The daily new era. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1865-1869, April 29, 1869, Image 3

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The daily new era., April 29, 1869, Image 3

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Newspaper Page TextDAILY NfiW ERA. 7% \r mjLmzxjwau mffiJHLP. WKDKJBMJ MOSSING, JUMt 16. SR >•«» Kii»nwattr. The SaprMaa Court, o» jrzUrdajr, decided (J»«if" Warner dbnurtteft that !k* MDO *» •ligiUe to office ia this Sate. TM* decision MiUttw the views expressed in the Eax of Kei»J»y leet We weald publish the decision 10-.Uy were it not for the extreme length of Mr. Akeraen'c M|»swl It trill be pub tubed, however, el our earlket eonvcnieocs ; probnbiy in our issue of tomorrow. As UiptrUßt Poet. The right of .the negro lo bati office was decided et “ApvomaTtox On;at Hoess.” It k dimply foolish to fight the stem logic of events. It t» l»cet always to take things M we find tiii 10 imt the South be lees punetiliou* end more practical. “Let nz here ponce" The UfUlsian. It u rmoored on oar street* that Governor BstbsK will now convene the Legislature. If ho. will tio K'» i» lor adopting the 15th Consti tiitmuui Amendment which be defeated last wtntar ? W« shall sea. W under H his Excellency has care felly ivHurtcd aoeaa on the impeachment qneztio* ? We isn’t exactly say jeet at this writing. Mr. A. V. Ahtness'i Hnst Argneseat Ba. ton the leyrmi Omars at Uenrgtn. an Use KltgUsllUyr te Office at Pevsner of Cnlnr. We punt in oar eolomaa today the great argumeat of Hon. A. T. Akerman, on the eli gibility of the eolored man to bold offloe in mu State. Mr. Akerman ie a Republican, and u in eomplets aeeord with this journal uponrhe main queattoo that divides Reoebli caot In Georgia Will Governor Bollock and kis shallow ailias take this masterly argument as another evidenee that the Eaa Ims gone over to the Demooxsey ? We redone the ar gument from first to last. Will the New York Couimeroial Advertiser (our special friend) print the argument in order to inform its render* or the real obaraetar of the Era's De mocracy? Witt the Advertiser alee do us the luitUoe to print this editorial, or to state that the argument «f Mr. Akmvam toeata oaf unqualified egdanffinffit? If it ariaheet* ex ercise ohsrity to all and malioe towards none, it will promptly comply with this modest end amt reasonable request. Oev. Uwlleek sad Me VrfteariU. It might as well he known first aa last that Gov. Bottoek aad his friends are doing ail they can to strengthen themselves with Urn Demo cratic party. We will bring out soma Carta on this point at a proper time. m- Govsroor Balfook—The man who draws on the " Naw York Fourth National Bank." Judge •« the Chaita Beeches Clre ait. The Governo* has appointed ax-Gov. James Johnson to bo Judge of the ttnporior Gonrta of tfefo State ter tee CkeffiakdeHhee OMt The appointment is a good one. Mr. Johnson has long ranked smarm tee leading members of theffieor#* Bar. He is well versed In law, is a drier and eneriart naeoast, and * jtoiet of Mr. Johnson w*s suoointed Provisional Governor of the State by President Jobsson. This office he Sited to the aateafootien es tea Pcepla. After ttoMa suguratN* of Gov. JrtiwSTMr. Jetesen re ertved tee Federal appoiunreot of OBffiretorejf customs ter Ike Fort of have wash, wtifoh jnswreatt&susftjnt "ill 5 j5ZZ£&‘ this daty was aoaCßtilil* feffi faiths govern ment aad the peogsa. IM*-. « _ jttdSgpßtisxaßsz raiptaUe. &C*% *£££?? «■** * fef* Judge, sateWfita the lw4ebTwwfn to iter •Minded, apfiwfll bald tee urate of Justice te, a * Jm ; T*!L&i!F2£ NBK' % OilMlK iPM H te W wm wmmm ■■ ypmmm W 9* ■ "¥***.. f fMm p« ! ■ *ii* mmmJHmp wm fife*? *• ''teftev •"ffigte v Ajlate 'Htht 4ft telnaeh ‘tin ii nwinr - -- - ' <v* - i ,4 g ß> .! > y mSOm' fiP’ ELIGIBILITY ffi» mWB FERBOXS TO OmtT Es OFOBCIA. Argwmcnt sfgr. Akerman hefere US* te> b» thb ttuvaana Oocur aw Oaoem i. I Amawr*, Juoe 10,1800. f EiOhardW. Whiln pteinlttn WarraU lb. State or(fa«*mt M- I*” - . latiom William J. Clements, ( <»™tj. defendant in error. V J ‘ The plaintiff in error, White, was elected Clerk of the Superior Court of Chatham coun ty, and entered on thw-duties of the office. Clements, his competitor at the election, in stituted this quo warranto to dispossess him, cl alaring the office ter himself under the law which rejects votes for ineligible persons and gives the office to the eligible person receiving tbs largest vote. White is alleged to be a person of color, and therefore