The Appeal., 1903-11-07

, that the zoYerthrow$of slavery, should
be complete and final. Z Congress at
fnnee placed tho Union men, OF the l
South. whether black or white, under
the protection of the federal govern
ment. {
This accomplished, measures were
taken to submit the 18th constitutional
am nendment to the people. BY this
amendment, the laws through which
the provisional governments had at
tempted to re-enslave the Afro-Amer'
lean were swept away. The freedman
was invested with the rights and dig
nifty of citizen of the United States.
He was not enfranchised, but he could
no longer be the victim of penal state
laws designed to hold him in servlle
subjugation. The rights and benefits
conferred upon him were simply those
to which every human being is en-
titled, whether he be black or white,
drunk or sober, criminal or virtu-
-u2, ignorant or educated. Had the
rebellious states accepted this amend
n:ent, Mr.. Blaine and other high au-
thorities declare they might have
re-entered the Union without further
conditions. Tennessee accepted it and
IVES the first to be readmitted. The
ctLers, ten in number, through their
provisional governments, rejected it
with contempt. Commenting upon
this fatal blunder of the Southern
Bourbons, Mr.. Garfield, then in Con-
gress and subsequently President OF
the United States, said: : u .~.a:
II call attention to the fact that
from the collapse of the rebellion to
the present time, Congress has under
taken to restore the states lately in
rebellion by cooperation with their
people; and that our efforts in that
direction have proven a. complete and
disastrous failure The con-
stitutional amendment did not come
up to the full height of the great occa-
sion. It did not meet all Il desired
in the way of guarantees to liberty,
but, if the rebel states had adopted 1t
as Tennessee did, should have felt
bound to let them in on the same
terms prescribed for Tennessee.
have been in favor of waiting to give
them full time to- deliberate and t9
act. They have deliberated. They
have acted. The last one of the sin
full ten has at last, with contempt and
scorn, flung back in our teeth the mag
unanimous offer of a generous nation.
It is now our turn to act. They would
not cooperate with us in building
what they destroyed. We must re-
move the rubbish and build from the
bottom ..,,. =.
A complete surrender to the south
ern confederacy being out of the ques-
ton, our government was confronted
with two Alternatives to hold
the South under military subsection
indefinitely or to enfranchise the Afro
American. At critical period of the
war, we had appealed to him. to fight
for the life of the nation, and nearly
200, 900 of his race had enlisted In the
army, Braver or better soldiers peV-
er wore the federal military uniform.
Again we asked him to help save the
Union, not by military service, but
by political action. Ignorant he might
be, but his loyalty was undoubted and
he could be relied upon to bring back
the seeding states with governments
that would conform to the constitution
of the United States and would, so
far as law could accomplish it, secure
to every inhabitant, black or white,
poor or rich, humble or exalted, the
rights of a freeman. On the I'd of
March, 1867, Congress passed recon
part, as follows:
THAT when the people Of any one
of said rebel states shall have formed
a constitution of government in con-
formity with the constitution of the
United States in all respects, framed
by a convention of delegates elected
by the male citizens of said state, 21
years old and upward, of whatever
race, color or previous condition,
and when said state, by a
vote of it's Legislature elected under
said constitution, shall have adopted
the amendment to the constitution of
the United States proposed by the
39th Congress and known as art. IA,
and when said article shall have be-
come a part of the constitution of the
United States, said state shall be de-
clared entitled to repres entation in
Congress-, ETC., etc. The Afro-Ameri-
cans responded promptly. Conven-
lions were held, constitutions formed
and approved by the people, State gov
ernments organized, legislatures. elect
ell. and the 14th amendment ratified.
Under the protection of the federal
government every man, black or white,
who went to the polls, cast his ballot
without let or hindrance. Z
On Feb. 26.. 1869. Congress passed
the 18th amendment, by which i'm
partial suffrage became the fundamen-
tai law of the country. ...--.
ANY one who will read the Congress
sional Globe Of the reconstruction. Pc
riod, or the more accessible work of
Mr.. Blaine referred to above, may
learn that the suffrage was not con-
ferred upon the Afro-Americans in or
der to humiliate the rebels; was not
hastily accomplished, and was not as
you seem to think, the outcome of "a
purely political interest based on a
desire to secure votes for their IRE
publican] party and maintain it in con-
troll of national affairs. . The record
shows that it was arrived at only by
slow and well-considered steps, and
was only resorted to after white rule
had been patiently tried and had
failed To what extent Congress, in
it's decision, was inspired by political
partisanship may be inferred from a
letter addressed to and published by
the Boston Herald on May 19, 1900,