SPEECH

OF

JOHN R. FRENCH, ESQ.,

CHOWAN

OF

COUNTY,

ON THE

“QUESTION OF SUFFRAGE,

DELIVERED IN THE

CONSTITUTIONAL: CONVENTION OF NORTA-CAROLINA, —

FEBRUARY 18th, 1868.

———————-

It will be noticed, Mr. President, that our | fensive and out of place ina Republican govern. 2

Committee were a good deal divided in epinion
on the important questions, submitted te them,
and that we have made several Reports. I agree

With the majority in reeommending that the

aed

- Ballot-be free to all citizens—and while all know

He, _ that the Howard Amendment, (which must,be-

geome a law ofthe land before we can. return to

_ the Union,) renders certain citizens ineligible to
oflice, differing from the majority, I would not
try to blink this fact out of sight, but would have

ae MG ‘it clearly set forth in the Constitution, that men

_ Who went into the Rebellion -in violation of sol-
- mn oaths to ‘support the Federal Constitution,
_ cannot haye the opportunity in North-Carolina
of repeating the treachery. I would have the
law. stand at the portal of the Constitution, like
the Angel who with flaming sword guarded the
- entrance to Paradise, Every time they read the
_ Constitution of the State, Iwould have these
_.. gen reminded of their lost condition, peradven-
oa cure the frequent reminder may work repentance.
\ Neither can I agree with the minority, who,

\ egreeing with me in both these positions, would
‘also demand a system of Registration, and a Test
Oath for every voter. Registration is expensive
j and troublesome, and it seems to me not neces-

_ gary in North-Carolina, while Test Oaths are of-

if

.

ment. And especially can I not agree with tha
other minority of your Committee who recom
mend Suffrage for all the men lately engaged in
Rebellion, and its denial to more than 70,000 of
the Loyal citizens of the State. . SOR

And here permit me to call your attention, Sir,
to a statement which recently appeared in one o

| the newspapers, so-called, of this city, in regard

to this Report of the Suffrage Committee. The i
Editor, claiming to have this Report before hin,
with his characteristic candor towards his polit-_
ical opponents, and that tender regard for the
truth which deems the article too sacred a thing
for ordinary use, asserted that in my minority re-

port [recommended the withholding of the right | o

of Suffrage from all rebels
Ananias had not seen the report he had no righ) ‘
to state its positions—if he had, he knew he was
making astatement directly the opposite of the
fact. And the Editor goes on with the same
Reverend good-manners and like truthfulness to
intimate that there is some question as to my
right to a seat in this body.

In view of what has transpired in the State of
Alabama, since the report now before us was
made to the Convention, at the proper time I

Now if this Reverend SS

 

 

 
SPEECH OF JOHN R. FRENCH

ng that the great mass of the people of

ble to office, namely : arolina who were implicated in the late
All who by bribes, threats, or intimidation at- | Rebellion were forced into it by circumstances
tempt to prevent others from the free exercise of that they eould not well control, still they are
the elective franchise. not ready to see the control and direction of the

eee men tm te at ment

After War comes Peace. And ‘Peace hath | State, its positions of trust and honor, pass into
| the keeping of those treacherous instigators of _

its victories no less renowned than War.’ The

H

victories of Good-will, subduing Hate; of Forgive-| this treason, who, despite the confidence of their
ness conquering Malice; the victories of that | fellow-citizens, and their own solemn oaths

broad catholic charity which harmonizes all dis-) lifted perjured hands to tear down this Temple 3

cords. These are the duties and labors which | of Law and Freedom, which their fathers had
come in with Peace. But Peace hath, also, its} reared, and they sworn to protect. Not quite

lessons to remember—the lessons learned oj | ready, Sir, for that folly, for that treachery to

War, and learned at such eost that they shonld the sacred interests now entrusted to us.

never be forgotten, but handed down from gén- | When you have arrested the midnight incendi-
eration to generation, Lessons written on the | ary who would fire your house, and torn his _
black sky of night, by the glare of burning torch from him, will you set him at large again, —

