New Era from Washington, District of Columbia • 1

11 fTKEKr VOL. WASHINGTON, D. THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1870 a.so.^in 5 Copie? for in CM or 50 per year fivr for 10, payable In advance. mprhs. PI BLISIIKRS NEW ERA, Lock Box 31.

letters from the people. 1 mm i.srgf Republican Meeting at To the Editor of the Neiv Era One of the largest' Republican assemblages ever held here tcok place on Monday, May 2 ICtb, to hear addresses from the Hon. William Lawrence, M. C. of Ohio, and R.

D. Becklcy, 1 R- of Alexandria. The meeting was called to order by Mr. Win. F.

Powell, who stated its object Mr. W. B. Downey was called to the chair, and in a few brief and pertinent remarks introduced Mr. Lawrence, who proceeded to 1 address the meeting at some leugth.

After alluding to the prosperity of the country under the administration of President Grant, he took 1 the history of reconstruction in this State up, and dealt telling blows upon those who, by their bigotry and blindness, are attempting to clog the wheels of reconstruction, and counseling opposition to Congress to recou.slruct and place the State once more in fraternal relations with the General Government. The honorable gen- tb man recounted scenes that occurred before the Keconstruction Committee, oi which ne is a prominent member, and the pledge given by Governor Walker to the people of Virginia,) which he has so far neglected to fulfill. In confirmation of this he alluded tu an act lately enacted by the Legislature of the State providing for the general election, in which the judges of election shall place upon each ballot a number corresponding to the number placed opposite the voter's name on the book of regis- tration. that those who vote the Republican ticket may be ostracised and proscribed by these hordes, who in this way seek to destroy the sanctity of "the ballot, free speech, and all 1 i liberties of the people. After disclosing the tricks practiced by these nabobs, he called on the people to cast in their lot with the Republican party, which had never' deceived them, nor made promises that were not mlfillea that they should not be intimidated from registering and voting from noth.ng that might be said to them by these nabobs.

1 He referred to a bill now pending in Con- 1 gress which is intended to prevent States from enforcing act- to expose the secrecy of the bal- 1 iot. He informed the proscriptive Conservatives that he had not come among them with any feeling of unkiudness, but simply to defend the principles of the party of progress. After comparing the administration of Presideut be wished to see President four years that of his predecessor, called on his hearers to earnestly support the present Administration, under whose leader- ship the country would blossom as the rgse. i I wuugr uawrcuee hs eras inter- rupted by applause during the his address. Mr.

R. D. Beckley, of Alexandria, the Fred 1 Douglass of Virginia, was introduced. After alluding to a discussion that he had here with prominent rebel lawyer during the preceding campaign, alluded to the importance of every black and poor white man supporting the party of freedom. While making this statement he a was interrupted by some of our friends, to which lie replied that he never threw a stone a in the dark and heard a dog howl but he was 1 satisfied that he had hit him.

He alluded to the importance of the coming election, when he hoped every Republican would do his duty, He stated that he had heard that there were a few copperhead colored men in their midst; he advised them to crush the serpent's head, and his tail wouid die before sundown. He recoun fi ted what had been done for the colored men by the Republican party, and that there was no hope for them by voting for their enemies, who 8 would not trust them as quick as if they had V' voted for the Republican ticket. He stated that they were their sworn enemies, and alluded to the effort to raise a white man's in Dela- ware as a result of their friendship. He stated I. that he was present at a meeting of the Reconstruction Committee, in which Governor Walker attempted to explain away a speech he made at Liberty during the last canvass, when he 1' asserted that if he was elected with a Legisla- ture not Radical, he would never enforce the county clause, which provides for the free school system.

In speaking of the late calamity at Rich- mond, he claimed that it was the second edition IJ of the enabling of the most infamous biils to deprive citizens of tbeir the spirits of these men would haunt Walker to his dying day and if he (Walker; was not lost to all tender feeling he must feel gad over this melancholy event which has deprived Virginia of some of her best talent and ablest citizens, 1 all brought on by his mad ambition, lie re- red to the death of Bland, who was a per- friend of his, but with whom he differed fc politically. He stated how Bland had regretted the course he had taken in the reconstruction 1 of the State. He demanded of the party in power a rigid enforcement of the provision in the new constitution, and alluded to the failure of placing colored men on juries by the authori- tie. 8 He fstfttPri ha ti QAC t0lfL fi 11 UUIU ViUI- ored men as jurors of the United States Court, i and every one of them could write legible as I any lawyer in Loudoun county, and five of the six were land-owners, while there were two men who could not sign their names to the marshal's report, and they were palefaces. He (j had seen many white men on juries in his city, who were more ignorant than any colored man he had ever He alluded to the pre ended il fear some white men that if the negro pos- sesses political equality, lie would afterwards want social equality, lie begged theia to calm their fears on this poiut, that he thought it was the reverse, and that white men cared more for their society than-they ish to acknowledge, and in confirmation of this fact alluded to the complexion of many before him.

that there were many white men who could not cross his 1 threshold, as an example he referred to a brakesman on the Alexandria, L. Ac H. R. R. who attempted to designate that evening whut car he should ride in.

He alluded to the New Era, and stated that it was one of the most prominent papers at the Capitol, founded on a firm basis, ably edited by colored men, whose columns were open to the appeals of every man in the whole country, and called i upon every colored man to support it. In eon- a elusion he implored the colored men to stand by the Republican party' and it would stand by them. Letters were read trout J.I. and the Hon. J.

