xcept the issues that were staked upon the war and lost.
Finding nothing to take hold of except prejudice, which can not be
worked into good for any one, it is proper and right that I should
seek some standpoint from which good may be done."

Quotations like these from prominent Democratic politicians, from
rebel soldiers, and from influential rebel newspapers, might be
multiplied indefinitely. Enough have been given to show how
completely and how exactly the Reconstruction Acts have met the
evil to be remedied in the South. My friend, Mr. Hassaurek, in his
admirable speech at Columbus, did not estimate too highly the
fruits of these measures. Said he:

"And, sir, this remedy at once effected the desired cure. The poor
contraband is no longer the persecuted outlaw whom incurable rebels
might kick and kill with impunity; but he at once became 'our
colored fellow-citizen,' in whose well-being his former master
takes the liveliest interest. Thus, by bringing the negro under the
American system, we have completed his emancipation. He has ceased
to be a pariah. From an outcast he has been transformed into a
human being, invested with the great National attribute of
self-protection, and the re-establishment of peace, and order, and
security, the revival of business and trade, and the restoration of
the Southern States on the basis of loyalty and equal justice to
all, will be the happy results of this astonishing metamorphosis,
provided the party which has inaugurated this policy remains in
power to carry it out."

The Peace Democracy generally throughout the North oppose this
measure. In Ohio they oppose it especially because it commits the
people of the Nation in favor of manhood suffrage. They tell us
that if it is wise and just to entrust the ballot to colored men
in the District of Columbia, in the Territories, and in the rebel
States, it is also just and wise that they should have it in Ohio
and in the other States of the North.

Union men do not question this reasoning, but if it is urged as an
objection to the plan of Congress, we reply: There are now within
the limits of the United States about five millions of colored
people. They are not aliens or strangers. They are here not by the
choice of themselves or of their ancestors. They are h