Year: 1868

l repeat therefore, that the framer of the clause of the oath under discus sion did not intend to require thu } elector to swear, as condition O registering and voting, that he accepts it as fact that all men, everywhere are on a civil and political equality for the oath in that sense would b' false, and they themselves could no take it. Nor did they intend the cleo tor to swear that all men, everywhere should be upon such equality for wha business has an Arkansas convention to require mon here to take an oath ex pressing an opinion as to what should be the political and civil relations ol men in other states and countries

 What then is the true legal interpre' tation of this clause of the oath2 It is this: "that accept it as fact, that all men-that is the white man and the black man-are, by she existing con. stitution and laws of Arkansas, placed upon civil and political equality

 Well accept that as an existing fact, and am willing to swear to it as such; but in that oath make no ex- pression of opinion as to whether the constitution and laws which establish this fact should be permanent or tenn. porary In their duration; or whether the fact is founded in expediency or incxpediency, wisdom or folly. The elector may take the oath affirming his acceptance ofthe existing fact, whether he approves or disapproves of the policy of the fact.

 The naturalist, of cultivation and taste. observing the order of Provi- dence, properly places the buzzard in the lower, and the eagle in the higher class. And no man could truthfully swear that these birds are peers; but here in Arkansas man might well swear if such folly were required of him as condition of voting, that he accepts the civil and political equality of the two birds, because neither of them has any civil or political status, though the swift-winged and lofty soaring eagle is made tho proud sym bol of our nationality. Perhaps the radicals may substitute the buzzard In Tennessee, however, a man could not truthMlly swear to the civil equality of the two birds, for a statute prohibits the killing of the buzzard, and leaves the eagle at the mercy of the sportsman.

 l You arc willing to swear that you accept this as hot day, because it is such, and you may at the same time desire a continuation of the heat, or wish for the cooling breeze, and com ing shadows of evening.

 When the cold storm of winter pelts upon you, you may well swear that you accept the storm, because it is upon you, but you may at the same time wish the storm to abatc and the sun to reappear. If you like the sublimity of the storm, and the cold docs notrender you uncomfortable, you may desire it to continue. But if-you swear that you accept the storm as an existing fact, radical would hardly have you indicted for perjury for expressing a desire, after taking the oath, for a change of weather.

 We accept disease when it is not to be avoided. The sick man accepts and swallows, as an existing necessity, an offensive dose of physic, whilst he would greatly prefer something moro palatable. The dying man accepts death as an inevitable event, but sinks into the gloom of the grave with the pleasing hope that ere long the angel of the last day, standing with one foot upon the land and the other on the sea, shall proclaim the end of the dominion of death, and that the loud trump of the resurrection morn shall awake him to new and better life.

 So we accept the existing constitu- tion, of Arkansas, with all its oppres- sive provisions and objectionable oaths, as an existing evil, but we sink into the political grave which radicalism has dug for us, with the cheering and conf dent hope that, on the fourth of March next, Horatio Seymour, standing at the capitol of the nation, as it's honored chief, and extending one arm to the north and the other to the south, as if to embrace the whole country, shall proclaim in voice, swelled into tones J of thunder by the chorus of millions of applauding voices, that the dominion of radicalism has terminated, and the reign of constitutional liherty has re- vived.

 Second clause.-"And agree not to attempt to deprive any person or per sons, on account of race, color or pre- vious condition, of any political or civil right, privilege or immunity en- joyed by any other class of men,"

 We'll, agree to that in the sense in which it must be interpreted, and in the only sense in which the framers o the oath had power to prescribe it conceding for the purposes of the argu ment, that they were legally assembled as convention.

 That sense is this: the constitution by which this oath is prescribed throughout all of its provisions, place the black man upon civil and politi cal equality with the white man; ant the oath must be constructed to bint , the person who takes it, not to attemp