DEMOCRATIC 'WATCHMAN--!ESUPPLE-MEN-t
BELLEFONTE, PA., FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 9, 1869.
SPEECH
P. GRAY MEEK,
In the House of lirprinientativen of Pennsylvania,
on the ratification of what is termed the
(math Amendment to the Federal
giving Negrome, Chinamen fool inditine the
right to rote.
' Mr. MEEK. Mr. Speaker, it is scarcely
to be expected that after so many able and
eloquent arguments, made bl my Democratic
colleagues against the passage of this resolu
tion, that s can add anything that will either
convince, instruct or interest the gentlemen
who are to vote upon this question. But, Mr.
Speaker, as I have the honor to represent an
honest, intelligent an f 4 patriotic whim con
stituency, I would be also, not only to them,
but to my State, my race and to myself, were
I to permit this great, this most appalling in
iquity to be consummated without raising my
voice to protest against it. This resolution to
ratify what is termed an amendment to the
Federal Constitution, involves two questions,
both of which are great fundamental princi
ples in our system of government—questions
wjiich are the very cornea stones upon which
our Republic was erected -questions upon the
termination of which not only rests the perpe
tuity of our Commonwealth, but the future of
our race and the safoty of society. These
questions are the
SIGHTS or THE STATES AND TAE' STATES OF
Tug RA kH.
To treat these question l b as they should be
treated would certainly takeis, mach older,
abler and better informed per4m -khan my
self; but, sir, I have too much love for my
State, too much pride for our proud old Com
monwealth, too much regard fur its honor,
welfare, power and worth to sit silently by
and see her rights trampled upon, her powers
usurped, her privileges abridged, aye, sir, her
very existence blotted out by a usurpation of
the General Government in the hands of Pur
itan fanatics and rum soaked ftadicahi, as
wrong as it is debasing, as outrageous as it is
infamoug,and as revolutionary as it is repulsive.
, It is true, as has been asserted here by mem
bers advocating this measure, — that article
five of the Federal Constitution provides for
the amendment of that instrument, in pre
cisely the manner that this so called amend
ment is proposed to be made ; but it is
equally true that that game constitution
limits the power of amendment to such mat
jets only as come within- the jurisdiction of
the General Government. • Two of these
limitations were expressly made in the same
article which provided a mode of amendment,
and others result from the general character
of the Constitution, and particular provisions
within it.
Among the general principles underlying
our Federal Constitution, which operates as
a limitation upon the right of amendment, is
the fact that ours is a republican form of
Government. No change in the Constitution,
or•tiny addition to it, which would transform
our Government into a monarchy would bs a
legitimate Itmendinent. Such a change, in
stead of being air amendment would be rank,
revolution ; and -.even if the revolutionists
were able to pass it through the prescribed
forma and put it into practical effect, its
validity, if it had any, would nit result from
the legitimate right of amending the Colon'
tution, but upon the despotic principle that
might makes right
Another general principle which operetta
as a restraint upon the right of amendment is
explicitly expressed in article ten of the
amendments, which declares : "The powers
not telegated to the United States by the
Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States
are reserved to the States respectively or to
the people." And section eight of that instru
ment sets forth plainly what powers were dole
gated to the law making power of the United
States, as well as those prohibited the States,
and nowhere, at no place, or under no con
struction, can there be found authority for
this attempted usurpation of the reserved
rights of the States. The question of suffrage
—the elective franchise—to which this pro
pos4d intendment relates,,is precisely one of
those questions which have been "reserved
to the States respectively or to the people."
By no word or syllable 2f the Constitution
has the Federal Government been invested
with any power or authority ih regard to this
subject. The two houses of Congress, even
by a unanimous vote, have no more constitu
tional right. or power to propose such an
amendment—no, not amend in'ent,but revolu
tion—as that which we have under considera
tion, than the Parliament of Great Britain,
the Corps Legislat:r of France or the cones
of Spain. It is a subject not within Its juris
diction, and the people of the States, whose
rights are to be trampled upon and crushed
out by this most infamous usurpation, would
be justifiable in revolt—will bo cowards if
they donot resist.
Why, sir, if three fourths of the States,
through the General Government, have the
power to strike the word "white" from the
Constitution of Pennsylvania, as this pre
tended amendment proposed, has it not the
right to strike out any word, sentence or sec
tion withie it? if it can strike out the word
"white,"in it not strike out the very first
suction o the first article, which creates this
body, no ready, to admit by its votes that
Ole power belongs to the General Goveen
themr? I aids you, in all candor, where is the
ranee that the same power that now seeks
to annul one of the provisions of our State
Constitution, will not, before another year,
attempt to annul all? If Congress, endorsed
by the Legislatures of three fourths of the
States, can say who shall Vote within our Com
monwealth, dan it not afiio say who shall be
our judges and our jurymen, our office hold
ers and our law makers, as well as what rights
we-shall enjoy and what rellglnus faith we
shall profess? If Pennsylvania, once proud,
peerless Pennsylvania, has not the power to
fix the qualifications of electors 'within her
own broad borders, 'pray tell me what power
she does possess?