5

towns; uttered in the shrieks of houseless and | and return to him his implements of destruction, —
homeless wouren and little ¢hildren; written like | that he may creep back and complete his hellish
the raised letters of the blind child’s alphabet, | work, wrap your home in flames, where sleep
in the long lines of your soldier’s Cemeteries, | your wife and babes?. These men whom we pro-
and by the lonely graves of ‘‘unknown soldiers” pose to exclude from office, are not the petty in-
scattered all over the land; written in the arm-)| cendiaries who would burn your house or mine,
less sleeves Which pass you upon the streets; | but the men who would set torch to every home
written in the uneflaceable sorrows of the widow | in the State,—the gigantic villains who attemp-
and the orphan. Aye, Sir, written in undy- | ted to fire the Temple of Freedom, where slept
ing remembrance inthe heart of every lover of! in confiding trust the Hopes of the world.
Liberty and Free Government tlie world over, | Call out from their retreats, and back from
who looked on with fearful forebodings as he | their exile, these betrayers of your trust, the
saw the Great Republic of the earth, the hope of men who tore down the #lag of your fathers
Freedom everywhere, struggling in the death-| and trampled it inthe dust as a vile thing; who
- clutch ofits own fostered, trusted, but traitor-sons. hunted youto the swamps and to the mountains,
No, Sir, uo, Sir, while ready to yield all the | and dragged your sons to ignoble slaughter:
— amenities of Peace—glad to rebuild waste places | made widows of your women and orphans of
—let us never forget the great lesson of this war. | your children, filling your whole State with
With, the majority of your Committee, I am |} want and ‘sorrow; eall back sueh monsters of

ready to open the Ballot-box to every citizen, | treachery and evil, and again make them your.
Governors and Senators and Representatives, .

- that the majority of the people in all things may
rule. Suchis the requirement of a Republican | your trusted officials? The proposition is mon-
government. So much is due to Peace, and ne- | strous and suicidal, and can never receive the

 eessary for Harmony, and in accordance as I be- | sanction of this Convention of the Loyal people

lieve with political wisdom. And such is | of the State. The mutineers who would sctttle
the wish, Iam glad to say, of the constituency, | the old ship, and send her ignominiously to the
that I haye the honor to represent in this Con- | bottom—are they the men again to walk her
vention of the People. TI represent, Sir, a black quarter-deck ? Forbid it Heayen! And the’
constituency; black, but comely. Comely in| very earth will ery out against such wickedness,
the humility with which they, recently Slaves, | for the bones of your martyred dead, stirred to.
now Freémen of the Republic, bear their new | indignation at sueh forgetfulness of the treache-
honors; comely in the fidelity with which they , ry which robbed them of their young lives,
discharge their new duties; comely in the for- | would rattle upon their eoflin lids in rebuke of
giving spirit with which they would veil the past, | the supporters of such a proposition. Aye, Sir,
and in the charity with which they would hum-_ if the spirits of the sainted dead may revisit the
bly share their rights with all classes of the peo- |

ple. Filled with gratitude forthegreat blessings | and the fathers, the wise and patient builders of
which have come to them, in their hearts there | your foundations, and the patriotic and self-sae-
is no room left for thought of revenge or pun- | rificing defenders of your earlier and better days,

ishment for others.’ But while they would ex- | are hovering about this hall, watching with rapt ‘
tend the elective franchise to all citizens, re- | interest the decisions of the hour, upon which —

ee ae Neen
ES RSS asi ei tee ee Sele ss earth

scenes of their earthly interest—if the statesmen 9

_ these pollutions kill, and kill down through the

found government upon the enslavement and
-_chattelization of the souls of God’s poor. Gui- By extending Suffrage to all, but closing all

on THE QUESTION OF SUFFRAGE. OE Re ce at

 

 

 

hang the destinics of the State and of her mill- | men, full of manly sentiment and spirit, thedew
_ion of people.—Oh! if they could speak, how of youth still fresh and Deautiful upon their

earnestly would they pray us to keep the State} young brows, stifling all these noble and gencrous —
from the treacherous hands of its once betray- | impulses, and joining themsclyves to the dead.

ers. Not for Vengeance. Not for Punishment.’ The appalling events of the War, which these © :
But for Protection. The Past demands guaran- , men contrived, its causeless origin, its strange :

tees of the Future. ' eruelties, the fiendish malignity of its prosecu-

We cannot forget the past, andits great lesson. | tion, the four years ofits relentless struggle for

The men who dragged North-Carolina from the | the destruction of the nation, are all too fresh in