F. Lewes of Virginia, regret- their inability to be present. The following resolution, offered by Mr. Win. I F.

ere unanimously adopted. Resolved, That we heartily endorse the pro of the Republican conference lately told in Richmond. Res Ived, That according to Article 3, Secion 4 of the Constitution of Virginia all perons entitled to vote shall be eligible as Resolved, That this Section of this Article ms been repeatedly violated by those whose iuty it is to erapannel jurors from the citizens the county, irrespective of color; that we that outrage only finds favor among the ew. and is opposed by a majority of the of the county. Resolved, That we respectfully but earnestly of the sheriffs ami magistrates of Iiouloun county, the right of colored men to sit as urors in all courts held in the county.

Resolved, That these proceedings be forwarded the New Era with the request that they be nut lislinr) The meeting adjourned with hearty cheers ibr speakers. President Grant, and the Hepublican party. R. Lfesburo, May 1870. Letter front St.

Lours, May 20, 1870. To the Editor of the Sew Era Saturday eveui ng, after the toil aud justness of the day and week are over, it is a eal pleasure and comfort to open the New fresh from the seat of Government, lalen with news from all parts of the Union? news that is particularly interesting to a jred citizen, because it tells hint what our people are doing and saying all over our wide extended country. The Era is just what we want now, because it is necessary that we should know and hear what the people do and say. The Era contains information that we cannot gather from any other source. It is true, I read the daily or eekly papers from nearly all the large cities, and from them get all the general news but with the exception of a sketch here and there, they tell us nothing of the eolared The New Era fills the gap, and is the one paper so much needed.

The Getmans, French, Spaniards, Italians, and Irish have their organs. Why should not the colored Americans have a journal to speak for them aud af them as well as be a vehicle that will enable them to talk to each other It is just what was needed and I am coufident the better we become acquainted with you, Mr. Er the more we shall like you. Now, Mr. Editor.

1 have a question to ask Why is it that I never see anything in he Era from this, the great metropolis uf the tlississippi city that contains two lundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, and a tolored population of near thirty thousand, imong whom are many educate3 men and wonOTt A Trot iC i KiC KnCir mnwf Gi.wIa T-rvn ikuu ia luio uunj iiiui vi 11 ilUC UIU lave not one correspondent. St. Louis has had a fifteenth amendment celebration. It was a grand affair on a large icale. The procession was very large, and two lours in passing any given point.

It is esti: nated that there were four thousand men in ranks and the streets all along the lines tvere crowded with colored people. There was it the lowest estimate twenty-five thousand people on the streets that day. The irocession, with cannon, music, and appropriite banners and mottoes, marched through the irincipal streets to Yeager's Garden, and was ddressed by some very distinguished speakers. It sundown this vast multitude dispersed to heir homes. Nothing occurred during the day mar the peace and harmony of the grand ocasion.

There was not a drunken man nor a ight that I heard of during the day. The fifteenth amendment is working wonlers. Street-car conductors cannot tell whether fou are black or white. I take a look in mv jlass sometimes to see if by some hocus pocus have turned white, but it gives back the ame old face, and tells me I am a citizen and tot a chattel now. It used to be Old'Pen, bu iow it is Mr.

Pcntalpha. Oh, the rapid changes Dr the best! May our people appreciate ar.d tot abuse the trust committed to our hands. Pentalpha. llow We ProgreftH. A few years ago a Northern man could carcely travel through the South in safety uness he declared his belief in the divine right if filaraeir MAM VT .1 i i'un uc ixinj iimn'ii irora me rxortti 'ole to the equator and not meet a slave in all ds way.

A few years ago he who would have uggested that colored men, then slaves, would ote in the South some day or other, would iave been pronounced a fool or a madman iow these men are not only voters, bnt are aembers of the Legislature, and in Louisiana me of their race is Lieutenant Governor, whi'e ee in Mississippi have sent a colored man to he United States Senate to occupy the seat of refferfOa Davis. A short time ago, and col wed men were not allowed in the South to learn read and write, bat now they are to be at the public expense, as are other chilIren. It was but the other day, and since the I var, that this race of men were prohibited from iwning or leasing lands, except in cities, and hen only by consent of the local authorities now they rent more land, either for a share the crops, or for a money consideration, han anv other class in the State and, besides, riany of them have purchased plantations, and mvo set up business for themselves. Not long since the colored race were used to be so ignorant that they could not inderstand politics, but now there is no man so tigh in the State hut what he is glad to be asured that his political views are endorsed by ne colored men, whether in tho Legslature, and lor that purpose they are freluentiy called into consultation. Eveu as late is the last election it was believed the colored i nan would follow his old master and vote as le did, but the result showed that he knew the lifference between the political parties of the lay, and voted us intelligently as other men.

'arty discipline he has not learned quite as veil as others have, still he will keep true to lis political faith, and it will be hard work to I raw him away from those who gave him freeloin, civil rights, and secured for him the fifeenth amendment. Surely we do progress. It 3 certain that we have made headway in re- orm9t and that liberty i9 more universal now ban it was some years ago, and the Republian party, may it be said, have accomplished this amid abuse, contumely, opposition, and spit of all the Democratic party of tho vhole country could do to prevent it. The ountry has moved ahead one hundred years in eu. Let us all he true to our faith, learn to a nnit in all our political conduct, and great hings are in reserve for Jay Cooke's J.

Cooke, be great Philadelphia banker, has a princely estate and palatial residence at Chestnut Hill, iear Philadelphia, and it is his custom to give iccasional "letes" to his Bible class, which sousists of one hundred and fifty workingtnen ind their families, resident in his neighborhood. )n Tuesday last one of the festivals came off, from 6 o'clock in the morning until dusk he company had all tho enjoyment which a avish use of money could furnish them. There rere twenty different kinds of amusements for uon, women and children the magnificent i rounds were thrown open to them, and Mr. Jooke was himself the ringleader in all sorts jollity. When the company dispersed each arried home a substantial gift.

