican doctrine. All
the blood and treasure poured out for the
preservation of the Union will have con-
ferred no good upon this nation whenever
the doctrine of the Thirteenth, Four
tenth and Fifteenth Amendments are re-
pudiated.
reversed the victory of every successful
battlefield in the late war of the rebellion.
The triumph of Meade at Gettysburg be-
comes victory for the army of Robert
e. Lee on the floor of the Senate of the
United States, when that body declares
that it will not protect the negro in the
suffrage right conferred upon him by the
Constitution of the United States. The
words: "No State shall deprive its citi-
zens of the equal protection of the law"
become meaningless verbiage unless stat
utes are enacted to enforce this con-
stitutional provision. If the negroes
of the South are permitted free access
to the ballot-boX. if there are no meas
ures which deprive them of the privilege
of the elective franchise, if, in short, the
claim of Northern copperheadism that
the negroes are permitted to vote be true,
self should not welcome Federal super
vision of Federal elections, or the cleo
tons of Federal officers. 1t is evident
that the Southern opposition TO Fed
eral election law arose out of the fact that
the negro is deprived of the elective
franchise. The opposition is the most
open, undisguised and candid admission
of the fact that the negro is not permitted
to vote in the Southern States The Con-
stitution made him q citizen of the coun-
try, and this admission of the South that
he is not permitted to exercise the rights
of citizenship is an admission that the
Constitution is violated and outraged. At
most, the proposition of Federal super
vision of elections of Federal officers
meant to secure to each citizen an equal
right to exercise the franchise when