ineligible. The Superior Court of Chatham county, Judge Schley presiding, decided this to be a good ground of objection, bolding that per sons of bold office under the Con stitution and' laws of Georgia. This decision is brought up for review. Counsel for plaintiff in error, James John son, A. W. Stone, A. T. Akerman. For defendant in error, Jnlian H&rtridge and Thomas E. Loyd. The following is the argument of Mr. Aker for the plaintiff in error. May itpftmMyowr Honan: The question is. are colored men eligible to office in Georgia ? There is nothing in tbe Constitution or statutes disqualifying them expressly. But it is argued oa tbe other side that having bean disqualified lader tee ancient institutions of the Btato, they remain disqualified unles» qualified by distinct and poaitive enactment. This argument ignores the revolutionary deluge which has swept over the land, and assumes that the ancient polity of the Btate is still our polity,—that tea present govern ment Is a continuation and not anew crea tion. This assumption is a fundamental error. The authorities of the United States, have twice declared that the war left Georgia with out civil government, sad these declarations have received the express or implied assent of all the people of the State. President John son’s proclamation, of June 17th, 1865, and the recoustroeuon acts of 1867, both undertake to provide a government for a State which rM none. The language of the proclamation H**lhe rebellion in its revolutionary progress has deprived the people of Georgia of all oivil government." Tne language ot the recon struction act of March 2d, 1867 is, "Whereas no fegnt governments now exist in the rebel States of Georgia," Ac. Both .these instru meutn establish new bases of suffrage and eligibility foe, the conventions which they authorise. From these two sources have sprung the only State governments which have demanded the obedience of the people of Georgia sinoe May. 1865, aad one or the other of these governments has received the voluntary sup port of every oitixen of the Btate. For In that warm popular conflict which began in March, 1867, and was formally terminated in Jaunary, 1869, by the abandonment of the suit brought by Gov. Jenkins in the Supreme Court of the United Siates.every one of our citizens ranked himself among the adherents of the govern ment initiated by the President or among the adherents of the government initiated by ObDftpßftQfe The Supreme Court of the United States is reported to have dsetded, hi a lato case, that the old government cS Mississippi was de stroyed by the war. aha the same ruist be true of Georgia. So, At the departments es the {pVttrtunent of tbe United States, and all the people ot Georgia, have concurred in recog nising the destruction of the ancient woven meet of the State. So oomplete was this de- Mrwctiou, in tee judgment of the Convention our ted nurown and statute laws. There is a tefiiiiinl film- Wu tea not say thnt tee government has been amended, re paired, or remodeled, but reconstructed, that U, wb©% knUtanew. And tea essential new nesn of tee structure is not disproved by the feet teat some of tee old materials have been used. This reconstructed government being the aateority under which this eeort sits, I shall confine my inquiries to Ms rules and principles ou the matter at bar. These moat be eeagjkt for in tee Constitution of 1868, and In the oonfonaable statute law, Lnnkrfnk at tea latter of the Oaaetifartloo, we find es Manshift, and a certain age, «**■ deuce and professional Handing wanked of tboW|Whote , «ffiUlefi»w preach- leid down. There are e«t*ia dk ijnn ind ffilmj and lam may, hitffig yatlhnm- FoLrt Mix arietenMteteatffifitaffiPtn# teen at* lin asps tesdpdtnaftpaapy ha atetee; IngglPtef CM. c—anteftpjwgi iZSSa'JgZL] above bis amah te - MB. i#l' view is de-1 rived, perbsps nneonsctonxly, from European ideas. Aoeording to tee monarchraal theory, the sovereign gu* his authority from Heaven, and all officers, being his rapMSte-.stives, and partaking In some sceee of his supenorityvare above the people among whose they sffiuistu. Our officers dative their power net from s Hoorce above the people, but born the people themselves. The leaned Jadga below argues agnteat the doctrine that sligteflity goes with suffrage— that it leads to tea aonarqnenea teak a for eigner who has fiasterad has intention to be come a citizen yootd be etigiMe to office; for such s foreigusr can vote The learned coun sel on the other ride (Mr. Hartridge* has pressed the seme argnmwnt this morning with great earnestness, and pronounces s*ch a con sequence monstrous. That wash is a ooaae quence es the doctrine, I admit; bni it wises not frighten sie. fleets in our exeeotrre and legislative chairs, and in our highest judiciary, ate restricted to citizens by the' terms of the Constitution. And in case of the minor offi ces, such as clerk*, sheriffs and constables, if a man bora abroad so commends himself to his neighbors here that with all their partlett ties for their own countrymen they will tract him in office after a short residence, I cannot believe that he will endanger the Statu. The probability that a foreign, power would en deavor to overturn oar Government through such agencies fa scarcely sufficient to require the rejection of a sound principle in order to escape that conaequcooe. Equality of right under this government ie to be presumed in flavor of all who participa ted equally in the formation of it—l English (Ark.) Rep. 518. Colored men voted here aa the question whether there should be a Conven tion. and for delegates to the Convention; col ored men sat in tea Convention; colored men voted on tee retifierttoa of tee Oonrtitatiea. Tbe old government of Georgia was made exclusively by white men, and might properly be termed a “ white soan'e government." . Its primary franchises ware restricted to Wtfite men. The present government was made by men of bote races. Its primary fmoqhiec is bestowed without distinction oLeotev. It was the genius of the eld government that the; white man should take everything by implica tion, and the negro nothing. Ik IB the genie® of this government that its implication* should be without distinction of oolor. There, in the case of the colored scan, privation of all rights—personal, civil, and political—was (he rule; and possession es right Was the exeep tion. Here,- participation in all rights is the role, and privation is the exception. The disabilities of tbe free negro under tee old government grew oat of tee institution of slavery, and were a part of tea bulwarks by which it was protected. Bryan vs.. Walton. 14 Geo. Rep., 308. Tbe oanae waning, the effect should cease. When slavery fell, there foil also all the rights, members and appurte nance* thereunto belonging. Why try te pre serve the incidents when tee principal thing has perished? Slavery has gone, with its rights of property and mastery, and its duties of protection; with its hardships and its oriti- SHtioos; with its relations, sometimes forbid- Hng, but often tender and affectionate; with its practices, sometimes harsh, bat generally kind —much kinder, in foot, than a stranger wenid infer from the written' law—and why should not its theory of political caste go too? If in good faith we have given it up, let us give it up totally. Having lost the substance in a fair and gallant fight, let ns not cling to its appendages. Let ns dismiss its jealousies, ks apprehensions, its prejudicestAits modes of thought, end its raise for iffigjpmted consti tutions. Its doctrines and. spirit are oat of place in a government based on liberty. If Georgia had never been a slave-holding State, and wmn now mwwrritsi for ffit tort time am der ten Uotmtitntioo, this qas&tion would never have bean raised. Shall a dead testitm tio a forever haunt us, and be eltawcd thl privileges of tbe living. It has been said that, in adopting the *M law of tee State, tee Constitution leapt in forte sueh of tbe old disabilities of colored persona as were not distinctly repealed. It will, however be seen from teatefopting clause, Art. xi, see. 3, that obsolete laws ere excepted from the adoption. This rianse was »o* in tee Constitution ot 1865, sad was probably inserted with a view to the laws growing oat of slavery, though not referring directly to si ties; for the la* of slavery is repealed in tee next olauter. It will be observed, too, that no each thing as the eomsaoa law of Georgia is adopted, and many of tee disabilities es free colored persons rested alone on usage, which is is foot a common Uw. The common low adopted is that of Bnlliad, which fit against slavery and all Its. incidents. There foaieo a repeal of ail tew ineonatetonk with (few Constitution, and I hate endeavored to show that tee Constitution authorises no &i*- crjraination in political rights on kesttehtor Tuta interesting argument for the defend ant in error made this morning (by **- Hartridge) we were told teat among tea rights new belonging to tee negro, tod fin* conferr ed by the&ofastitMrthertltitt, tithe right to pursue the path of knowledge. That right w very restricted, if the'old law in relation to free persons ot safer ha tew stitt, whosn it has tothaan ffistteSly repented. #hare win gs* htte*mlrgVTTrimfr^ outer ttot*Cb& ;,m not hoea «vto if that pro y» .enS maw ’ .4] j should vote and who ah bold badfoqaafified for office, contained the following provision, num bered as the teath section pf the report. “All qualified slscbarx, aad bom others, teal! Vs eligible to any office in this Skate, males* dte qoalified by the ObasHtnaten of this State, or by the Onstetetiim of tbs United Stetea."— Journal, page 15te_: On the 13th of February, 1868, a motion was made to amsad this section by inserting after tbe w«wd the words "who have been citifceusof the United Sutes for seven years." it was Well under i stood in the Convention wkiat wasinteadrd by this amendment. As eolored person* bad jast attained citizenship, it would debar them from office for seven yean. • On this I amendment tit* ysna ware thirty-three, and the nays eigbty niae.—-Journal, page* 308-9. By that vote tho Convention refused to -impose a disqnalifica tton on colered men eyep fer tho limited term of sevna-ytora, ■ |As ‘• The next day the votet was taken oa a mo tion to strike oat the eectioa altogether, and theyaas were.one hundred tod twenty-six, and the flsys-were twelve.—Journal, pages 311-13. I wtfl voteio asatf ment. % -• i < The next day. the 16VJ*. a motion was made to reooo*id*r this test vote, for the porpase of inserting substitute for tbe section tee following: * : “White men, only, shell be eligible to any office of trust, honor, or profit, or employ ment, whether municipal, judicial, or politi cal, in this State, and white men, only, shall serve as jurors in.the Courts.” On .this mo tion the yeas were nineteen, the nays one hun dred and three.—Journal, pages 322-23. Bo it stands upon the record thus: The Con vention twice refused to deny eligibility to the oaiored man, and once refused specifically to So him eligibility. And tee action latest in | a was against denying Mm eligibility. But w« are askpd to aoconnt for the vote on ths 14th of February, striking out the tenth sec tion. As well as one can know the minds Os other men, I know that a large majority of ths members who voted to strike oat Jhe’tenth motion, did so andsr a oonviotion that it would bo superfluous if it remained. It was not so with all; it was with the greater port, probably with aQ bat the thirty-three who had voted to deny eligibility for seven years. Some of the members believed that eligibility was a deriva tive from oitizenahip; some that was it a deriva tive from suffrage; ami some traoed it to both those sources'! probably three-fourths believed tht.t it would exist as well without as with the tenth section. There was only one speech agtdnst the motion to strike out The speaker thought it would be better to leav no ohaince for dispnte or litigation upon the subject' tod the refore opposed the motion. But he em phivtioally stated in his remark!, a synopsis of which appears in a newspaper of ths day, that ** ix was well understood that a majority of the Convention held that negroes would be eligi ble to office even thongh that sectiqn were; stricken out" This statement was gainsaid by nobody. It passed unchallenged in that body as the truth of the case. lb* Constitution come before the people for ratification. There was full discussion by speakers aud writers. Some of those who argue this case, and some of those who are to decide it, engaged in those discussions. Your Honors understand that I refer to those dip-, oarisions with no desire to bring into this fo rum ths popular passions which then raged, but because the reference is necessary in order to ascertain what the people meant when they ratified the Constitution. Leading friends and leading opponents of the Constitution gave to the people their respective interpreta tions, and these interpretations were accepted by their respective followers. And this is the way tee parties stood before the people upon tea subject now under discussion. T-e oppo nents of ths Constitution all represented it as givingte* fiegro the right to office. The luge atibnty of tee advocates of ths Constitution gate it tho saute a minority ot its advocates, including some gentlemen of great eminence, held the oontrary, bat on •very occasion candidly mid to the people teat there.was a difference of opinion among the firieuds of the Constitution on this point; they took avary precaution to let the people know that their construction was not unques tioned ; they never denied that the majority of the Convention held to tee opposite con struction. The formal attack on the Constitution was bqgfen in this city es Atlanta the -day before the Convention adjourned. A gentleman who was exceedingly conspicuous in all tee disena stans upon tho subject of reconstruction (Hon. Banjamm H. HBJ) oa teat day addressed a meeting hers, aad (to are the current phrase) *6aid down the programme” of opposition to tho Constitution. In thrt speech, of Match 10th. 1868, which was published in tho At lanta Daily Intelligencer of March 13th. 1868, Mr. Hill said. “I assert, and assert tt without tear of contradiction, that this Constitution xsSkte tbe negroes politically equal in all re spect*. D makes team equal as to the right m suffrage, and equal as to tbe right to hold oftep.” From this position of their acknowl edged leader, there was not a word of dissent expressed by tbe opponents of the Constitu tion, from that day until the ratifying election which began on the 20th of April, 186S- Tkongh of course I could not have heard aB test,war sate, o*haewssad aft teat was printed on thossfigoet, I fort authorised to make this statement, from a very v£*d- recollection of the dimensions s**i electtcm. !.* v ’ It reap be relaly assumed that the msrees of the people ware divided ea this question in about tee ansae proportion* an Jtesir lutes. in>M ■aaM then stand ns foltewa in rnnmd voted ratification (hot who having Tutejtesortoq^ntehortNl hyh) voted ft boot ihoMMid ivniffidtrmi jfasSnaaf tire psspte to tea efioier of isffiwtv tee^Coa nsqkptissd ta ka tiigahfob wMtew EfUteM WmmTmto* m ««* thing* ere w tioo. win the popular disoSartoa of which I have spobon until late m the canvass. Then, attention was drawn to them, and it is well known that aom* intelligent »*o wha teed ssssSramAitf&T m given (n the statute tew wKteh the Cnontita- j tion adopted. An ingenious attempt hen been made to pst>v« that tee obvious meaning of those par agraphs te not tee true meaning. The learn ed counsel (Mr. Hartridge) shows that ia an other piece the code defines persons of color , and gives to them certain civil rights— whence tw infers that, being thus specially provided for, the rights enumerated as belonging to citizens generally do not belong to them. In sopport of this view, he cites certain rules of count ruction from Dwarris. Such rule* are useful in ascertaining tbe meaning of what is not plain. But ths force of language so plain and positive as that need in those paragraphs cannot be overcame by any such process. It will be difficult the Coart that the colorffikman acquired no now privileges by becomteg e citizen. HU Honor beiew argues that eligibility can not be included in citizenship, because in that case women and children would be eligi ble. He does not see that citizens of differ ent descriptions may have different rights, and yet have them all by virtue of their cit izenship. I will read op this subject from Ist Lit toll's My. Reports, page 333-4. “No one oan therefore, in the oorrect sense of the term, be a citizen of a State, who te not en titled, opoo the terms prescribed by the in stitution* of the State, to all the rights and privileges conferred by those institutions upon the highest class of society; It is true that females and infanta do not personally possess those rights and privileges la any State in ths Unton; bnt they artdrtfiarally de pendent upon adult smles, through whom they enjoy the benefit* of those mghts and privileges. And it tea role of commwa law, as well as of oomnShfe sense, that femafoa and infante in this respect partake of the quality of those adult males who baton* to the some class and condition in society. According to the rule hers laid down, ths act which makes new citizens may eletfae them with dif ferent privileges according to age, sex and other conditions. What are the rights of citizens ? Every mind directed to tee subject tenet have found this a perplexing question. I doubt whether an accurate and exhaustive definition of the torn citizen has ever been framed. The Court below undertook to define it negatively, a much easier task than to define it pooitivrty. Counsel on the other side cited numerous au thorities to prove that ths privileges and im munities of citizens of eaoh State, to