A man who lakes such good use of money deserves to ave it. "Follow your nose and you are ture to be be good advice, but it is not every- ne that cares to be thus nosed around. Letter from IWovemor Alcorn to the Xew fcra. Jackson, May 15, 1870. Mr Editor: I have read with concern the editorial which appears in your paper of the 5th instant, in reference to public schools in Mississippi.

As the views vou urge in that article may. if adopted generally, prove a serious embarrassment to tht? success of the vital question of reconstruction, 1 feel it my duty to go outside the proprieties of ruv office to pro test against those views, as against a deadly injury to the cause of education at the South. Tn doing so I shall, of course, speak to vou as in remontrance with a man who seeks, in the case before U3, the same ultimate object as myself? the success of our public from whom 1 differ very positively as to the moans for its accomplishment. So far as your remarks are personal to me. 1 i shall waste no time in answer.

The groat question before us dwarfs into insignificance any considerations of the individual. 1 may, however, be pardoned for saying, as pertinent to the subject at issue, that my trearaent of it as a question of the practical, in no wise disturbed by the prejudices you suppose. We of the South, strange as it may appear to you, have, in fact, verv much less of those nroiu 7 i I dices than people nurtured out of the lap of slavery. I have been nursed by a woman of color who, having followed my fortunes from my birth-place in the Territory of Illinois to the State of Kentucky, and thence to my adopted home in Mississippi, lives, to-day, in the enjoyment of an old age of ease and plenty on my plantation, under but a poor requital of the life-long devotion which has tied me to her i in love as a son to a mother, i I have played with negro children in my infancy; I have worked in the fid side by side with negro boys in my boyhood and may, therefore, he supposed to represent, in my own person, very little of the prejudices that would, as you suppose, keep my son in ignorance rather than permit him to carry his companion. ship with his colored playmates from the village play-ground to the village school.

And here I may digress for a moment into ati explanation and an apology? an explanation i of my proposition, and an apology for my poo- i pie. When 1 say we of the South have less prejudices against the colored man than people I nurtured out of the lap of slavery, I mean less prejudice to him as a man of color. Our constant association with liirn from infancy will i show you the force of this statement; though you will understand, on the other hand, the ar: ray of prejudices that may be supposed to have stood up between him and us when our slave ol a few short years ag was presented to us as an equal at the balloi-box. Those of us who have risen superior to the very natural repug- nance that struggled against that, fact, would do injustice to their victory over themselves by failing in sympathy with those of their breth- ren who, in bondage to their, passions, still struggle agaiiast the fact. The Southern people have suffered a great violation of their thoughts aud feelings by tho new order of things.

My hearty sympathy for thousands of good and true men of the South who wrestle to day with their own prejudices towards an acceptance of the enlightened policy of equality before the law, would make me unwilling as a duty of couscience, wero 1 nqt utterly opposed to any such course as a duty i i of policy, to subject them to an ungracious and unnecessary compulsion. The political equality of the colored people was being debated in this State, by many in flupnti.il mpn IvIiPn if iric III lilt" cise of an unquestionable authority, by (Congress. The reason previously engaged in con- i sidering the question, was unseated by roac- tionary temper; and ay hat would probably have been adopted by spontaneous consent, was resisted with all the impulsive vehemence of this people, in a spirit of opposition to the will of power. This fact will show how men charged with the nice question of making the principles of asocial revolution acceptable to a people of volatile passions, shrink from every unnecessary violence to popular will, in recognition of the fact that their success has no other power worth considering at its back, save that of the pressure of necessity under the gen- tie urgings of moral force. 1 am a practical man.

do not overlook the 1 fact that questions of statesmanship must lie i considered in their relation to popular passion. i And if I can elaim any merit in discharging the duties of my position, it must rest, I i think, on my, thorough knowledge of the tem! per of this people. Very great progress has been made in public opinion here totvards a hearty acceptance of the new order of things and I protest against any unnecessary re-arous1 ingot' the prejudices that are thus beginning to settle down to reasou, in my profound i concern to save all the good results of this gradual acquiescence, which gives us now such i auspicious promise for the peace and progress of the State. And the unnecessary offensive ness with which you would put on trial the experiment of public experiment they are in more than a questionable expediency when you recollect mat, but twelve short months ago, with the Slate in the grasp of military power, schools established by pVivate citizens for the education of colored children, were sacrificed to popular passion, in several instances, by the torch of the incendiary wise maxim teaches us that, we must learn to walk before we attempt to run. Thin government is not a (Joverninent of force.

It is one of popular consent. While majority of its citizens must, it is true, rule, my personal recollections of a dead despotism are sufficiently acute, apart from any promptings of my conscience, to prohibit me 1: concurrence in a policy which would enh that rule of the majority in a wanton violation of the feelings and opinions of the minority Even if 1 were disposed to take part in any such outrage, thereu no power in this Government, and I can assure you it is the strongest ever known in the enforce any such sys- i torn of impolitic legislation upon the dissenting thousands of this people, i am pledged, and intend to keep my ptedge, to enforce tlie law but to tnake that enforcement at once proper and practicable, I intend, to the extent of my power, to see that the lfiw to be enforced shall he framed, as far as possible, without a violation of principle, in a spirit of fraternal concession to the prejudices of the large masses of the wealth and intelligence which happen to he, for the. time, in the minority. It seems to me that some of the prominent men of your raco are over-sensitive on the subject of social equality. A true assertion of the dignity of the colored people would, I submit, show less concern for a fellowship with a people by whom that fellowship is rejected.

