penetration to discover" the truth," that freedom pointed to the right of suffrage. Who knows but we may live to see the rebels who have gone to Brazil, in the hopes of finding slavery, return with the conviction that equal rights, republicanism and democracy are better than slavery and oppression.

God has given human beings reason and energy, and man has no right to chain that reason and energy by oppressive laws, or in any way prevent the exercise of those rights, which in equity belong to all. Kossuth, in reviewing the rights of man, exclaims, "Liberty is Liberty, as God is God.”

The adoption of the constitutional amendment has extirpated slavery from our country. God grant that all things pertaining to its unjust laws, or to its spirit may also be extirpated. The rebel Legislature have recently made laws in direct opposition to the Constitutional amendment, which reads: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party has been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

These Legislatures also, true to their slaveocratic instincts, ignore by their acts the self-evident truth that man has an inherent right to enjoy civil, religious and political liberty.

There is not on earth a Republic but this that legislates the rights of man away. No nation but this disfranchises freedmen because of their color or race. In slaveholding Brazil they do not go so far as do the enemies of negro suffrage in this country. In Brazil, freedmen, regardless of color, are equal before the law, and eligible to any office. In the British West Indies, the

blacks were sent to the Republican Chamber of Depu ties, as representatives. And yet, in what nation, we ask, have they fought for liberty as they have in our Revolutionary war, in the war of 1812, and in our recent great struggle for freedom?

In regard to political rights, we do not as a nation stand on the same broad basis as did our revolutionary fathers. Washington, Jefferson, Hancock, and Hamilton, went to the polls and deposited their ballots where the negroes did theirs. These revolutionary patriots advocated the cause of equal rights, and maintained the rights of all freedmen to the ballot box. The black man voted under Washington's, Adams,' Madison's, and Jackson's

administrations.

In five of the New England States they have been voting ever since the revolutionary war. In Pennsylvania they continued to vote until 1838. In Maryland and Virginia they voted until 1832. In New Jersey until 1839; and in North Carolinia and Tennessee until 1835.

Negroes, after fighting in New Orleans under Jackson, helped to elect the hero to Congress.

"The black people of this country have been ardently and universally loyal, and ever ready to fight against the anti-democratic and anti-republican principles which despots have sought to establish in this Republic. They are Americans by birth, and love freedom with an undying love which they instinctively know is destined for all Americans.

"At New Orleans, Mobile, and other cities, how did they spend the fourth of July, 1865? Was not American freedom honored by them? Was not the memory

of Abraham Lincoln glorified by this grateful people? On that day the black men of this nation proved themselves worthy to assist in carrying out the principles inculcated by the Declaration of Independence. They proved on that day the right to demand the same freedom the white man claims.

"The negro wants no protection but just and equitable laws. He only asks, in the spirit of 1776, to be enfranchised from the thraldom of oppression. He knows as well as we do that distinctions growing out of color or race are incompatible with justice. This is an age of progress not only for the white man, but for the black

man.

"The black man is becoming intelligent, and looks upon the enemies of liberty just as the intelligent white man looks upon slavery, serfdom, vagrant acts, oppressions and wrongs, as all just men do. He knows that the nation imperatively demands equal rights and justice, and he believes, with us, that this demand will be satisfied. He exclaims with the friends of equal rights, 'Let there be freedom for all, education for all, labor for all!' Justice demands this, and nothing else will be satisfactory.

"We want no more Opelousas ordinance, which prohibits freedmen from coming to town without special permission: which prohibits them liberty on the streets after ten o'clock at night; which declares that freemen shall not reside within the limits of the town, unless. they be in the regular service of some white person or former master; which refuses freemen the right to hold public meetings, to preach, or to carry arms; which refuses them the liberty to barter, or to sell goods, without

the special permission of their employers, under the pen. alty of imprisonments, fines or hard labor on the public roads. Neither must these persistent slaveocrats be permitted to put into operation those infamous laws enacted in the rebel Democratic Legislature of 1865, which force freedmen to contract away their labor and submit themselves to slavery under new names.

"We want no negro vagrant laws, no more jail fees, highest bidder, rendition of poor and indigent persons of color! no more reminders of the block, the ball chain, the 'nigger dogs' the fugitive slave laws and the slave gangs of the past.

"Let this people alone to enjoy the same protection we are entitled to claim. Let this people with the aid of justice and liberty, work out their own destiny. If they will not work, let them starve; but give them an equal chance with us in the struggle of life.

"When the slave oligarchy ruled in the plenitude of its power, the rights of the laboring classes were trampled under foot. Free labor was reduced to the level of slave labor. This shall be no more. The fiat has gone forth that labor shall not be subjected to a domineering, unscrupulous aristocracy. A new era has dawned upon this country. Labor in the future will be respectable and dignified, and command the best portion of the fruit it produces.

"The Union party of Louisiana has labored earnestly and faithfully to wipe out the disgraceful laws of this State, that she might become one of the brilliant lights of the nation. Abraham Lincoln was the prime mover in this work of reformation. His sympathies were ever with Republican movements. His voice, which can never

be lost to this nation, was heard on the eve of his departure from earth, declaring his sympathy with the Constitution of 1864, which ignored the Black Code of this State, abolished slavery and the laws which governed it from her statute books.

"MY FRIENDS, The Republican party of Louisiana— counting white men only-are in a minority in this State. A Rebel Democratic party, composed of domineering aristocrats, who one year ago were fighting against republican liberty, and who to-day are seeking to crush loyal men, both white and black, by a renewed tyranny, continue their Satanic oppressions and wrongs, while they attempt to draw the veil of hypocrisy over their damnable conspiracies.

"The National Republican party, to which all loyal men in the South belong, seeks to establish liberty and justice throughout the land. For the past four years it has been working for freedom and equal rights, against slavery and oppression; against that slaveocratic power which hates with undying hate, free schools, a free press, free speech, and all that pertains to that freedom a just God designs for this mighty Republic.

"We are called upon to battle with these rebellious tyrants. In that work, my friends, we must be united. Our beloved Louisiana is in imminent danger from the deadly foes of freedom. Let us who love the Union and liberty, forget past differences, and combine to fight the oppressors who threaten to crush out the loyal element of this State. Shall we not with our President say: 'Let us be united. I know there are but two parties now-one for the country and the other against it; and I am for my country.' While we embrace this noble