Union, despite the wishes of a majority of her! your agonized hearts to permit their force being a8 f
people, and joined hands with those who fired ; hightened by any recital of which specch is capa-
upon an unarmed vessel bearing food toa fam-/ ble. Asa trime against liberty, this rebellion

ishing garrison; starved defenceless Prisoners at stands in history unmatched. As a conspiracy
Salisbury and at Andersonville until the land was | through thirt y years, it is wholly without a par-

full of living skeletons; sent infected clothing | allel or proximate. Asa crime ‘against all tree
into Newbern and Beaufort, until thousands oj | government, it stands alone ‘in its detested pre-

your people died of the terrible Fever; massa-j eminence. To crect an empire of slavery upon”

ered the Negroes at Plymouth and hung thc | its country’s ruin, it laughed to scorn all there-
white men at Kinston: cannot escape the moral | straints of religion, government and law. It
pollution which attaches to such baseness. And ; took command in the nation’s armies, that it

might betray and surrender them. It accepted
ages. Who can afford now to be a descendant of | of its government's nurture so that it might fa-
a Tory of the Revolution? The man who has | tally stab the breast from which the nurture was

_ become an enemy of his country, his race, or of | drawn. It grasped the position of ministers of

human liberty, taints his own and taints his | State so that the power these gave might ensure
child’s blood, with a virus terrible as the mark of | them ability, at a blow, to destroy the State,
Cain, the leprosy of Naaman, and the worms of They obtained elections to Congress to the end

‘Herod. that in the Congress they might cut off from the

And neither you nor I, Sir, nor any other man, | nation all means of life. They took the oath to

can afford to belong, or approach near to, that | support the Constitution so that they mightget

band of men who planned and wrought for their | an opportunity to destroy it; and in the nation’s
country’s murder, Already the scorn of the | council chamber, where they swore to study the

nations—a scorn which the centuries shall aug- nation’s safety, they literally invented and sent Sone

ment forever as they go slowly by—has traced | out the plans ofits death. Will youpermitsuch
the black, deep, ineffaceable dead line around that | men again to administer your government—at a:
band of criminals, whose meant guilt was to per- least until they shall have repented of this great
petually overthrow Liberty amongst men, and to | crime and brought forth fruits mect for repen- _

| tance ?

ded by the common conscience of the civilized | places of trust agaiust those who have violated
world, and cut by that inexorable pen of iron and | former oaths of allegiance,as is my recommenda- _
point of diamond, with which history engraves | tion in the report before you, I would have this

the imperishable decrees of the ages, that fatal | Convention stand in harmony with the action of

dead line has been drawn to stand forever. Ont Congress—for right or wrong, to its decision
from its fearful enclosure none will ever go and | must we bow. To the sword has the appeal been
be politically alive, and into it none will ever made—and the conquering power, as of right,
pass, and not be dead. dictates the terms. W y are men wasting their

I care not how exalted may have been the man’s | breath in discussing questions which the sword oy, a
previous character. I care not how high he may | has settled. The Rebellionrepresentedthe pow.

have towered in the respect and affection of the | erfyl ideas of the superiority of the white race
people. He may have graced the highest chair | over the black; of the greater fitness of an aris-
of the State, and honored by his wisdom and his tocratic Class than a working class to govern; of
virtues the Nation’s Senate and the President's | the material aggrandisement and pecuniary profit
Cabinet, and in the opening days of these troub- | of slavery; of the sovereignty of each State; of
es been the hope of his people. Yet, if he for- | the dread ana supposed danger ot setting free
gets all this and goes in with these conspirators | four millions of untutored slaves, and giving
to preside in their conclaves—he passes from | them rights approximating those of their late
ameng living men. “And how sad to see young | masters; and of a christianity and code of mor-

 

 
SPEXCH OF JOHN R. FRENCY.

als and ethics in which these ideas wereassumed
o be sound, and in the light of which the free-
ing a slave was on par with stealing a horse, and
general emancipation was deemed to be whole-
sale massacre. And for these ideas their cham-
pions fought through four bloody years, and
with a pertinacity, and a courage, and a spirit of
_ sacrifice that the world has never seen excelled.
But they failed. They appealed to the sword—
and its arbitration was against them.