And no practical wrong can come of acquiescence in tliat state of opinion under a law which nrn i I poses to accommodate the matter by giving one school to the whPo children, and a school pricisely similar to the children of color. The statesman who is sincerely anxious for the establishment of a school system which will give some promise of success, will not undertake to i solve the problem by interpolating into it an attempt to break down forces of social life. 1 for one urn determined, as far us in me lies, not to permit thut vital question to be encumbered with a social difficulty which was found impracticable in even a single instance, when backed by all the power of place and the force of will embodied in President The people of color have nothing in reason to complain of in a school system which accom- I plishes the legitimate object of a school system of education. And I can vouch in the most pointed terms for the tact that during rny canvass of last autumn, the colored men were as earnest in their demand for separate schools as any white man that spoke to me on the subject. The really goad, reason for protesting against this demand rests, not with the colored man, but with the white man who is to bear, for the present at least, the burden of the resulting tuxati n.

He concurs now with colored people in insisting that the schools i shall be tepnrate but how long that concurreuce may continue 1 am unable to say iu pres ence of the fact that he will discover, by-andby, that the luxury of separate schools involves a tux exieedingly burdensome. Time makes all things even, but if we forestall, the work of time by setting our educational system going on the basis of mixed schools, we will have not only dealt a blow at the vitality of the system, but we will have ex eluded the white children from education in the districts having colored majority, and the colored children In the districts having white majority. If the law should ever become operative on the mixed basis, it would thus leave on the one hand, nearly one-half the colored children without education, and on the other hand, nearly one-hall the white children. I will not consent to this. The education of this people the measure of reconstruction nearest, my heart.

1 will turn neither to the right nor to the left from the accomplishment of that purpose under the independent leadings my conscience and judgment. And the colored people of this State think with me on the subject with very few exceptions. I have been pledged in my canvass to separate schools, and have been sustained in the pledge at fifty public meetings by the' unanimous voice of a hundred thousand people of your race. That pledge I shall carry out, not only as an obligation to my good faith, but as an essential condition of my profound con- i cern to give this people a system of education that shall be a pi aciical blessing to the children of both races. And a little foresight will certainly show that anv tampering with the couiplishraent of a result so important, to gratify an impatient sentiment of race-pride while endangering a great substantial benefaction, is but an unwise attempt to force the sure fruition of events.

1 am, very respectfully, yours, d. L. Alcorn. So4iMi Northern IhdhiiK llriiins. Besides the abolition of slavery, the war has brought about far more material good to the South.

It lias 'swept away the old one-horse system of enterprise and industry, and brought within its desolated borders the inventions, the conveniences and ideas ol the nineteenth century. The one-sided system is disappearing, and the once proud but benighted sons of chiv- i airy are being made to know and feel that they don't know it allthat there are other men on earth besides themselves, and that the old primeval selfishness and fogy ism, bred and nourished by the system of slavery, are clearly at war with, and greatly detrimental to, their best i interests and those of their beloved Sunny The results of the war and their own experience for the last ten years have brought them to the sober domain of human reason. They no longer think and act one way. They i are beginning to think now that 44 Northern oppression ami despotism" meansSouth- ern development and enterprise. These broad sunny domains, so long doomed to yield but two principal staple and sugar? will sotn be made to yield forth a great variety of other marketable commodities no less advantageous and remunerative, and be crossed and 1 recrossed with railroads, and dotted with pros- i porous cities and towns and various factories? i all indicating the superiority of freedom over slavery.

The millions of acres of swamp lands in the great Mississippi Valley of the South must be redeemed and made to yield their quota of, wealth with which to spread the conveniences, the inventions and civilization of the new age. Boston must lie transplanted to the southern shores of the Mississippi River, and schoolhouses and churches must replace our gin and sugar-houses. Northern capital and skill will 1 uiijm meee swamp innas, ananuantty per cent, to the present agricultural wealth of'the Southwestern States. To builu railroads is to bring down freights, and thereby inspire a more i widespread and diversified industry. Ilailroads will make the South what they have made the great Northwest.

The Southern States cannot too liberal in lending their credit, and aid in building railroads and digging canals. These will add more than fifty per cent, to their material prosperity in less than twenty-five years 1 The growing interest in favor of internal improvement, skillful labor and development in the South, will certainly arrest the large quantity of raw materials which arc now being exported to the large manufacturing cities of Europe to the great detriment of our own laboring classes. Why not make Now Orleans the Manchester of America? There is no earthly reason why this great Southern Metropolis should not possess the same mechanical and manufacturing facilities as Manchester. Skill and capital have given these facilities to Manchester, and they can give them also to New Ar. ().

Standard. Cxili Value of liHltm itij; Man- A Power lu (lie Mime It is frequently remarked of persons ho do not possess any property, and who depend upon their daily labor for support of themselves and families that they are nothing" financially speaking. This language is generally indulged in by men in the community who style themselves business men, and who get rich off the necessities of other men. Let us examine the question financially, and see if their assertions are correct. Last year the price of common labor averaged $1.50 per day.

Admitting that the laborer who received SI .50 ner da v. and that it re quired the whole of that sum to support his family nevertheless we contend that tho laborer was worth, in cash to his family, the sum of $7,989. The amount he would receive for one years labor, at $1.50 per day, would be $475.60, which amount would be the interest, at six per cent, on $7,989, which latter sum would be the cash value of the laboring man to his family. The cash value ofthe laboring man to the community is much more than the above named sum, as labor is the only true wealth of any country. Without labor our forges, furnaces, woolen mills, and indeed manufactories of all kinds would cease to be.

