The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-07

possessed the Federal right of apportion- ment for representation In every depart ment of the Government of the United States. Article 1, Section 3 of the Goa stitution of f7s7 expressly conferred tnis fundamental right upon free negroes and no state could put it's hand upon it with
 hostile Intent. Without this high rigat
 the technical name of citizen was de-
 lusi6n and a snare.
 But we see with perfect clearness that
 the report of the Committee divested the
 African of this ancient and very pre-
 caous Federal right to lodge 1t arbitsa-
 rIty m the separate States, each to com
 troi 1t at will A citizen of the United
 states denied by the separate State rep
 Eesentaticn in the Federal Government
 ana that by special permission of the
 ton.
 Hot debate prevailed in the Senate over the report. Thaddeus Stevens of inc 1ouse was Chairman of the Committee oI rl1teen. The Senate feared his radi- caisfn. Stevens was heard to say. hc
 had heard only one d--n fool say the measure was constitutional." A Senator remarkeo that Illinois then had con- stitutfonai proviso that made it A felony to harbor fugitive negro and forbade any negro right of entrance upon the soil. Other Northern States had laws severely discriminative against negroes
 President Johnson had just said. in his annual message, that he was unable to Destow the electorate upon the negro in the provisional governments he had set up in the South because the attempt mist
 have established change of suffrage
 Qaws) in the Northern Middle and Wes- tern States" Messages and Papers of the Presidents.
 Senator Fessenden from Maine spoke to the report. He favored race equality.
 but he was we'll convinced the Northern
 States would not ratify an article of amendment founded On that principle Senator Fessenden said: "If we repekA a provision of this kind, is there the slightest probability that it will be adopt ed by the States? It is perfectly evident
 that there can be no hope of that de- seription." Congressional Globe, 1st Sess, 8 Cong. Part 1. p. 7o4.)
 Just at that period in the consideration of the report in Congress, the financial
 Journals began to take alarm at the ex-
 pressions of President Johnson in his late
 message and elsewhere in regard to the validity of the public debt. The Presi-
 dent found gold at high premium. Tho paper evidences of national debt had been 1 obtained by investors and spectators at
 low price, some as low as 40 cents on
 the dollar. The President was unwilling
 to recognize the fu1i claims contended
 for by the holders of the debt Business
 was disturbed by his position. The friends of the debt charged him with
 purpose to repudiate large past of the face value of the national obligations. The Committee of Fifteen got back It's report for reconsideration. Three weeks passed before the report re-appeared in
 Senate. When 1t did come. there was
 found attached to 1t this additional pro- | viso:
 "No payment shall ever be made by the United States for or on account of the
 emancipation of any slave or slaves, or
 for or on account of any debt contracted | in aid of rebellion against the National government" Congressional Globe, list
 Session. S9 Cong, part 1, p. 70D. | Senator Henry Wilson was at once a
 man of great ability and of most ad-
 vanced radicalism. The debate on the
 amended committee report proceeded with
 zeal It was shown that great Northern
 interests were at stake in the mainten-
 ance of the public debt President Lin- i coin had more than once expressed de- | sire to compensate the South for slaves
 emancipated. If this idea prevailed, the Northern debt would be imperilled by in-
 ability of the country to pay it. The 1 North had conquered the South and the l South had outstanding a debt of hundreds l OA IuIlllOnS III EHBldnu anu elSeWuSFes
 The law of nations contemplated the lia-
 bility of the conqueror for the debt of the | conquered. . l Senator Wilson said from his seat: | ''The holders of the public securities, the l possessors of the currency founded on l the public faith, the scared veterans ot
 the republic, are hardly ready to eE- 1 trust their inheritance, ever so small, to 1 the men who have lost billions of doI- ! I, 1AaA Aa e~fvs rxf
 emancipated by the national authority;
 and the holders of thousands of millions | of Confederate bonds and obligations. 1 Speaking of the advantage of the l amended report, Senator Wilson con- l tinued: "I would hedge about the na- | tional debt with additional securities and
 make safer every interest of the country | and people. Let this second report be iri. corporated in the law of the Union be- | fore rebels lay their hands upon tns | statute book of the country or aid in
 shaping the future of the regeneratcd | Republic
 The question of actual motive i1 | the source of the Fourteenth Amendment l has never been available in political or 1 juridical controversy.
 We shall see that Sections 1, 2 and | are protective of the main proposition l of Section 4, to wit, the security of .ne national debt. Sections 1. 2 and tend 70 | weaken the normal influence of the Southern States in Congress and the l Southern States, dlsmantled by war and revolution from without, were too poor I to own any of the national debt, thds presumably were without sympathy with l protective legislation for 1t. Section IS | the undisputed feature of the artic.e. without the Fourteenth Amendment, the newly manumitted negro of the SoutA possessed precisely the same Federal
 rights as his young masters twenty-ohe years old, less one day, and the same as
 the proudest wives and daughters of ms 1 old masters. The Fourteenth Amendment gives the State the right to destroy that right.