Year: 1867

of State Conventions So did the


President. Has Congress authorized


their ratification? SO did the Presi


dent. But he ordered Conventions by


his Executive fiat and recognized their


Constitutions without their being sub


mittcd to the people. Congress re


quired the people-the registered vo


ters-to call the Convention them


selves and then to approve or reject


their work by popular vote.


Has Congress required the ratiica


ton of the Constitutional Amendment?


So did the President. Has Congress


established test oath? So did the
President. Our crime is, | suppose,


that we provided that those whom the


nation had made free should have the


trecmans ballot for their protection.


while the President did not. But the


results of his policy strikingly contrast


with the results of ours. The nation
looked on to see what fruits would re
suit from his action, and what were


they? In ncarl y every State the Reb-
ell power resumed its authority, and
became dominant in their executive,
legislative and judicial departments.
The vagrant and labor laws, virtually
re enslaving the emancipated, follow
ed, and murders, outrages, riots and
maSsacres crowned the whole. Loyal
men were under foot, and the revivi-
fled spirit of rebellion was triumphant.
With our duty to our country and
on our oath, we could not affirm and
legalize this policy, and hence the leg
lslatlVe action we have since taken.-
Approved in the past as we have been,
cannot doubt even more triumph.
ant endorsement hereafter.


The President appeals to the ballot
box, and so do we, and by its decision
we are willing to stand Or fall. In 1862.
in the darkest hour of the war, amid
disaster and reverse, the ballot box
sustained us, and returned a Republi
can majority in Congress. In 1861 we
were compelled to accept all the odum
of conscription, the heavy burdens OF
taxation necessary for our national
credit and to keep our flag flying in the
field, the charges Of our enemies that
men were being drafted from their
homes to free negroes, and the denun.
Citations against the war as failure
but with the simple motto Of 'our
country under the lead of our noble
President, (wOuld to God he was living
to day J we won magnificent tri
umph.


In 1866, when President Johnson
turned his back on the party which
elected him, traversed the country
making speeches, to be read by mil
lions, denouncing us-with his whole
Cabinet against US, with but one hon.
ored exception: Capplause, and cries OF
Stanton with the whole power and
patronage of the Government thrown
In the scale of our enemies, we appeal
ed again to the ballot box, winning the
most magnificent victory ever known
in our political history. But this will
be ecIipsed by the coming victory III
1860, when we shall place in the offices
OF the Government those who will be
faithful to liberty, justice and loyalty
We ask no more, and will accept no
less. And this victory will be swellcd
RECONSTRUCTED
South. When they return, as they
will, in accordance with the terms pre-
scrlbed in our legislation, they will re
turn with magnificent majorities for
the right. They will come back. led
as they must be, by those who have
been faithful to the Union in its dark
est hours. They will join with US of
the North, under the inspiring infu,
cnce of free labor and free men in the |
march of power, prosperity and pro
gress, and we will join with them in so
iegislating that hereafter, in this noble
land, there shall be no man so poor, so
or SO obscure that he cannot
look up to the American flag as his un
failing protection, and with the ballot,
which shall vindicato his rights, in his
own right hand Applause ] And
all the loyal people shall say amen and