The music of the loom and the shuttle would be silenced forever. Our national and other Banks could close their doors, and our most enterprising merchants take in their signs. Without labor civilization would recede and the hat and the owl would soon occupy the crimson chambers of our would ho businessmen. Let the laboring men ot the United States realize their true position. Let them reflect that labor is labor is wealth.

Let him remember that they are a power in the to great Government is indebted, for all it possesses of Liberty, grandeur. The star spangled banner trampled under foot by slave-driving aristocrats of the South, 1 would have long since been trailed in the dust and ceased to he the glorious ensign of Liberty, had it not been for the patriotism of the masses, and the strong and brawny arms of the millions of laboring men who, in answer to their country's call, nut on the blue garments of loyalty, and like true soldiers, bore the flag safely through for years of desperate, bloody war, and gave it up to the government all covered with respleui 1 1j 1 il Alt II 4 rur.vritf 1 11 a uvui, ucim i i iy iwnu livriii i uiuii over before. Tim Fall elections this year are to decide not only the character of the next of Representatives, hut also, to a certain extent, that of the Senate. Twenty Senators will be elected by the next State Leg- islatures. The Senators whose terms expire on the 4th of March next are: Morrill, ol Maine: Cragin, of New Hampshire; Wilson, of Massachusetts; Anthony, of Rhode Island Cattel, of New Jersey; Willey, of West Va Johnson, of Abbott, of N.

Carolina; Robertson, ofS. Carolina; Fowler, of Tennessee; Grimes, of Iowa; Howard, of Michigan; Thayer, of Nebraska Ross, of Kansas Yates, of Illinois; McDonald, of Arkansas; Revels, of Mississippi; Williams, of Oregon Harris, of Louisiana; Warner, of Alabama; Saulsbury, of Delaware; Mct'reery, of and Norton, of Minnesota. The outgoing Senators all are Republicans, except Shu Is bury, McCreery, and Norton. The seat of Mr. Fow-4 ler has already been filled by a Democrat, and that of Mr.

Grimes by a Republican. The Democrats will probably loss one Senator in Minnesota. A female preacher married a couple lately in Iowa. At the end of the ceremony the minister kissed the groom. The Danger of I iiiversal Ininesty posetl.

Thursday 1 Senator ii.ward of Michigan expressed his views upon the dangerous doctrine of universal suffrage His remarks are so directly to the point, and clear- lv set forth tne consequence? of this act of leniency to the traitors that wo make some extracts from it. Mr. Howard, while the House bill to enforce the fifteenth amendment was under consideration, said: Mr. President, 1 i-hall occupy the Senate hut a short time with what 1 have to I have read with as much care as I was able the House hill we now have before us and ilk1 substitute offered for it by the Senator from Nc- vada, and upon the best consideration I have i been able to bring the suhioct I feci satisfied that on the hole we had better not adopt the substitute, but that it would be more advisable to take up the House bill, amend it in a few particulars, and it. 1 know of nothing i in the House bill to which I can raise ativ con- i stitutional objection, while at the same time 1 think there are clauses in the substitute to which serious objections may reasonably be made.

We are endeavoring to pass some net to carry out and effectuate the fifteenth amendment of the Constitution. 1 am anxious that some legislation should he had upon that subject, so that the right of the colored people to vote throughout the United States may as perfectly as possible he guarantied and protected, is a most important subject. I think I am not wrong when I say that the right of the colored citizens of the United States in the recently insurrectionary States to vote is the greatest guarantee thus far presented for the pieservation of order in those States, not to say the preservation of the authority of the flovernmenf itself in those States. In my mind that right, the rfght of the black man to vote-in tho9e States, is the safeguard, is hereafter for half a century, perhaps a century, to he the safeguard bv which the authority of the Union is to he maintained and 1 upheld in those States for my opinion is that to- lay, if the ringleaders of the late rebellion were restored to power, if they could have everything in their own way as they hid it in times past, one of the first, objects which they would attempt to accomplish would be the dis- solution of tlie Union and the establishment of their own independence as a separate nationality on this continent. Sir, the snake has been simply scotched, not killed, in my humble judgment and in the future, if that class of men who were foremost, most active, and most influential in bringing on the rebellion and pros-; ecuting it to its bloody close, are permitted to have control of the affairs of that section of the country, we are destined at no very distant day to see a repetition, or at least a serious attempt at a repetit ion of the war through which we have just passed.

I was struck by a conversation which I had not long since with a gentleman connected with the Union army during the war, who visited Richmond during its most flagrant period, and had there a conversation with Jefferson Davis. In that conversation he represented Mr Davis as declaring, in the most emphatic and earnest terms, that the idea that the Southern people were fighting for the perpetuation or even the preservation of slavery, was an entire mistake; that they were contending for no such thing i that they were pouring out their blood and treasure in large volumes, unscrupulously ami 1 wastefully, hut not for the purpose of perpetu- atng slavery in the South. 44 What we want," 1 said Mavis, 44 is not so much slavery, about 1 which we care hut little, as national indepen-' deuce and national independence we will have, 1 or we will have annihilation." Such was the i spirit which animated the rebellion, for it was the spirit which animated its chief: and there was no truer representative of the spirit of the rebellion on the face of the globe than Jeffer- son Davis. Sir, the promoters of that rebellion have been i badly beaten. They lost their cause in the i contest they courted; they lost also what at i the beginning they ostensibly pretended they were contending for, and that was slavery.