The fundamental principle of our Gov.
erpment is, that governments " derive their
just powers from the consent of the governed,"
or in other words, that all govermental au
thority is inherent originally in the people
themselves. In framing their governments
they _delegate certain powers to those gov
ernments and give them a certain general or
limited jurisdiction over certain governmental
questions. The powers of the government
are limited by the instrument by which those
powers have been delegated. Hence neither ..
the State or Federal Government are abso•
lute over all questions. The powers of each
have been delegated by the people—the sov
ereign souree of all political power ; and in
the written Constitutions is expressly de
dared what powers are delegated, while the
omnipotent voice of the people, like the voice
of the Almighty addressed to the sea, has
said, "Thus far mayest thou go and no farther;
and here shall thy proud waves be staid "
We, Mr. Speaker, the immediate represent
atives of - the people of Pennsylvania, have no
power over this subject. Our own State con•
stitution defines the qualifications of voters
its this Commonwealth, and this 'Legisla
ture has no power, either directly or Indi
rectly, to change its provisions on the sub
jt-ct so as to be binding upon our own
people, much less have we the power to
bind the people of other States by any
unauthorized action of ours. To amend our
State Constitution requires that two succes
sive Legislatures propose the amendment,
and then that a majority of the qualified voters`
of the Statesratify the amendment at the next
general election. We have taken are oath to
support that ConstitUtion, and yet a majority
of this House, with that oath still fresh' aptn
their lips, are ready to violate it, by voting to
allow an unauthorized power to strike from it
the most important provision it contains.
This question of suffrage is a question which
even the States as States in their govern
mental capacity have no jurisdiction over.
If is fixed and regulated by the Constitutions
of the several States, and no power save the
power that made them —the people can
alter, change or amend. Why, Mr. Speaker,
this act of usurpation on the part of the Gen
eral Government and the litate Legislatures,
to fix the qualifications of voters in the sev
eral States, iewrsuming authority over sub
Jects that even the crowned heads of Europe
fear to exercise. It is but a short time since
the question of extending the elective fran•
chum to persons not before exercising it in
England was agitated there, and the Queen,
fearing to exercise a power over her subjects
that radicalism is assuming to day iu this
Government, prorogued Parliament an 4 sent
the question to the people for their decision.
Should the people of ?he several States of this
Government have less power in changing a
fundamental principle of their organic law
than the subjects of England T Should Con
gress and the State Legislatures of the Amer•
ican Republic pastime authority that the mon
archies of Europe fear to assert? And yet it
is being done, done now, and a party claiming
to be republican in principle is the party com
mitting this outrage and usurpation.
But, Mr. Speaker, power is always aggres
sive and 'grasping, and its history in out guv
eminent is not an exception to the general
rule. We have been making, for the past ten
years, rapid strides towards centralization,
and every step in that direction has removed
us so much farther from the republican free
dom of our ancestors, and so much nearer to
the despotism of European monarchies. The
liberties of the masses of the people are be
coming less secure just as they kllow the
grasping power of the Federal Government
to wrest from them and lodge within itself,
powers that have heretofore been exercised
only by them. How long, at the rate we are
now progressing towards a centralized despot
ism, will it be until the same power that now
seeks to mutilate onr State Constitution, will
blot it out entirely? How long, sir, until the
authority that now seeks to say who shall vote
within our Commonwealth, will say also who
shall fill the gubernatorial chair, if Vte are
left one? How long, sir, until our State
Government is blotted out, and the people
who are now sovereign will be subjects? I
venture the prediction, Mr. Speaker, that
neither you or ,I, will go down to the grave
with age before these things come to palm, uu•
!ma check is put to these usurpation of pow.
ere not delegated to the General Government.
This so called "amendment" has been pro
posed by Congress. It may be - ratified by
the requisite number of States, and it may
then be enforced upon the several States, by
the power of the General Government. What
then? Is it legally valid as an amendment?
No. Is it sanctioned by the people? Have
they given their consent to it? No. A few
hundred men who happen to be members of
Congress and of State Legislatures, and who
were elected to these offices without refer
ence to such a measure as this, will have tri
umphed over the will of the American people.
What then becomes of the theory of our
Government, that "governments derive their
just powers from the consent of the govern
ed?" ft is cast to the moles and the bate.
Our oflioers are no longer servants of the
people but their masters—the people are no
longer ebvereign but slaves.
It it is tree, and it certainly is, as was al
leged by the party now advocating this mon•
strous outrage, no longer ago than last fall in
its platform of principles, "'That the question
of-suffrage in all flje loyal States properly be
longs to the people of those States," in the
name of all that is geoid and great, why is it
not left for the people, to decide? Why is it
not left where you said, not.six months ago,
it " properly belongs?" Theirs is no nece.
city for the mad haste with which this is at
tempted to he fastened upon us. There is no
reason why it should not he left to the voice arid
vote of the people of Pennsylvania to decide.
But., Mr Speaker, turning to the other
question involved in this 'diseinfieion—the
question of the status of the races, even
were the right to enfranchise the negro as
proposed by this measure undeniable, how
many, very many, weighty, vary weighty rea
sons there are why it should not be done.
The only arguments that have been advanced
here or elsewhere by the advocates of negro
vetting,- appear to he based upon the great
fallacy that the negro is only a white man with
a black skin—that he possesses the same in
tellectual and moral faculties as the white race,
and may, therefore, be incorporated with the,
social and civil elements of our society as an
equal partner in the government ,of our coun•
try. On no other ground would any man of ordi
nary intelligence claim the equality of suffrage
for the negro. On no other grounds Could it
be claimed without a manifest design pf de
moralizing and debauching our own civiliza
tion. On no other ground can they base any
arguments in favor of this black measure.
The " loyalty" of the blacks will not do.
The people understand that too welL " Loy
alty" has covered too many infamous crimes
to make it a cloak to cover more The masses
can see through it—can understand it , they
detest it, they spurn it. It was the watch
word of the tortes of the Revolution. It was
the watchword of the thieves, Puritan hypo
crites, Constitution .defiers, law breakers,
treasury robbera, divine bullies, sanctified
murderers, spies, pimps, cut throats, and the
who'e horde of unprincipled wretches, pofiti
cal vagabonds and prison deserving villains,
who reaped riches out of the blood of the
per ple,and ghoul like gloated over the misery
of the country during the late unholy crusade
for plunder And power. No, sir, "loyalty"
will do no longer. There must be some other
reason for the enfranchisement of the negro
popujation, and members upon the other side
can aly base their arguments upon the as
sumption of the moral and intellectual equal.
ity of the white and negro races. But which
of them have attempted to prove the premise.
on which their conclusions alone can rest?
Who among their eminent leaders dare at
tempt it? Suppose, sir, it should be proven
that the negro is no more the equal and
brother of the white mart than the ass is the
equal and brother of the horse, than the buz
zard is the equal and brother of.,the eagle,
what then becomes of all this ear splitting
rhetoric about "the equality and brother
hood" of negroes and white men? It is as
baseless as the rich man's dreams. An at
tempt to establish equality upon foundations
where Almighty God has fixed eternal in
equality is an undertaking so profane and eo
God defying that we might think it would
stagger the fanatics and revolutioniste of this
negro suffrage party But it does riot, sir.
They have got beyond that point, ami.tyhe de
crees and worke of God himself meet be
swept by the hoard if they stienOps„tSyeen it
and places of power and profit.
The eminent Dr. Caldwell, in his work en (
titled the "rlnity of the Races," points out
over a hundred anatomical and physical dif.
ferences between the negro and the white
man—differences which as distinctly prove the
negro to be a different being from the white
man as the ass is proved to be a different
creature from the horse Corner declares
"that the anatomy of the negro evidently ap
proximates thirinonkey tribes." Prof. Agas
sis asserts that "the chimpanzee and gorilla
do not differ more from the orang than the
Maylay or white man differ from the negro."
Prof. Wy maim, of Cambridge college, Massa
chusetts, says, "It cannot be denied, how
ever wide the separation, that the negro and
orang do afford the points where man and the
brute, where the totality of their organization
is cons , dered, most nearly approach each
other." But why, sir, multiply evidence
upon this point? -It is a matter no longer in
dispute. And, sirs, in the properties of the
brain and heart the negro is as far behind the
white man as he is in his physical peculiari
ties. History proves that his mental and
moral depravity is as old and as unchangea
ble as his physical type. You can no more
elevate the mind of the black race than you
can change the color of its skin. It was
faithfully painted upon the monumental walls
of Egypt five Thousand years ago, precisely
as we know it to exist to-day, and was there
described as the "barbarian." From that
day down to our own debased times no peo
ple ever looked upon him other than as an in
ferior being, created by an 1111WiEll God to be
ruled rather than rule.
Eminent writers estimate that not less than
five hundred millions of whites have lived
and died in Africa since the beginning of the
historic period—church records show that
millions upon millions of dollars hkve been
expended annually, by miaaionariesi to civil
,-ize and christianize three black barbarians,
and yet what has it all amounted to? Where
is the tribe that has been benefited ? Not to
be found, sir. Where is the permanent good
that has resulted from it? Let the boiled
bones of missionaries, who have teturned,
afters Short visit to their homes in ehristion
ized ebutitriea, to their missions mating these
babarians only to be cooked and eaten,
answer. And more, sir, while it is japosaible
for these advocates of negro equality, to point
to a solitary case in which the negro has
adopted our civilization, so, too, is it impos•
Bible for them to show a single instance on
the face of the globe, of his having retained
an enforced civilization, longer than held as
the slave or subject of some superior race.
If there is a spot in any country or climate,
where the freed negro has not relapsed to
wards barbarism, pray, sir, where is it? .Do
you point to Jamaica? The snake worship
and idolatry and the Fetish auperstiiion of this
degraded race there, is simply proof of what
I assert. Do
' you point to Liayti, let the de•
beuched and demoralized condition of the
negro there, with his witch fearing and 01;6
worship, answer. Arid, air, come nearer
home. Look upon our own soil, within the
limits of our own country, under tie enlight
ening and c viliz ng effects of military govern
ments, Freedman's Bureau, purified puritan
preachers, and Massachusetts s c hool mams ;
and see the negroes of the South rapidly re
lapsing into the barbarism and heathenish
practices of their African ancestors—snake•
worship—idolatry—child eating and witch
croft, and tell me how long it will be, going
back at the rate they have, since abolitionism
gave them freedom and suffrage, until they
will be worthy followers of the skull scraping
king of Dahomey or the devil worshiping,
man tratieg-tiviMenttre4-44n!e4,'Ivett4----
There is not, Mr. Speaker, an instance on
record where negroes have had &voice in the
affairs of government in any country, at any
tune or under any circumstances, were that
gqvernment has not gone to ruin. it was
the recognition of the equality of 'the races,
the enfranchisement of these black pro•
teges of abolitionism, that brought ruin to
Mexico—that devastated and destroyed San
Domingo—that caused the fall of the Repub
lic, of Central America, and brought deistrac-'
tion to the South American States. There
sir, are witnessed the result of negro eqi.ality
in that mass of civil and social degradation,
which is so rank and foul that humanity stops
the nose at it.
Are we to follow in their wake? Are we
to go down to death and 'destruction, sink
into that seething, sickening pool of mongrel
ism, simply to secure power and plunder for
the negro suffrage party? It seems so. It
looks so. I fear it is so. Congress has
cracked its whip and the asses who draw its
loads have started at the snap, and are now
dragging us down, down, down.
There are men upon this floor who know
and feel that this attempted usurpation is
wrong, outrageous, and debasing, yet who
are too cowardly to'vote against it, because,
Congress and king caucus, has ordered other
wise. Shame upon such freemen ! A thou
sand shames upon such poltroonery I
In conclusion, Mr. S l it% er, let tusk of
the gentlemen who intend voting for this re
yoking measure, why it must be forced upon
the people? Is it beenuse the negro is your
equal in intelligence ? You do not admit him'
to be such. Is it because he carried a mus
ket in your armies? Did not your own sons
under the age of twenty one, and who are not
allowed to vote, do the same 7 Es it be•
Cause he is taxed to maintain the govern'
meat? Are not wpmen and minors and foreign
ers taxed also ? Is it because you favor
"manhood suffrage ?" Why then prevent the
intelligent white foreigner from voting for five
years? Is it because the white race is unfit
or unable to govern itself ? Where is the gov•
ernment that has been benefited by negroes
having a voice in its affairs 7 Is it because
you believe in "universal suffrage? " Why
then give the ballot to the ignorant negro, the
dirt eating Chinamen and the depraved digger
Indian, as you are now seeking to do, and
withhold it from your own eons, your wives:`
daughters and sisters ? Strs, it is for none of
these reasons It is not because justice de•
mends, orphilanthropy dictates it, but because
a dire party necessity requires it. It is to
prolong the reign of Radicalism; to keep
your thieves and usurpers in power, and your
villains out of the penitentiary. It is to place
voting machines in the hands of capital, to
override and vote down the interests of labor,
and to degrade the toiling millions of this
country to the condition of the mongrelized
inhabitants of Mexico.
But thank God, the Democracy of New
Jersey. Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky,
Ohio, Indiana and Georgia, aided by down
trodden Virginia, despo l tsm'cursed Mississip
pi, and outraged Tex , will stand like' a
wall of fire between you and the consumma•
lion of your most infamous designs, until the
people—die white people—tbe sovereign
people of Pennsylvania, in their majesty and
power, choose at the ballot box, men who
will fill your places in this hall next winter,
and vote to rescind the resolution of ratifica-
tion you are about to pass. From this mo•
meat we start the cry of Repeal I It will
ring through every valley, through every vil•
lege, and over every hilltop in this broad
Commonwealth, and he who will not pledge
himself to vote to repeal (his most debasing
resolution,will not occupy a seat upon this floor
during the next session of our Legislature.