A political party in the land cherishing oppo-
_ site sentiments, on all these questions, rose into
4 such majestie strength that it prevailed in every
_ Northern State, has ruled the destinies of the

Union for seven years, overthrown opposing in-
_ stitutions by decrees as revolutionary of antece-
dent conditions as were ever issued by Ozar or
Emperor, and enforced their changies by armies
- a8 powerful as were swayed by an Alexander,

_ Ceazar, or Napoleon, and is now reconstructing

the Union on a basis of Universal Suffrage,
which secures the ascendaney of its idesgy ulti-
mately, not merely in the transient polities but
in the fundamental Constitution and laws of the
lately rebeHious States. Never before in the
_ world’s history has there been so sublime a
vindication of the power of an idea to mould
parties, revolutionize, governments, raise and

‘mass armies, overthrow institutions, and change

— our,great struggle was, on both sides, a war of
the social destiny of races, In the fullest sense
ideas.

The triumphant idea was the idea proclaimed
_ by Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, when stand-
ing in the midst of Mars Hill. One of the Cea-
gars then ruled with undisputed sway. All
about the Apestie stood temple and statue, the

glories of Grecian art. Wealth and culture. and.

patrician blood swayed society, and man as man
was of so little account that the Roman master
_ chopped his slave into minced meat for food for
his petted fish. But Paul, brave old Apostle, in

_ the midst of their pride and oppression pro

 elaimed that of One Blood were made all the
_ Nations. The proud Athenians laughed at Paul
asa babbler, asa ‘‘radical.’? But that trath ut

‘ _ tered eighteen hundred years ago, has been

working among the Nations ever since—and
will work on until not a tyrant nor an oppressor
shall remain to curse this green earth, and man
everywhere lift unfettered hands in adoration, of
the God who made him, and “upon hia brow
stamped His own image.
In adebate in this Convention, the other day,
a gentleman arose and attempted to cast ridicule
apon the immortal declaration of our fathers that
all men are created equal, and asserted that its
grand assertion of the equality of human rights

re

was a “' flaunting lie,’ .. The Declaration of Inde- .

pendence, sir, it seems necessary to tell some ;

gentlemen, was not a declaration of social privi-,

leges, or of intellectual status, or a treatise upon
natural, history, but a declaration of political

rights; and when it declared, that allimen axe ;
created equal, it uttered a political, truth which
lies at the foundation.of all Republican govern-

| ment—the rock on which is founded all persona
|} and civil freedom. . A truth, sir, that despite the

attacks of the gentleman from Washington, will
stand to the last syMabie of time. I tell gentle-
men that it is alike in vainthat they attack eith-
er that grand central idea of the Declaration, or’
the character of its immortalauthor. . Charges of
falsehood and demagoguery end. irreligiony re-
bound harmless from the spotless fame of Thom-

as Jefferson, as small shot from the,turret,of.a

Monitor, , There were, giants,in those days—yet,
in a clear conception of, the fundamental princi-

ples of free government Fhomes Jefferson tower-
ed above them all. Jefferson and Adams and.

Franklin and Sherman and;Livingston, were the
committee whoreported the Declaration. These,
Liars!) ‘* Humbugs !??,* Demagogues!”’ Ah,
these men ask no, defence... They command the
homage of all men who. love, Liberty. ‘Their
fame has passed into the keeping of History; and
she will guard it well.. High.on her roll of honor
has she inscribed all their names—a galaxy of pa-

triots and statesmen more. glorious, than, any
galaxy that gems the, deme of night. Dipping,,

her impartial pencil in the sunlight, in the clear
blue, highest of them, all, she has, written the
name of the Seholar, Statesman and Eun ORADHESs
Thomas Jefferson, . :

It was this doctrine of the pa ‘of political
righis,, emblazoned upon, their, banners, which
won for our fathers the sympathies of the world,
and carried them victoriously through their,sev-
en years war. Itsbold enpunciation shook every

throne in Europe,—and will yet topple eyery one.
of them to the ground., It,is the cornerstone of .

our political government, , Reject it, and there

is nothing for youto build upon this on of king: .
ly prerogatiy e,, And, the Republicanism, which |

brands it is an imposture anda humbug, is, itself
the baldestot all impositions. gid 4

But we are told, that this is a,, it ‘ white man’s,

gover nment. » That is, the yulgar appeal to pre-
judice whereby the fomenters.of all the troubles

now oppressing the South hope to reinstate them-, ,
selves in. power and. patronage. The grand hailing ,
ery of distress which the Democratic Party sends
forth to the ignorance, and blind prejudice of the ,

land, hoping, that in the festering purlieus of the

cities and i in the Egyptian districts of the coun- |
try, where neither the Scheol-master with his.

