The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-28
ANSWERS
 SEN. TILLMAN Foraker Plays for Negro
 Vote. SOUTH IS ALONE TO BLAME Brought on Itself Passage of Fifteenth Amendment.
  Pays High Tribute to Franknes. ana Ability of South CaroIinian, and Says He Loves Him
 Personally.
SOUTH IS ALONE TO BLAME


 marks on the race question by Senator Tillman of South Caralina before an Ohio gathering. brought an extra ex- tended answer by United States Sena- tor Foraker of Ohio in an address to the Chautauqua assembly at this place today. In part. Senator Foraker said. Before taking up anything else. [
 want to speak briefly in answer to
 some utterances of Senator Tillman.
 He has been making a speech in Ohio, Tt was on the race problem, his f@Vorite topic At his best. he talks on that subject. but his best is also hls worst. He is one of the frankest
 and one of the ablest men tho South ever produced. Every one is fond of him as a man, but his views on this
 subject are so extreme that but few
 of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate. if any after them. fully agree
 with him. In this latest speech be is quoted as saying:
 "Tf. 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. Tho North has done wrong. It can remedy tho feeling by repeating the Fifteenth
 Amendment. and letting the States control the franchise.'
 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 equal-
 itl cannot be forced upon anybody. ''Ths purpose of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments was to provid0
 political equality, to put all citizens Of
 the United States. whether rich or poor, white or black. upon tho same
 plane, so far as political rights of citi- zenship were concerned What l want l to answer Is his claim as to hatred and l passion, the fourteenth and fifteenth 1 amendments to the constitution were forced upon the South and that In this | way the North needlessly precipitated
 upon the South the evils they 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" a Discussed Reconstructfon. Senator Foraker discussed conditions at the close of the civil war at consid- erable length and then conttnued: If they had accepted the fourteenth amendment there would not have been any fifteenth amendment. for with the fourteenth amendment accepted ana all the seeding States restored to their places in the government the ratifca- tion of the fifteenth amendment by the reouisite number of States would have | been an impossibility. If therefore, | there be any fault to find with anybody, on account of tine fifteenth amendment | 1t rests with these seeding States fo4 they, by their failure to accept tho fourteenth amendment. not only com$ pelled reconstruction, but precipitated, a submission and ratihcatlon or the nts teenth amendment.
 They accentuated all this by their treatment of the freedmen. It would
 be useless to disguise the unfriendly character of the legislation affecting
 them that was enacted immediately af- ter the war. i
 Ut Is no exaggeration to say that the spirit of this legislation was not Justice but injustice, and that of the most malicious and revengeful char acter This kind of Legislation, coupled with refusal to accept what was thought to be the generous terms or, the fourteenth amendment naturally created a public sentiment in the north that secured the ratification of the fourteenth amendment and led to the fifteenth amendment by which It IS provided that no state should have the right to deny or abridge the right to vote on account of race. color or pre-. yious condition of servitude. There was never a time except only when the fifteenth amendment was adopted that it could have been adopted. and there has never been a time since 1t was adopted that 1t could have been re-
 pealed, simply because 1t was right then and Is right now. It was great forward step In the recognition by the government of the right of citizens governed, to participate In thetr gov ernment and to have equal protection under it. If some places 1t has failed to bring good result. that fact IS due more to the bad faith that has been practiced to defeat It's purpose than to any inherent trouble.
 Except only to state these facts Of history I have no desire to pursue this subject further at this time but can- not help remarking that God moves | in & mysterious way His wonders to perform 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 tho American people from stop ping short in the great work or es- tablishing the doctrine of human equality before the law for all men. | That was not the work of the repub- lican party or the people of the north hut of the ever living God The noble instruments to register His decrecs.