Year: 1867




ize any community Or political society,
leaving horse thieves and burglars and
incendiaries outside. We will organize
them with loyal people, such as can be
trusted with the rights of their fellow
men.


But you say the war is over-there
are no rebels now. That is what the
Attorney General and President John
son say. That is, you capture a man
to-day who is burglar, and the Sheriff
starts with him to Jail, and he makes
no resistance, admits he did break into
your house and try TO burn it down,
but says, ifyou will let me go now l
won't do it any more; you take him at
his word, and let him go scott free.
You don't do that way up here, l i'm
agine, and because Johnson says that it
is his his way Of treating rebels, it is
no evidence that you agree with him or
will consent to do it. There is but one
way TO meet the difficulty, and that is
to have the loyal men control the coun-
try in the South as well as in the
North. If they have no loyal men
down there, we will wait till they raise
them. We can do without their rep
resentatives in Congress. We ran the
war without them, and we can get along
without them a little longer.


But, says the Democrat, you are Civ
ing the negroes great power over the
white people, We are doing no such
thing. We are only trying to give
loyal men power over the disloyal, a
distinction so broad that even child
can discern it. If it was left to me
alone, would put a gulf between 10y
atty and disloyalty so broad and so
deep that every rebel would bury him
self in it if he attempted to steal across.


Next, they have holy horror Of ne
groes voting. Well, we have allowed
the negroes to vote in the District and
in Tennessee, and we are not ashamed
of it. Who has heard of any bad re-
suits from it in Washington? They
have the best set Of officers they have
had in ten years, and they are all white.
Possibly they would have been Just as
good if they had been black.


"But the negroes are ignorant"
That may be. Some are and some are
not. In my State they call me a negro
suffrage man. | admit it, | want
everybody that is dark complexioned
to vote. Laughter and cheers. 1t is
a privilege that has been granted to
me, and do not sec why it should not
be given TO others, 1t will not do to
say nobody in this country shall vote
except intelligent people The pio-
neers of this country, settling in the
far West, had not the opportunities Of
education, and they should not suffer
distranchSement on that account, and
if we were to exclude all from voting
except the well educated, the Demo
cratic vote would be very light in some
places. This would he q bad
doctrine for the Democratic party.
You allow the negro when tried for
crime to have a voice in selecting the
jury, why allow him to elect to admin
lister the law and not allow him to help
select men to make the law? The true
doctrine of republicanism is that every
citizen subject to the Government shall
be entitled to its privileges and benefits
unless forfeited by crime. | know the
strong prejudice against color, but there
is this flag of the country threatened by
traitor hands On this side oft stands
a man black as jet, with musket in
his hands, protecting its honor. On
the other side stands white man, with
musket assaulting that flag for the pur-
pose of destroying this Government.
Change the scene, an election comes on,
and these two men go to the polls; the
rebel white man casts his ballot, but
the black man, who helped preserve the
Government, is turned away. / ask
any fair minded, just IMAM if he can look
on such scene and not be ashamed of
his Government for not allowing that
man to vote.


But they object to negro equality.
All | have to say is that if you send a
drunken Irishman to sleep with me at
the hotel, | won't sleep with him, and
if you send negro won't do it either.
That's my idea of equality. In illustra-
tion of this point, the speaker told a
good anecdote: He happened to be at
a Democratic meeting in Indiana, when
the orator declared himself opposed to
negro equality. One of his audience
jumped up and said, "My name is Bill
Jones, and the yallow gal that marries
me will get the worst of it sure" and,
said Gen. Logan, I agreed with him
exactly. But it is folly to talk Of negro
equality. There is no such thing in
this country, especially north of Mason
and Dixon's line. There has been
something of the kind down in Demo
cratic districts, and the speaker ilustra-
ted the fact by reading an extract from
the Legislative Journal of Georgia.
The Legislature was about to pass bill
expatriating all free colored people from
the State. In savannah there are
great many people of color-what they
called people of color, but many of them
whittier than most of us--some of them
slaves, but majority free. The bill
of expatriation passed to third read
ing, when a petition was received from
signed by nine tenths of the
in words as follows: