12 Shall no guarantee be secured to them ? Shall those Southern states, who have proved what they are capable of doing in the negro question, be the sovereign masters of tho negroes ? Their representatives once admitted to Congress, without guarantees to the colored race having been previously stipulated, it will be too late to think of the oppression and wretchedness which will be heaped upon this race. The abolition of slavery will then become a farce. The negro question will then reappear entire, and you will perceive that the solution has escaped your hands. The question of negro suffrage, abandoned to Southern legislation, will not even be thought worthy of discussion. How can you then keep your word to those whose cause you have defended ? It will be necessary to begin the war anew. It will be necessarv to attack, when it is too late, those state rights which will have resumed all their force. The word of the United States is pledged. In the proclamation which abolished slavery, one solemn sentence, suggested at the last moment by Mr. Seward, declares that the slaves of the rebellious states shall henceforth be free, and that the government of the United States shall “ maintain their liberty.” And even though the proclamation did not say this, you would not be the less bound by the most sacred obligation which can exist on earth. In freeing the slaves, you constk tuted yourselves their protectors ; they cannot henceforth be oppressed without a stain upon the honor of America. No, Congress cannot abdicate in behalf of Southern legislation, and permit the negro question, so to speak, to be juggled out of its hands. It can do this the less, inasmuch as this question, which is in the,highest degree a federal one, is connected at the same time with one of the most express stipulations of your constitution. Your constitution declares that the Union shall guarantee to each of the states comprising it “ a republican form of government.” Now we may ask whether, in the Southern states, where the negroes are in great numbers, an organization which should absolutely
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=