RS SG righ Seer nee et eve ORE. SSE REEL TNE Oop Ore

Primer nor the Preacher with his Testament has
found his. way, there. may be found enough of
these elements, if vigorously organized, to again
give them the public control. ‘‘A white man’s
Government.”

* Does that grand charter of your government
and your liberties, your Constitution, begin: We
_ the white people of the United States, in order to

orm amore perfect Union, establish justice, in-

_ sure domestic Tranguility, provide for the com-
- mon defence, promote the general welfare, and

secure . the blessings of liberty to, ourselves and
our posterity, do ordain and establish this Con-
stitution for the white people of the United States
of America? Does. your, Declaration of Inde-
pendence declare among its self—evident truths

that all white men are created equal, and endowed |

with certain unalienable rights? Do gentlemen
forget that when the national Constitution was
adopted, that in every State of the old thirteen,
save South Carolina, which was always an excep-
tion. to any wholesome rule, the tree eolored. m

voted ? And in a State where they voted at will
so lately as in North-Carolina, this cry of ‘‘a
white man’s government”’ is too great an impo-
sition upon our intelligence. What have politi-
cal rights to do with the color of.a man’s face, or
the quality of the coat upon his back? His rights

- pertain-‘to Dim as a man—and have nothing to do

with the accidents of his birth, the weight. of his

‘purse, or the extent of his mental culture.

Men argue with great absurdity that, by recog:
nizing, another, citizen’s right to approach the
Ballot. box, they recognize the fellow’s intellee-
tual, moral and social equality. Thatif he has a
right to vote—a voice in the laws, which are to
tax and govern him-—he therefore has a right to
a seat in every parlor of the land; and to the hand
of every man’s daughter. in marriage! . The way-
faring man, though a fool, it seems to me, can-
not fail to see the absurdity of such an argument.
Men who all their days, have been familiar with
colored people in all the relations of society, who
drew the sustenance of their earliest life from
colored. breasts, would try to make us believe
that they are shocked at the idea, now in their
manhood, of depositing their ballots, in the same
box with colored men. :

According to the. best testimony the present
population of the ear th, embracing Caucasians,
Mongolians, Malays,. Africans and, Americans,
is about thirteen hundred millions, of whom only
three hundred and seventy-five millions, are
“white men,’’ or about one tourth, so that i in
claiming exclusive rights for white men, you de-
grade nearly three quarters of the human family,
made in the image of God, and declared to be of
one blood, while. you. sanction a caste offensive

 

 

to religion and an oligarchy inconsistent with —
republican government. It is an assumption
false in religion, false in statesmanship, and false —
in economy. Show me a creature, with erect
countenance looking to heaven, made in the im-
age of God, and Lwill show youa man, who, of ©
whatever country or race, whether darkened by
tropical sun, er, blanched) by northern! cold; is —
with youa child of the) Heavenly, Father, and :
equal with you in all the rights of human nature,
You cannot deny.these rights ; without, impiety. —
And so has God. linked) welfare, with, duty that.
you cannot deny these pila without perilto a9
State, : a
When the nation was in the, hour of its aires:
peril, the ‘gallant Gen. Sherman was consulted a8
to the wisdom,,of arming. the negro., “if you — g
place the musket in his hands, and. he perils his.
life for the nation,’’ replied the brave andtrue.
man, ‘-it would be very mean. afterwards, to.
withold from the same hands the ballot.” And

yi ADEM ATS the heart and conscience of every

man in whose veins. flows blood,and not water. —
And he was. armed—200,000 black men stepped

forth to the defence. of the nation, and, under oe .

