Year: 1868

foreigner


'Must appear In open court, and. after five years.
residence prove by the test mOny OF two citizens q
good moral acter and that he well disposed
wards the Cove rDment and institutions Of the United
States"


Sir these eoIored voters are all native-b born Am
erican citizens some OF them are of pure African
parentage, but many Of the most enterprising are
istOcratc families Of the sunny South and il was
only the other day that colored orator immortal
lied his parents by describing how quietly repOse in
q Virginia grave yard his once proud white father
and humble slave mother.


These emaneipated sons of toll need no indorsers
of their good characters and dispositions toward the
Government Of their country. TWenty-f million
people stand sponsors for them to-day. How nObly
they carried themselves during the bloody years of
war Their masters had proclaimed from every
stump in the South in the Republicans elected
Lincoln their slaves would all receive emaneipa-
ton. And every one Of them had heard the flying
story and all their simple trusting faith in God
ticipated the coming Of the kingdom and the year
of jubilee. They bounded to meet the advancing
columns of the Union on our first approach to the
lines Of rebellion but they were driven back to
their novels and chains or dragged from the Very
shadow of the stars and stripes by rebel masters 10
the auctiOn-blOck and slave-pen. What then was
the evidence Of their "good character and dspOsi-
tiOn toward the Governme mt of their country ?"
Quiet submission. And the n they were told by the





the Union without slavery if pos si0le, but with
slavery if unavoidable. Still they swallowed their
tears, stiHed their sighs, and only in mufled ac-
cents uttered, 'HOw long o Lord, how longV'


Finally they volunteered as soldiers knowing
their death warrants were signed in advance If cap
tured; and, even after the massacre of Fort Pillow
rushed into the depleted ranks and carried aOft the
hattle-tOrn banners red with the blood Of their
comrades. Never, no never while public virtue


lives and our hearts respond to the high behests OE
vu.D I. i
PEELED to appear in any court this side Of heavens
high chancery to prove their loyalty and good in
tiOns toward their native land


| was much astoRished at heari ng the Senator
charge disloyslty on the people o color. He ex-
claims:


LET US examine this bold assertion Is It true ?
Were the negroes loyal during the rebelliOnP Recall
the facts Who does not remember that least three
fOurths Of all the negroes in those States during the
whole war did all in their powor sustain the rebel
cause? They fed their armies they dug their trench
they built their fOTtncatOns they fed their Wo-
man and children. There no instructions, no
uprisngs, no effort any kind anywhere outside the
lines Of armies the part the negroes aid the
Union In whole districts in whole States even
where all the abe-bO lied white men conscripted
i1to the rebel army, the great mass Of negroes, Of
whose loyalty you boast, under the control woman
decrept old men and boys, did all they capable OF
doing to aid the rebellion"


Does be not know when the dug trenches and
built fortifg atiOns il under military superV ison
and that whe n they refused to rebel and massacre
their old, decrepit men and women and helpless
children they were making loyalty honor them fOr
their fidelity?


No, sir, it is not true that they did oil in their
power to sustain the rebel cause. They might have
enlisted with the rebels but they would not trust
them. Even when the last old man that could carry
a muSket ana she last boy that could stop Fede-
raj bullet were crowd ed into the ranks they
their perish for want of soldiers, while the
African held the balance cf power in the Federal
Thpv ivbt boy MI fbo houa in hIua


into ambush and battery; they might have carried
news Of our advances and maneuvers they might
have been spies as our servants and refugees; but
they toiled by day and travelled by night TO warn Us
Of danger, and were so universally true that an
enemy should scOrn to use the exception. l can
understand how the Senator from Wisconsin might
arrive at an astounding conclusion from false prem
ises, but am lost in astOnshment at This charge
confidently asserted and so clearly defined. The
Senator says:


1 ask, with all the earnestness Of which the soul is
capable, can any human being conceive OF measu SC
well culated to make the whole white people Of the
South, men, women and children, hate and lOathe
Government, hate it with peri hatred gather
around the family altar upon their bended knees to
curse It. and in the agony Of prayer to call upon God to
curse IT, this radical reconstruction which seeks to
anChiss the heart and brain Of the South and TO
subject the point OF the bayOnet the white to
the dominion Of their late half civilized African
slaves?"


If there is a crime about to be perpetrased which
would call IOr sucu d WOIlu Ol CuEobcB IL WOulu
stand to reason that the fact would be easy Of
detection it Ould stand out boldly everywhere.
He admits that in the beginning of the rebellion
a majority of the white people of the South were
opposed to secession.


Now. claim that this ma iority were forced in
to submission, and be admits the fact. The men
of "heart and brains" crowded upon them the fatal
cons euuences Of the IS tate rights" doctrine
These men led them through seas Of blood, caused
women to give up husbands, fathers, sons, and
brothers, to the bloody MOlOch Of war, eh.ldren to
become orphans. ami the whole frame work Of 30
ciety to be rent and torn asun nder.


WHY then should the whole white people Of
the South Join in this terrible eursng against the
country that seeks to restore the Olden flag that
they were compelled to betray because Of rebel
power and rule Why should not the pOF white
men, always at the mercy If the slave power and
always protesting desire to see Government in
the hands of the people, be ready TO see d dem-
ocracy established in which his superior intelli-
gence o the mass Of the voters would in due time
DIace him where the imperiOu lOrdling lately
stood snd waved his badge Of pOwer2 Why
should he not rejoice that there was virtue enough
to hold the ship Of state steadily on the track Of
safety, while he, in pratt al madness, sought u
traitors distinction and traitors doom


Mr.. President, Thomas jefferson, tho great apos-
tie of freedom and prophet Of the political future
wa ned this nation Of the day in which An humble
pray er of the lOwl would be answered.


srWhen the measure Of their tears should be full
when their groans should involved heaven itself
in Darkness doubtless God Of justice would awaken
to their distress"


But no such vision of bloody rebels in prayer ever
burst upon him as that which has so startled the
Senator from Wisconsin.


When the theory of the Senator the subject
of ''negro supremacy forced upon the South has
been brought to the test Of facts and figures 1t has
completely exploded. VIII ne oFgnlze ms euTslng
prayer-meeting in Virginia, where ll6 900 whites
and $4,000 cOlOred voters were registered and
tho vote for convention carried BY 3 majority
of As ass, showing that white men voting for con-
ven ton gave the majority, the col red began IN
minority of 1900 Will he organize it In North
Carolina, where 10000 whites were registered,
while the oOlOred were 1851, and yes the con
vention was carried by maj ority Of over $4,000?
Will he organise it in Georgia, where 1924 whites
were regist tered. while the eolOred were 80 ,458
and yet the convention was carried by over $4,000
mai Irity q?


Ii the negroes had been in the majority on the
register while they we're in minority in all the
rebel States, and then carried every constitution
by registered votes, might have been called
to explain how this state Of Affairs cane about.
But when the constitutions were carried where
they were in the minority. it became proof posi-
tive that free white men allowed it willingly, FOR
the power was all in their own hands. But ex-
Governor Brown, Of Georgia. has given the reasons
for this result in States where the negroes regis
tered majority He says:


The people North have been told lately that the acts
Of Congress establish supremacy and white sub
ordination In the South. The charge Is false Il =as
the pre- obtinacy OF the white refusing TO
take control that the negroes power in the
vention. There is fifteen thousand white majority in
Georgia With this majority and the bOasted SUPERIOR
ity race in intellect education experiences and
wealth, it is a libel the white say that ne
groes can rule intellect and capital aud control num-
bers everywhere"


The Governor further declares that Gen. Pope