Year: 1868

negro decide whether or not he should
rule the white race. Tn one parish of
l.2O0 white voters $50 were disfran-
chised. The Indian was forced to yield
the occupation of his country, and aban-
don the tombs of his fathers because he
could not avail himself of the advantages
OF civilization. By the test of your
State legislation his voice is superior to
the negro race. Is it less than fraud
upon civilization, after having at an
enormous cost of life and treasure chased
the Indian from his dominion, after hav


ing encouraged and invited the white
man to build up this country, now
to surrender the monuments of his
civilization to race inferior to the In
dian +? If we are asked what we will
do, we can only answer that as full and
suggestive as are the teachings of his
tory, we cannot point to the past. The
experiment of subjecting the white race
to the rule of the negro has originated
in this country and in this century. An
answer might be obtained if you ask
yourselves what the constituencies you
represent would do if similarly situated.
Of our population of nearly 100000
whites, $4,000 are Irish and German,
men whom no sacrifices deferred from
escaping from the tyranny of the white
despot. A large proportion of them
,are men from the Northern States and
their descendants. They are known to
you. Avery large number are from the
Southern States-the descendants of
those whose valor, patriotism and states
manship contributed to secure the inde-
pendence and liberty you enjoy. The
remainder are the descendants of those
whose political privileges and civil
rights Were sacredly guaranteed by
treaty. We have endeavored to repel,
because it has been so often reiterated,
the untounded charge that we give no
encouragement to the Northern man to
settle in our midst. Who is to-day re-
sponsible for the injustice and folly of
prohibiting immigration to our State;
we who in every parish have invited the
Northern mechanic, farmer and merchant
to make his home in our State, or those
who, by establishing negro government.
will make this State uninhabitable by
the white man? We submit this protest
to relieve ourselves of any suspicion that
We yield even a seeming acquiescence
in the adoption of the Constitution. We
did not oppose the execution of the re-
construction laws, though convinced of
their unconstitutionality. If those laws
only contemplated that the negro should
be protected, the convention transcended
its authority by perverting them and
making them the instruments by which
negro supremacy is successfully estab-
lished. The negro has our sympathy.
For the protection of his person, his
freedom, and the enjoyment of his
property, we do not demonstrate
against any just guarantees that
may be required. That, for these pur-
poses, before the law, he should
stand as the equal of the white man, we
prefer no complaint. We are willing to
be reasonably taxed for his education,
and would not look with disfavor upon
the efforts by the State government to
test, by favorable legislation, his capa-
city for self Improvement. But we give
solemn warning to the country that
this effort to degrade the white race by
subordinating it, although in majority,
to the political and social supremacy of
the black race, as proposed by the Con-
stitution now to be inaugurated under
the military acts, will require more than
human prudence and forbearance, if we
are to avert these frightful results which
have been foretold by men of all classes,
but by none more positively than prom
inent Republican Senators. Undoubt-
edly it is the duty of every good citizen
to aid in improving the condition of the
negro, but the candid conviction of eve
ry intelligent mind must necessarily be,
that the colored man cannot safely pred
icate his hopes upon the downfall of the
white race. Sustained and led by
European civilization, which rules
throughout the Northern section, and
must eventually rule throughout the
Southern section also, the negro may at
tain the highest advantages; but he can
never attain those advantages whilst act
ing from the stand point of antagonism
to the white race-an antagonism which
is essentially the ground work and cor
ner stone of the proposed new Constitu-
tion. We respectfully, but earnestly,
appeal to the Senate, to its wisdom, and
patriotism, to interpose its calm counsels
and prevent the establishment of Gov
ernment so certainly calculated to de-
stroy our social and material interests,
and which must inevitably engender the
most fearful spirit of hatred between
two races whose interests respectively,
when rightly understood and protected,
are not antagonistic. Solemnly, before
God and our country, and in the interest
of common lineage and common civil
ization, we protest against any recogni-
tion or ratification of the proposed Con-
stitution by Congress, because that Con-
stitution is in violation of the Constitu-
tion of the United States; because it
is not based upon the consent of the
people who are to be governed by it; be-
cause it was conceived and framed in the
interest of the negro as against the white
man, establishing unlimited and unre-
stricted suffrage for the one, and sweep
ing disfranchisement of large classes of
the other, and throwing around the re-
mainder such restrictions, limitations,
and interdictions as virtually destroy
their entire political and social influence,
and finally because it has been adopted
in fraud of the reconstruction laws
themselves, not having Teen ratified at
an election In which every qualified and
registered voter was pc mitted to vote
without fear or the influence of fraud.
As we look over the whole field of this
discussion, we are unwilling to believe
that the grave Senators whom we now
addraSS- eyar contain latod tho fro mi ncr