perils unknown to,the white soldier,,;:They led
the terrible assaults at Port Hudson and at Fort.
Wagnor, and with their dead bodies filled the
trenches at Petersburg and Richmond, that the —
soldiers of the Union might, march, over to vic
tory. | . : 7
And now; when in, rie spirit/of the most gen-
erous forgetfulness, we propose to,open the way _
to the ballot-box to all—even the men who late-
ly confronted the nation, sword in hand; why _
they, even they, come. forward and object to the
colored man’s suffrage! Was there ever assu-.
rance like this ?. But will the friends of the Re-
public thus spurn their faithful ally? History,
Sir, will compel us to say that it was the black
skin that could always be trusted; it was the
black man who never. betrayed; wherever you —
found a negro, there was a soul. loyal to the
Union and true to our country’s flag.. Never in
the annals of history was there such an example
of universal. fidelity and, faith. .Among the
twelve. Apostles of our Saviour there was.aJdu-_
das. There was a traitor among the Spartan.
band of Leonidas. Our revolutionary army had —
its Benedict. Arnold, The cause of Hungary had. -
its Goergey who betrayed, it at Villagos.. The, _
cause of Henry, VI,,and: Warwich, was lost by
the desertion of Clarence. , Harold, the Saxon,
was betrayed by his,own brother, Tosti. Max-
imilian had his Lopez; and, in short, as far back
as history carries us into, the dominions of the
past, treason has played.its part... There was: no
cause, nO army, uo. faith, without its, traitors,

 
until the universal experience of mankind was
defied, for the first time in history, by the exam-
ple of the negro race. Of four millions of ne-
groes there was not one who betrayed the man
who came to him with the magic words:

“T’m a Union soldier, help me, hide nfe, save
me, my colored friend!” Show me a case in

| the law, a constant, ever-present, self-protecting
power. When men know that they may be voted
down, they will know that they must be just, and
everythingis contained in justice. Reconstruc-
tion was attempted upon the basis of the white
vote only—and it was not until the evils resulting

| from the plan began to develop in black codes

history which is equal to this, of a whole race of that substantially restored slavery that to the

a - millions of black men and women, throughout

the land, there was not one who would not have

_ risked his own life for the white Union soldier

or refugee who inyoked his protection ; not one

_ to whom it may not be said the day of judgment,

“‘T was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; J

was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a
stranger, and ye took me in.”’ :

We hear of a possible war of races, I would
give the colored man the ballot, asa way where-
by we may avoid such a war, for the ballot will
prove a great peace-maker, Plutarch records
that the wise man of Athens charmed the people

| minds of the masses of the Union people, the fatal y.

blunder was discovered, and the public sentiment
began to move forward to universal suffrage.
But when the white vote organized State and
| City governments that elected none but rebels to
| power, such as Gen. Humphreys, in Mississippi,
_ Mayor Monroe in New Orleans, Raphael Semmes
in Mobile, and the like; and when the ex-rebels,
coming together in the Legislatures, enacted that
no negro should own land or hire a house, thus
politically breaking up his home, and compelling
him to work as a menial; when they required

 

him to hire out for a year during the first weeks

by saying that equality causes no wageand | of January, and in default allowed him to be sold

‘both the rich and the poor repeated it.” And
so master and slave will yet enjoy the transform-
ing power of this principle. The master will
recognize the new citizen. The slave will stand
with tranquil self-respect. in the presence of the

master. Brute force disappears, Distrust is atan

end. The master is no longer a tyrant. The
freedmanis no longera dependant. The ballot
comes to him in his depression and says, ‘‘ Use
me, and be elevated.’? Itcomes to him in his
passion, and says, ‘‘Use me, and do not fight.”
It comes to him in his daily thoughts, filling him
with the strength and glory of manhood. Read-
ing and writing are of inestimable value—but the
ballot teaches what these cannot teach, and what
is of especial importance to the freedman, it
teaches him to bea man. As physical labor stif-
fens the bones and developes the muscle, so the
exercise of manly duties developes manly virtues.
The Conservative mother who, discovering that
her child of twelve months cannot walk, should
for that reason continue to keep it in its cradle,
may rock it on until it is twenty years old, and
she would then have but a great baby. It is the
exercise of our limbs and faculties which brings
out their powers. ae

The ballot isa reconciler, Next «fter peace is
reconciliation. Do you wish to see harmony tru-
ly prevail in North-Carolina, so that industy, so-
ciety, government, civilization may all prosper,
and the State wear a crown of true greatness ?
Then give the ballot to all your citizens.

