collected articles-第5章
按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
as much at home in Carolina as elsewhere in the Republic。
No Chinese wall can now be tolerated。 The South must be opened
to the light of law and liberty; and this session of Congress
is relied upon to accomplish this important work。
The plain; common…sense way of doing this work; as intimated
at the beginning; is simply to establish in the South one law;
one government; one administration of justice; one condition
to the exercise of the elective franchise; for men of all races
and colors alike。 This great measure is sought as earnestly
by loyal white men as by loyal blacks; and is needed alike by both。
Let sound political prescience but take the place of an
unreasoning prejudice; and this will be done。
Men denounce the negro for his prominence in this discussion;
but it is no fault of his that in peace as in war; that in
conquering Rebel armies as in reconstructing the rebellious States;
the right of the negro is the true solution of our national
troubles。 The stern logic of events; which goes directly to the
point; disdaining all concern for the color or features of men;
has determined the interests of the country as identical with
and inseparable from those of the negro。
The policy that emancipated and armed the negronow seen to
have been wise and proper by the dullestwas not certainly more
sternly demanded than is now the policy of enfranchisement。
If with the negro was success in war; and without him failure;
so in peace it will be found that the nation must fall or flourish
with the negro。
Fortunately; the Constitution of the United States knows no distinction
between citizens on account of color。 Neither does it know any difference
between a citizen of a State and a citizen of the United States。
Citizenship evidently includes all the rights of citizens;
whether State or national。 If the Constitution knows none;
it is clearly no part of the duty of a Republican Congress
now to institute one。 The mistake of the last session
was the attempt to do this very thing; by a renunciation
of its power to secure political rights to any class of citizens;
with the obvious purpose to allow the rebellious States to disfranchise;
if they should see fit; their colored citizens。 This unfortunate blunder
must now be retrieved; and the emasculated citizenship given to the negro
supplanted by that contemplated in the Constitution of the United States;
which declares that the citizens of each State shall enjoy all the rights
and immunities of citizens of the several States;so that a legal voter
in any State shall be a legal voter in all the States。
End