They lost all. sir; they lost property; they i lost life; they lost prestige with foreign nations; and they lost what was perhaps dearer to them than aught else, the hope of conquering the North. They lost that high, boasting spirit i which drove them madly into the rebellion. Hut there is one thing they did not lose, and which neither they nor their posterity, in my I opinion, for three generations to come will lose; I and that is their bitter, truculent, nnqueiuh- i able, ineradicable hatred of the North, of north era society and northern rule. That feeling is still cherished at the South, and it prevails to such an extent, as we all know, that none or very few Northern men who visit the South are re- i ceived into what is known us "good society" there.

However respectable may he the emi- grant from the North however high his oha- 1 racter; however worthy of the associations of honorable men and women in society any where, there is still a most painful and studied pro- seription, an ostracism of Northern people; a state of things which is most disagreeable to mir 30iOmn of sirul irwfirnt in mu opinion of what Southern men would do if they had an oportunity. i I ain no prophet, nor the of a prophet; I but I venture the surntise that whenever the United States shall he at war with any of the 1 great powers of the world, a war in which it will become necessary for us to exert all our national strength, talent, and resources to maintain ourselves and maintain the national honor, you will see at the South a disposition to join the enemy for the purpose of putting down and crushing forever this Government, for which they entertain 30 bitter detestation. 1 listened a few days ago, not without pain, to remarks made by Senators on this floor, and especially by the honorable Senator from Con- 1 necticut, indicating that he mi- 1 tertains, and that there is entertained upon this Uoor in the minds of other Senators, a i tion to grant what is called "universal aumes- tv to these men. I was sorry to hear it. 1 1 regretted more to hear that announcement supported by another announcement, that in in the judgment of the Senator a vast majority I of the Republican party of the Cniteefe favored the concession which he claimed, of a universal, indiscriminate amnesty to the late 1 rebels.

I shall not detain the long upon that i point. 1 merely wish here, and now, while 1 occupy the floor, to enter once for all my dis- sent from both propositions. 1 protest against universal amnesty us being at war with the 1 fundamental principles upon which all our re- 1 COIlMriM tlUIl i roin, ao uciujj llltuinia" I tent, with the interests and the salety of the i nation itself; ami I may add. utterly inconsis- 1 tent with that manly dignity which should be- i long to those who have charge of this great 1 Government of the United States. 1 It happened to ine to have some connection with this business of reconstruction at its in- ception.

We all remember, and painfully re- i member, the policy and the conduct of Presi- dent Johnson and his Cabinet, or a portion of his Cabinet, in their attempt to reconstruct the rebel States, not by act of Congress, but by presidential procia ami presidential de- crees. Such was the state of confusion, of wrong in i all its forms, of injustice, and utter anarchy in 1 tho Southern States that Congress in the win- ter of 1865, at the tirsi moment they could give it their official attention, took it in huud, and i appointed a committee, as you remember, sir, of fifteen, a joint committee of the two Houses, to inquire into the condition of the recent in- surrectionary States, and to report such meat- I ures to their respective Houses on the subject a as they should see fit, after a careful examina- tion of tho actual condition of the people of the insurrectionary States and their domestic affairs. Never was a committee charged with a a higher or more responsible duty than was a that joint committee. Never, in my opinion, a was a committee appointed on the part of either House of Congress who brought to the work such a disposition to 'be thorough, care- I ful, prudent. And after the examination of hundreds of witnesses from all parts of the South, and spending six months' time in this laborious investigation, they came to the con- which are stated in their report of 1866, a report, I undertake to say, which was received with approbation, and even admiration.

throughout the Xorthern States, and was accepted by every truly loyal heart in the country. Kxcuse me, sir, tor calling u.v attention of Senators here on the 19th day of May. ls70. to th" language used by that committee in the report which they then presented to the two Houses. It was no rrival theme upon which they had been laboring.

It was no ordinary object which they had in view. The object of their appointment was to make some suggestion foonded upon facts indubitably true by which h-yal governments could be established at the South, peace restored to ihe country, and the relations long broken up by the war between the various parts of the I nioii be restoredWe had passed through the bloody struggle of the civil war. Every one of us had had some relative or friend who had fallen upon the field of battle. Every one of us also had a person al interest in securing at the most speedy period the return of universal peace and prosper- i ity to the country. We had before us the abortive attempt of Johnson and his Cabinet to reconstruct the rebel States, and knew perfectly what was the state of things produced there that policy.

Mr. Howard then quotes from the report of the Joint Reconstruction Committee of the two Houses of Congress, made in June IS66, fully sustaining his position, and denouncing the whole scheme of unconditional and universal i pardon to the rebels as a wicked outrage. That Committee was composed of the following distinguished gentlemen W. P. ess en (Ten, James W.

Grmies, Ira Harris, J. M. Howard, George II. Williams, Thaddens Stevens, FJihu B. Washburne, Justin S.

Morrill, John A. Bingham, Roscoc Cotikling, George S. Boutwell. and Henry T. Blow.

Mr. Howard proceeded "That report described universal amnesty, that is, the granting to all the rebels, high and low, including the ringleaders and every other class, of the right to participate in the legislation of the country and to occupy scats here with us as a matchless wickedness," and I think so still. Your universal amnesty will bring hack to his seat in his Chamber, sooner or I iter, that infamous man, the head and front of the rebellion, who by the quips and cranks of the law, or something more discreditable, escaped the halter. Sir, you will one day see. if yon live long enough, Jefferson Davis and servitors of the same kith and kin, animated by the same destructive ideas so hostile to the United States, at work in tlmae Halls, attempting to rehatch their treason and vivify and reinvigorate the lost cause," over which he and they have so long mourned.