The ballot is a protector, and in the present
moment this, above all other, is the reason why
it should be given to the colored man. Let the

treedman yote, and he will have in himeelf under

black troops that conquered under Grant; when

for a term of years; when they adopted systems
of apprenticeship for blacks, which were not ap-
plied to whites; when they laid taxes upon polls
and not upon property, and authorized employers
to retain from the wages the taxes thus imposcd
upon the laborers; when they provided for the
lash and whipping-post for blacks, but not for
whites; when they excluded colored witnesses

from courts of justice; when they organized reb-
el regiments, which surrendered under Lee, en

masse, into State militia, who disarmed the

they revived the fugitive slave law for blacks who
did not work out their contracts, but no punish-
ment for whites who did not pay the wages due

on the same contracts; when they reluctantly,

and only under impudent protests, assented to
the repeal of the ordinances of secession; when

they drove out Northern emigrants, assailed the

Freedman’s Bureau, burned freedmen’s School-

houses and churches, organized bands of negro- ”

killers, and finally culminated these outrages in

the massacres of Republicans and negroes at ”
Memphis and New Orleans; when the Southern —

courts were deciding the Civil Rights bill to be
unconstitutional, and Southern State Officers
were trampling upon its provisions, and defying
the Congress that enacted it, then the Union sen-
timent of the country fully aroused to the exigen-
cies of the case began to move toward reconstruc-
tion on the basis of universal suffrage—secing
that there was no other way given among men
whereby this Natien might be saved.

And Reconstruction upon this basis, is to be a
success, Sir. Building upon this broad and equi-
table foundation every one ef the late insurgent

 

ON PH: QUESTION OF 8UFPRAGE. _

a *

(nce ene menor nnn ee natn CREPE SE Erase ate

 

States will re-establish government and return to
the Union. The old flag, first unfurled by Wash-
ington, at Cambridge, is again to be lifted up and
float in power from the Potomac to the Rio
Grande; and the people will hail its coming. as
the return of anold friend, and in its clear blueno
Star shall be firmer set, or irradiate a more pa-
triotic light, than the Star of Norrm CAROLINA.

: Unfurl, bright stripes—shine forth, clear stars—

swing outward to the breeze—

Go bear your message to the wilds—go tell it on

, the seas,

That poor men sit within your shade, and rich
men in their pride—

That beggar-boys and statesmen’s sons walk
"neath you, side by side;

You guard the school-house on the green, the
church upon the hill,

And fold your precious blessings round the cabin
by the rill,

While weary hearts from every land beneath the

| of graves ; i
| For God looks out, with sleepless eye, upon His
children’s deeds, :

| sufferings and their needs;

 

rights have won,

Washington!

| Seience teaches us that that great range of : oe
Mountains known as the Apalachian Range,

which stretches from Canada to the Gulf, was.
the first land in the morning of creation lifted
above the shoreless sea that surrounded our
globe. And above all this range, the highest of
all, 400 feet higher than Mt. Washington, tow-
ers in solitary grandeur old Black Mountain, of
_ North-Carolina,—its black dome undoubtedly
the first land lifted from the unsounded depths.

 

Man oF Norru-Carorina, to-day, amid these ae

shinirie: dun «4 ruing’*ve relay the foundations of our Common-

Find work, and rest, and home, beneath the Flag
of Washington.

And never, never on the earth, however brave
they be, ; ‘ i

Shall friends or foes bear down this great, proud
standard of the Free,

*Though they around its staff may pour red blood

& in rushirg waves,
ae

wealth. We would build a Temple of Freedom,
, Wherein we and our ehildren may dwell in Peace
and Safety through all the coming generations.
Let us lay our corne:-stone upon principles as

| broad and enduring as the foundations of Black

Mountain, thatthe Dome of our fair Temple
may rise grandly like his, high in the heavens,

| defiant of all storms, and the admiration of all
| who love Free Government.

2

In Constitutional Convention, on the question of Pro-
‘perty Qualification. February 13th, 1868.

Mr. French, of Chowan, remarked that | men from whom he differed

there was truth in the observation of the | him that these. ideas of property and free-

gentleman from Chatham, that

so much needed for the protection of the
“big bugs” as for the poor people. Rich
men are able to take care ot themselves, but

itis the poor and the friendless wlio need |
the defence of the Constitution and tbe laws citizenship extended

of the land. And he rejoiced to believe with
the gentleman from Carteret, that this Con-
vention of the people was fully ready on this
very day to bury beyond all hope of resur-
rection, so far as North-Carolina is concern-
ed, this odious doctrine of freehold and
property qualification, either in voter, or of-
lice-holder, With all respect for the gentle-

, it seemed to

jual , Were in conflict with ey-
ery principle of Republican government, and
totally at variance with the spirit and genius
of the times, when man’s rights are being
enlarged, not restricted; the privileges of
, not curtailed. This