be en joyed in other States, under tbe Constitution of the United States, embreoe only oertain personal and civil rights. But this has not been held uniformly, as the case I have quo ted from Kentucky shows. The Court below argues that the privileges guaranteed to eiti teqs in the Fourteenth Amendment to tbe Constitution most be the same for all oitisens without regard to age, sex, or condition, and hence that eligibility to office cannot be one of them, because that construction would open office to women aud children. This mode of reasoning would fritter to nothing the pririleges'secured in that amendment. Is tbe right of locomotion one of thoee privi leges? j This; right is abridged in the cases of children, lunatics, criminals, an<*, in some instances, of debtors. Is the right to contract one of (hem ? This right te {abridged in the cases <if minora, married women, and other incapacitated classes. It will scarcely be *<t serted that the States, in imposing these salu tary restraints! ate violating tbe Constitution a* the United'States. We remvadwr when it was tire fashion among Sottthwa jurists who wttu defending the laws forbidding the imafeiaitoa ot foe. colored penoM against constitutional objec tions, to contend that cittern* were the highest class of persons la their respective States, and as free colored pecaoas were Odder some disa bilities in most Northern States, they could not be held citizens in the sqnse of tee Con stitution ot the United States. This was the view taken by tee Kentucky Court in the case in Ist lettell. Now, ia order to restrict the privileges of colored persons under their new citizenship, our learned friends plaoe ths citi zen very tow in tee scale ot privilege. Perhaps it is tbe true solutioifrof the per plexity that the word means different things m different place*. There is respeetable Au thority for limiting it, as need in the Ooooti tntion of the United States, to personal and oivil rights. There te respeetable aatborify for saying that it sometimes embraces the rights of saffirsge aad sligibility to office.— Ist LiU. 333, Bouvter, Law Diet: Art. Ckteso, Ist Boor. Inst. 64. ‘ * It may be profitable to inquire how tbe term hue been understood io Georgia. Though there baa been ‘ » solution of continuity" be tween the former and the present governments of the Btate, the old may yet, in many par ticulars, afford valuable aid in nnderetoodiag the sew. It will be seem that men whom Georgians have been aoenstomed to revere be* itevad that citizenship in Georgia carried with ft tee right to hold offioJ io tee absence es positive restrictions, Oa the I3th of February, 1796, aa act of the Legislature of Georgia wm nasned with the assent of Jared kwm. Governor, freeing certain staves of Daniel Grant and also Cha ney and her sine children. It enaeta that the, freed persona “are hereby emancipated, freed aad enabled to take, kola pod enjoy property ot every kind in like manner ae if they were free ctiiseaa es tela Btsfer" At the end of the aetitte “provided, aevertbaieto, thrt wte j lag herein contrtked shall extend, or rt* con strued to extead, to entitle the raid free an tot toes and negro slaves, when liberated at tYfhrftteftlA |o rfitftft lift JjMipmin toy tin vlmmO' i ever, nr to render teepee rtther of tee*!* ymy asuMOf eee* where the person*! rightAfe prophrtJ of any retpereoM togj^ to rtadh n freniitluu of tela Blots; Be it therefore enaoted, That the said Judy Eitof, of tbe eoeuty of Binhtnnfori. be, and aha ie hereby verted with and eat tiled to all (fra rights, yKtolhgrtra&fi irtamujtiee belong ing to a free oitixen of this Bt,ati. with this ex ception, teat she shall not oe a eemnetsnt wit ness in any onto where |ke pet*>nal rights or property of any white person may be con cerned. ” These arts may be found in Mar bury and Crawford’* Digest, pages 804, 4 tof., The careful foglnialira at that day eonaideroit that even fra* negroes, wheat toad* citterns, would thereby bo roses eUrtkto to oflOe sales* expressly prohibited, end nence they inserted these precautioaaiy provisos. More raceotly we find one of the most ehd cum vated men in the State exprewAtm the soon* opinion. Iu 1848, the late B. M. uWltoo. In arguing the oase of Cooper Jb Worakatn vt. Tho Mayor, Ac., of Savannah, eenteoded that if colored persona were ottiaena, they aught rep resent ne in the Legislature. —4 Georgia Re ports, 71. I am, therefore, well eustuined to lira pota tion that in Georgia citizenship, in tee easw of ad alt melee, white or eoiomd, has been asualty understood to involve the right gibility to office. J<jjw I have had notice that the eemlftHnfrV)R.