Mr. President, is it becoming the dignity of i an American legislator to sit in the same Hall and participate in the same deliberations upon national affairs with thai infamous class of men, the ringleaders of treason, whose great object was for years, still is, and always will be. 1 undertake to say. the utter destruction of the of United States? Sir. I should be ashamed to sit in the same Hall with them.

I should feel dishonored and degraded to be placing my name upon the same list of yeas and nays with that of Jefferson Davis or John C. Breckenridge or Robert Toombs, or my of the ringleaders in that wanton and wicked rebellion. Mr. MORTON. Would the Senator do it Mr.

HOWARD. I would not. have too tin eh personal pride; so have other Senators. 1 have too much respect for my country: 1 'lave too much respect for the opinion of the world, thus to stain my own good name by deliberate and voluntary association in matters of legislation with traitors arid enemies of my jountry. If this is harshness in the opinion of i the advocates of universal amnesty, they must make the most of it.

These are hit oninions and 1 I I mil I tell you, sir, and 1 tell the Senator from Connecticut, Mr. and all the rest of the sect known as universal amnesty men. that instead of acquiring the respect or the attachment or the friendship and coniidence of rebel ringleaders by such an act of folly and wicked ness, ft) use the language of the report, they will acquire only their derision and their con- tempt. Such will be the verdict of history, and such will be the language of these men if they ever return to these Halls. They will sneer in pur faces.

They will tell you, with contemptu- 1 scorn, that you had not manhood enough to continue even this slight inability to luie and to legislate; that you had not self-respect to continue it, even in regard to the 1 blood-stained ringleaders of the rebellion and they will say to you, and with some show of truth and consistency, that you are just the men they took you for. Sir. no rebellion in ancient or modern times igainst a legitimate Government has been sub- lued without punishment of the ringleaders md in my humble judgement no such rebellion i might to pass without punishment. Treason is i great rime. It is a crime we know which by i the common law is followed not only by the punishment of death, but by the forfeiture of ill the lands and goods of the offender.

It has been regarded in all countries, Christian jountries, pagan countries, and Mohammedan countries, as the highest crime that can be against the State. Your "universal amnestyis a compliment to treason. It an invitation to the traitor to come back and take his place in your councils and to give direction to your policy aud laws. Can you do this, sir, and maintain your self-respect? Can you do and preserve in their purity and strength ind spirit, power, and purpose of the Governner.t to which you belong You cannot. Treason is odious.

It is inconsistent with all Government, and, a3 I said before, the highest I that can be committed by a citizen. 1 wa inflinfpil ami 11 UpUll lilt' raitorg? None. 11 as there been a single mill-! execution for treason during or since the ot the war Not one. Has there been my trial ot a traitor, however high or however ow, lor the high crime be has Mono whatever. The sole inconvenience (for is not even worthy of the name of punish- nent) to which the leading traitors, even, have men subjected has been, and happens to be now in incapacity to come back into these Halls md participate with us in the matter of legis- ation and this is denounced here and else- vhere as a hardship, us a harshness, as a some- unnatural ami cruel, at least very objec- i.on.ible.

I do not see it. This disability, as has been so often remarked il this Chamber, is no punishment. If Con- i jress or the people, by an amendment of the Joustitution, sees tit to declare that a certain lass of persons in the United States shall not lold olhce under the United States, or under my State, is that a punishment for crime? Is ninority a punishment for the crime of being minor? A minor eanuot hold office ho canlot make a bargain. A fcuinie covert, a wife, make no contract. She is under a but who ever thought that this, I i tvr nithop of or was a punishment? It is simply a iuis- i ipplicution ol terms a perversion of the mean- 1 ng auii intention of the fourteenth amendment the Constitution.

For one, 1 propose to keep this nest of ad- lers, who iiuve given us so much uean the ringleaders of the rebellion, those vho hissed the loudest and were most poison- in their from my premises 1 ntend that they shall have no more to do with ue or mine, if 1 can help it, in the shape of ifliee-holding, legislation, or anything else. I This class proscribed from oftiee-holding nerely by the iourteenth amendment have been tuilty not merely of making war against the Jnited States, which in itself at the opening if the war was punishable by death in all eases, i they have been guilty of deliberate perjury 1 md false swearing before God and man for 1 he proscription applies only to such persons i is have once taken a solemn oath to support he Constitution of the United States, ami have ifterward gone into the rebellion and borne irnw against the United States, or rendered Lid and comfort to the enemies thereof. Here i the crime of deliberate perjury, wnicb is i elony by the laws of all the States, punishable ooulineuient at hard labor in the peniten- iary, in addition to the still higher crime of i reason against the United Statos. I Senators on ihis tloor complain that this a grievous punishment to such men as Jeft' Davis, i un.in yv Wlltliiuieg MD Cf I tiiiug aqnnrr in laper. lt-si than il chared of a fnll square.

All advortiM occupying les? than a quurter ol a col nmn computed by the inserted for a less time than three are charged transient i Toombs. Breckinridge. Ue. and the rest of the nest. Mr.

MORTON. And Wise. Mr. HOWARD. sir, and Wise; that this is a grievous punishment; that it is a use proscription ami they appeal to us to be magnanimous and indulgent, to pardon these offenders and take them back again to our bosom.

Sir, they had sworn to support the Constitution of the United States before God. Titey had sworn not to make war in any event upon their country. They violated their oath they made war upon iheir country; they deceived the nation that gave them birth; and, for one, 1 must apply to their condition the old adage, not the less significant because it is old, that ''a wise man may once be deceived, hut it is the fool who is deceived the second Let us keep them where they arc. Whoever goes before the loyal people of the United States and appeals to them to send representatives to this body and to the other House of i'ongress with a to establish Greeley's plan of "universal will, I predict, receive a universal "no" from all loyal Republican men and women to whom he may address his appeals. 1 have no fear about the result.