.

idea of property qualification was a mon-
| Strous fallacy which had come down to us

from darker ages when the rights of men
were less known, and far less regarded and
it should have been carried to its political
grave long ago. It was engrafted upon
most, if not all, the early Constitutions—but
the steady “dyance of Republican sentiment -

 

_And build beneath its starry folds great pyramids. o ;

And sees, through all their good and ill, their. et
And He will watch, and He will keep, tillhuman

The dear old Flag! the starry Flag! the Flag of =
ok

would have no unpopular braneh in our new

,

REMARKS OF JOHN R. FRENCH.

fern menopause mgntens narnia e-ters quent esentitieeac ease eaaeet

had wiped the blot from every Constitution | Jackasses, that does the voting? The gen-

of the land, save the Constitution of our own | tleman would not have the Convention forget _

State, and those of New-Hampshire, South- | that it was building for fature generations,
Carolina and Delaware. . neither be unmindful of the plorious inspi-

‘The gentleman from Orange would demand | rations of the times in which they are work-
extra qualifications, for a Senator; the old |ing. Our fathers wrought according to the
idea which our worthy fathers borrowed | light of their day, and have entered upon
from the aristocratic institutions of the! the reward of their honest toil, Another
mother country. .The House of Lords rep- | future opens before us, Not property, nota

 

resented the Aristocracy of England—the | few families, however old, or however re- .

better blood of the realm—and so our Sen-/ spectable, are to rule the North-Carolina of
ates, it was thought, must represent the | the hereafter—but the free and mighty peo-
wealth, the first families of the new States; | ple—the hardy fishermen of the Sounds and
not we, of the “cotton shirts and copperas | the Coast, the unpurchasable ploughers of
breeches,” but the gentlemen of the silk | her fields and her vallies, thestout hewers of
stockings. Hence the aristocratic and ex- | her forests, the delvers in her mines,the hus-
tremely conservative elements which every- | bandman who feeds his flocks upon: the
where grew up with Senates, until the peo- | green slopes/of her mountains; these are to
ple began to talk of the House, in contra- | be her voters and her Legislators. The peo-
distinction, from, the Senate, as the popular | ple are to govern; not money, not lands, nat
branch of the .government. For: one, he that not jackasses. .

yhis wonderful.

a

aa op ee deny Se Te ‘ : R
overnment, but would make Se
fouse both popular branches, Ue ite DL Ganon Mrs Se eb Mae OTS ere
tle sympathy with the notion that we need | met spirits who had been in that state 25
a Senate chiefly to hold in check the Hot years, and yet didn’t know that they were

lit- {one of his visits to. the Spirit-world he-therg

_ That strapee Fea Sweden hopz.din one af ie
fal. Yeo) s,-tclis: us’ that sduringy

That is an idea born of distrust of the | dead..And so we hayeimen in North-Caro-

people—it is the old fallacy that the people | lina, who don’t seem to know what. they,
are incapable of self government. Formerly | politically, and. many of their.old. favorite
in North-Carolina to vote for a Senator it | notions, are dead, and that this, Convention
required the ownership of fifty acres of land, | is called for their burial... Mr. F. said he

but the amendment of °57 wiped all that | had occasion the other day to call attention

tion,” woulk have us, like the crab, crawl | progregs of that grandest “innovation” of
backwards, not to the 50 acres of land indeed, | the age, the Pacific Railroad. He wished.
some worthless swamp Pocasin, but to $250| to remind gentlemen that the road was now
worth of property—it may be three likelg;| several hundred miles in advance, of the
young Jackdsees df about that value. 1g26,) point where the attempt was made to stop
to-day isa man penniless, and he can@#,| it, and at its terminus for the winter, a civ-
vote. To-morrow, by some good fortune, |ihzed town ‘had already sprang into exis-
he becomes the proud owner of three likely | tence of more than 5,000 inhabitants. the
Jackasses, and can votefora Senator, Now, | City of Cheyenne. He thonght gentlemen
Mr. F. would submit it to the gentleman | might gather a lesson from this fact. _
from Caswell, whether ‘it is. the” un. Or fit. wba loa ss ye YF agp

oh

eit c keel

out, and now the venerable and respected | to those Conservatives of the Plains, thes *

gentleman from Caswell, fearful of “innova- | Pawnee Braves, who attempted to stop the*

|
}