The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-28
Declares Social Equality Cannot
 Be Forced
EMANCIPATION GODS WORK
Ohio Senator Says That Southern States Enacted a Great Deal of Unjust Legislation and This
 Caused Amendments.

Bellefontalne, O., July 27.-Recent remarks on the race question by United States Senator Tillman of South Caro- lima before a similar Ohio gathering | brought an extra extended answer by United States Senator Foraker of Ohio in an address to the Chautauqua as- sembly at this place today.
 In part, Senator Foraker said: Before taking up anything else, I want to speak briefly in answer to statements of Senator Tillman. He has been making a speech in Ohio. It was on the race problem. This is his favor ite topic. He Is at his best when he talks on that subject. but his best Is also his worst
 He Is one of the frankest and one of the ablest men the south has ever produced. Every one is fond of him a man, but his views on this ject are so extreme that but few of his colleagues in the Senate, if any of them, fully agree with him. In this latest speech he Is quoted as saying: If after the war the north had not in its passion and sectional hatred, gone far beyond the bounds of reason, decency and righteousness, there would be no race problem today.
 "'We resent and resist the doctrine of equality under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments.
 "'You have done wrong. The north has done wrong. It can remedy the feeling by repeating the fifteenth amendment and letting the state con- trol the franchise.'
 No Social Equality.
 "All the way through, his discussion is in the nature of a protest against social equality. Nothing could be more wide of the mark. Everybody under stood then, as now, that social equality cannot be forced upon anybody.
 "The purpose of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments was to provide political equality, to put all citizens of the United States, whether rich or poor, white or black, upon the same plane, so far as political rights of citi- zenship were concerned. What I want to answer Is his charge as to hatred and passion, the fourteenth and f1f- teenth amendments to the constitution were forced upon the south and that, in this way, the north needlessly pre- cipitated upon the south the evils tn ey suffered during the reconstruction period. These amendments if not fully demanded by the war itself, were made necessary by the situation created by the seeding states immediately after the war"
 Conditions After War.
 Senator Foraker discussed conditions at the close of the war at considera ble length and then continued:
 If they had accepted the fourteenth amendment there would not have been any fifteenth amendment, for with the fourteenth amendment accepted and all the seceding states restored to their places in the government, the ratifca- ton of the fifteenth amendment by the requisite number of states would have been ar impossiblity If, therefore, there De any fault to find with anybody on account of the fifteenth amendment, 1t rests with these seceding states for they, by their failure to accept the fourteenth amendment not only compelled recon struction, but precipltated a submission and ratification of the fifteenth amend ment.
 'They accentuated all this by their treatment of the freedmen. It would be difficult to exaggerate the unfriendly character of the legislation affecting them that was enacted Immediately after the war, in most of the seeding states.
 Unjust Legislation.
 'lt is no exaggeration to say that the spirit of this legislation was not jus tice, but injustice, and that of the most malicious and revengeful character. This kind of legislation, coupled with refusal to accept what was thought to be the generous terms of the fourteenth amend ment, naturally created a public senti- rnent in the north that secured the rati- ication of the fourteenth amendment and led to the fifteenth ar ldment by which 1t Is provided that no state should have the right to deny or abridge the right to vote on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. There was never a time except only when the fifteenth amendment was adopted that 1t could have been adopted and there has never been time since 1t was adopt ed when it could have been repealed, simply because 1t was right then and is right now. It was great forward step in the recognition by the govern ment of the right of citizens governed to narticipate in their government and to have equal protection under It. IT in some places 1t has failed to bring good results. that fact Is due more to the bad faith that has been practiced to de- feat its purpose than to any inherent trouble.
 All Work of God.
 Except only to state these facts Of his- tory. I have no desire to pursue this subject further at this time but I can not help remarking that God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to per from. Out of the vanity and folly of Andrew Johnson and the obduracy and unreasonable conduct of the seeding states came the conditions that pre- vented the people from stopping short in the work of establishing the doctrine of human equality before the law for all men. That was not the work of the republican party or the people of the north, but from the ever-living God. The noble men, who were the actors were but His instruments to register His de- crees."