52 Or suppose, moreover, that three or four Northern or Western states should insist on persevering in spite of everything, we would then doubtless witness a constitutional amendment, sanctioning the equality of the races. Or, rather, without having recourse to such means, simple decisions of the Supreme Court would suffice to re-establish the empire of the common law. It would not, indeed, be difficult then to prove that the Constitution had never foreseen or admitted a middle state between slaverv and freedom. THE TRANSITION. XV. * I wish, Mr. President, that it had been possible not to establish a provisional regime in the South. To attain on the spot the re-establishment of the former rights, and to abandon the new rights to their own destiny, would be theoretical perfection. But by the side of theory there are facts, and facts do not permit the avoidance of a period of tram sition. In granting to the negroes the right of voting, you will have made them a small gift if you do not take care that they are permitted to use it. We are far from carrying veneration for political rights so far as to believe that they take the place of everything. To refuse them to the negro race would be an enormity ; to accord them to it would not be sufficient. I picture to myself the negroes attempting to vote freely in the face of their old masters. Will the bill of Congress give them independence ? Will it defend them against threats ? And if the old master declares that he will refuse work to those who refuse to enfeoff their vote to him, will the bill of Congress afford the remedy for such a condition ? There is but one remedy ; the provisional intervention of the federal power in behalf of the Southern negroes. It is necessary to insure to them both material support and civil and judicial redress. The abolition of slavery has just ere-
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