The recollection of this war has not yet passed from their hearts, t-Bvri II 11The honorable Senator front South Carolina the other day, in the ardor and zeal of his friendship for the late rebels, asked us whether we were not. going to forget the war! I do not. know what that Senator may do with regard to forgetting the war. My own opinion is that even he will soon forget it. I am quite sure, for another, thit 1 shall never forget the war; and I tell you, sir, that the loyal people who suffered so much in its prose father who lost his son, the mother who lost her son whose remains lie buried in southern soil, all the people who contributed in any way to prosecute this great war to preserve the unity and honor of the nation; the women who put in her mite to encourage the soldier in the performance of his duty or to -administer to his comfort, to bind up his wounds, or to do aught else for his comfort; the fathers and the mothers and the sisters, the widows and the orphans, sufferers, by this dreadful war, and told to-day by never forget this war; and God forbid that they ever should forget it, or the wicked causes that led to it! Its result is one of the proudest monuments in honor of the American name to the constancy of a free people and their love of their Government.

They will never forget this war, its dangers, its sufferings, its toils, its sacrifices; and they never will, for they never can so long as they are human, forget the scoundrels who brought such calamities upon theai, and they never ought to forget them. There may be other Powers in the universe who may be equally disinclined to forget these crimes; but that is a matter between the offender and his God, and I shall not follow hira beyond the confines of time. What I stand to is the report and the doctrine of the report solemnly presented to the two Houses of Congress in dune 186G, in which this policy of universal amnesty was denounced as "matchless If tt wasa''matchless wickedness" in i860 it has lost nothing of its atrocity in 1870. The leopard cannot change his spots. Treason and rebellion are to-day as odious and hateful and as little worthy of trust and confidence as they were in 1S6G, as they were in Now, sir, 1 wish to say one word upou the bill which is before us.

I have already consumed much more time on another branch of the subject than I intended. I know that the Committee on the Judiciary were as anxious as any of us to present a bill which should be effective for the protection of loyal voters, white and black, all over the United States. I do them honor iu regard to the labors they have bestowed upon the subject. But at the same time, not wishing to introduce into our legislation anything which can be treated as a nimtiij, 10 which reasonable oojec tion can be raised, I think the passages I shall point out will strike other Senators as strike me. And first, in section three there is a provision declaring that where a person has endeavored to take the necessary preliminary steps in order to acquire the right to vote, ami has been prevented by the officer to whom he was to make his application, his offer shall be held to be a performance in law of such act." Then the section proceeds and declares that he may present an affidavit to the board of election that he had offered to qualify himself to vote, and that his vote shall be received by the board upon the grouud that he was prevented from registering or taking any other preliminary step.

I do not think that an unconstitutional clause, but 1 think it is a clause which might be in some eases very easily abused. I think it is leaving to the applicant too broad a discretion. too much power. To say to hiru that if he swears he offered to qualify as a voter, and that he was prevented by John Smith, or John Doe. he may, nevertheless, go forward and put in his vote, is or may be to enable him to evade the law.

It is unusual to me; it is entirely unheard of; and I would far rather that section should be entirely stricken out. do not believe it will be of any benefit to the country generally. Indian A large meeting was held at Cooper Institute, in Now York, Wednesday evening last, to consider our Indian policy. The humanitarians" were out in force, Ueneral Sherman wrote a short and uithv letter, declining to at teml. Ho intimated that.

if the meeting would adjourn to some oue of the forts out on the Plains, where its managers could really see and study the Indians, he would be gla to attend but he evidently did not think that people ill New York, who knew nothing about the Indian character or the situation in the West, were properly qualified to settle the lndiau policy of the Government. This letter euraged the 44 humanitarians." General Sherman was latterly denounced, as also was General Sheridan, each having been guilty of the unpardonable offense of questioning the wisdom and ability ol the New York 44 humanitarian" ring. The New York Tribune, the next day, boldly avowed its belief that General Sherman was wrong, and that New York is the very place in which to settle our Indian policy, aud the humanitarian" riug contains the very fellows to do it. I Its tone conveyed rhr impression that it fear- 1 ed, if the meeting should adjourn the Plains, it would be surrounded with Indian influence, as well as the influence of the settlers, relation of fact would disturb that high philosophic abstraction and disregard of human passions, character, and border history, absolutely necessary for those who have taken upon ,1. 1 Liicxiioci t-s i lie buaiv ciuiving noui U1C uepiIlS af philosophic speculation a complete ''humanitarian" theory.

t. I 1 hiring the meeting a letter was read from President of nn Eastern college, advocating interring suffrage upon the Indians, as a panacea for all their troubles. To this a real Cher ikee Indian, who happened to be present, ob jected, declaring that it would injure the Inliuns to make their rights a political question, ind subject them to the kicks and cuffs of opposing parties. The Indian was promptly put town on tlie ground that he was out of order. Thk PTftekntii Amendment in i tVt the recent election in the Congressional Disrict of Kentucky, left without a Representative the resignation of Oolliday, Lewis, the democratic nominee, was elected by votes majority.

Seymour received 9,487 majority Crant for President in the same District. L'he Kepublican gain in the District is 3,353 rotes. This gratifying result shows very clearly that ihe tifteenth aiuendmeut is beginning to bear Tiiit. ever in besotted there is 10 doubt but that at the next election the Republicans will be able to carry some of theDia- (H in the State. The adoption of the fifteenth crowning jewel in Republican insure the success at" the party per adventure for years to.