- follow me for the defendant iafrHjPl fW Mto! the act of Congress to of fice ou colored men in tbe fiptePt or Oolnni bis, aud the argument wilfcK mad* Mate tion gross did not believe that ufr rigtafimk wffioe was included in tee oitizenehip and Simtoge which had been prevtoosljr bestowed. . mg answer is, finfi thin set wa*. f l —rt. ltofow the ratification of tha Fonrtaeoth temeqdl meat to the Cenetit^onwlteeJMgdtertMti, it e one) black man by name, the bteok man there fore stands on the same footing u the white. To this it has been replied that eligibility to office is the white man’s birthright. not comprehend tbe notten es a birthright to offloe under a goTernmaßlJtfc* Mrs, where of fice ii not a privilege of (he JMder but a trust (or the benefit of oltrera rtfitte they may oonfer or withhold at plenenre. Farther, 1 cannot see how a man cap hare a butebfißi in a government which did *tol istenoe until long after he w*a bora. , . Counsel on the other aide draw an ana* meat from the acts of Otwngpesa. f enfort Ib efty therefore, to draw an argument forts (hgfi acts of other departments of the gweeraMK of the United State*. The Conatitutido at the United Btatesis as Bilent on tee aubjeot of race or color as the Constitution- Os -Geqvgi*. Yet th j late Pieeident (Johtmoa) and the present President (Grant) hate appointed eolored men to office. The United States Senate—a body comprising much legal learn ing, bee confirmed nomthations of colored men. If colored nren can hold office uadar the Constitution of the . United Btates, they can do so under the Constitution of Georgia. In either oase they Use- ifee dftcsrz—that it, our agents. The learned counsel on the other side (Mr. Hartridge) has told us that “it is not to be presumed that the Convention, without tebti and wit bout experience of the capacity es the colored man to fill office, would At*ntte hi SI to that right.” He should have rentesabered that colored men had trial'kdffiSpCtoroee in public buetoro* M regfofora>.-a* totortn,-ter tha Convention and as nrtrtfrefo at the Otm vection. And let me ask, witefoß wspeot, owt mvww’ IffSHlfe. enced in it ? One wiil oxet learn to swim by staying out of the Water. 4*ln tbe feme strain, counsel has Bated asm your HonSft the improbability that teanskem of the Constitution would open office to ofea so ignorant m most coloredypen are. No such present Constitution' tforencnmoVc afraid of ignorance in office than their predecas*ora--thn makers of our earlier Oonstitutiona Netther the Constitution of tbe United BtateAf nor the Constitution of Georgia kM ever made ignorance ». ffisqaelifieatHSX llr tee highest office. Wbst -law has there been •inoe 1789 to prevent tee most tonorabl citizen in the land, of the tettHut age and birth, from tiffing President fvFnat ha, there been to peereßt tee greatest feMis Georgia, of the proper age and firom being Governor or sitting Ik tfirpfolin «■ ro? Tbe learned tsounselennnotMrtroelkat Convention would give to tokoeelfeefyaab dtorged in tkestoughaf ignossnM those riffoe which the free-born, educated addle mao mas aspire to.” Aeptoatiooa to rtfed tiave never been limited by law to the educated. The Oouveotton fee given toriUimimffii a* rinkto but thoee wldch tee moet aueritraeti-d,: rte#C ignorant, and meat Btopid fofrdfofe men lam pjwzys been at liberty to reiifeirijrvllfe Ml ignorance new* ffe the list time, nitoffiftl la it not ro dangereo* ondar a white skin to under a black raui ? asaffistol sssfetattey prehead teat if Ike eel omrt seen base right to office, tiewttl i.rt.tirir gfti ft. feofereafit fe suf ka, * Ttiti fof|»Jffilp|ftw>< ' - fetesfeffi atoeteitifeMßto totewi from our part fe(if. tert the tooepnbte with •apfetitoritiil Sfeß^arleetiog^^^LfeM Oar Ptmidmm G*ii"i keen no lew to Wm3B&R* *twwf*| mmutsu femumi wferilhitiAra will probably If that aiaonld foil, tfe|m|ftftftftrtWff tone atofrteA ra# Um teffibM fomkttMlSß^ftliftftftiß^llftiftftfthiHtti for into «* ■rt*vfeaateaa.it.ynrt tifoßjtefftdpwrtoe pb yliwj’f hi nnihur li iftHM<nTiwtHKrijffiifiMifc.jiKi"' ififi 1 4wl SSV etiroseetonMHMfotoartfsr te ThnGojrtfepefc U hftftfti tote wa*nwSte MM 1 rtffifr fee ffeip fro nmh"Wbitr- Y~r rr ffirtirtw. feesfee,rt imwtqMm to tefoe ' mjat mmty otiixroteeltodto -rimisfoy es dfe jtyjnir^n-^f toy l ****- kto 'ffioeetefeMf tifeti tea And fev^ ** AT LAW, : aMomOtSs