Year: 1869

for the people of Indiana to settle 81
1 far as it was in their power TO do SO
The only way in which they could d.
this was to resign, and ask instruc


tions oftheir constituents. This ques
ton was not before the people wher


they were elected, as ! shall show you


more fully.


Why have they alone resigned
, Why have none of the others resign


ed :? Why have they alone thu


shown respect and regard for popular


sovereignty Who will dare to tel


me that the question of negro suffrage


was passed upon by the people of In
diana last summer in the election O
Scott and Hamilton and Pierce, Sen


ator and Represen tatiyes from Vigc


County? - = -. - - ----I -


Who will dare to tell me that these
men received instructions to vote to
enforce negro suffrage in this country?


Is there a Republican here present
who voted for these gentlemen, who
will make that assertion? am max
ing no assault upon anybody, but !
ask if there is a Republican here to-
night who will pretend that he in
structed his Representatives to vote
for the fifteenth article now submitted
to the Indiana Legislature Yet, as
l understand it, when this monstrous
proposition of Federal dictation to the
States came before the Legislature of
Indiana, and the caucus, with whip,
spur and dragoon bit, rushed with a
Radical majority upon an affirmative
vote, our Representatives said Let
us pass the appropriation bills, let us
pass the money bills, for the purpose
of carrying on the machinery of the
State, let US pass them first but the
Radical members, false to the people,
and in fraud of their constituents,
placed negro suffrage foremost for con-
sideration and adoption. =.
Whit has been the history of Indi-
ana upon this question ? We were
admitted sovereign Stete into the
Union in 1916. Your fathers were
the great pioneers of this country;
those men whom many of my friends
here can remember as they passed off
the stage. They were good ard hon.
est men, and well fitted to lay the
foundations of State. They laid
them well, and your State has been
prosperous and glorious. What was
tEeir doctrine upon this subject
They submitted the work of their
hands to the pecp!e, and the ratified
it. In that Constitution under which
we have arrived at sHch degree of
greatness, it was provided that sui
frage should be confined to white men.
No black men, no person OF mixed
blood should go to the ballot box, or
upon jury, OF into the public schools.
We wish to confne the powers of the
Government where our fathers con-
fined them when they made your Con-
stitution. The Government was made
for white men and their posterity.
1t was intended for the protection of
the black men, as well as yourselves,
but the reins of Government were to
be held by a stronger and more intel
ligent hand than his,


The Constitution of 1916 carried
your State up the ascending plane of
prosperity until, in 1851, to meet the
progressive spirit and the enlarged
demands cf an increasing population,
a Constitutional Convention, was called
for the purpose of framing a new,
onstitution.. Nobody deemed at that
time that the Federal Government
could control suffrage in your State.
That Convention declared that the
white man alone should cast the ballot
and hold the, reins of government.
They went even further an this.
The philosophy of history has decided
that the two races are better separate.
They took into consideration the fact
that Indiana is border State, lying
upon the Ohio River, and they enact
ed by fundamental law that negroes
should not come here at all.


The last vote taken by the people
of Indiana upon the question of the
negro's status here was in 1851, when
a separate clause was submitted to
them, which entirely excluded negroes
from the State. a


/ am now giving you an account of
what former constitution makers have
done. Their action has been favora-
BILE to cur State. 1t has grown great
under their wise counsel Our peo-
pie decided by a majority of ninety
thousand that negroes should not come
within our borders. A voice-"We
don't want them here."] sa'els g


This was, as / have said, in 1851.
Seventeen years have gone by, and no
additional vote has been taken; no
subsequent Instructions have been
given to our Representatives in regard
to this matter. They heard at that
time the voice of the people, and il
told them that the black man should
not not vote--that he should not even
come within the limits of the State.


But time rolle' on, and revolutions
took place. Our Supreme Court held
that this article forbidding the immi-
grafton of black persons, was unconsti-
tutional. Thus one barrier was brok-
en- down, and now comes the next in
novation.


Let me ask you here if there is
nothing startling in such rapid strides
of revolution? Never before in the
history of this Government, has Con-
gress pretended to regulate suffrage
for State. I remember three wears
ago, when it was first mooted in the
House that Congress could regulate
the question OF, suffrage for recently i
,revoited States. The right to. dc, 30 i
was based upon the supposition that
they were not States, and it was ar
= ~ /.