Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/548

514 colored element against the enfranchising amendments and in favor of the candidate of the proscriptionists. In vain did the chairman of the State central committee protest against this absurd and flagrantly unjust basis of representation; he was overruled.

But more than that. In thirty-four counties delegates to the State convention were surreptitiously appointed at meetings ostensibly called not for that purpose, but merely for the election of local committees, prior to any call of the State committee for the election of delegates, and thus the people of those counties were deprived of a fair expression of opinion. Finally, a number of counties were represented in the convention by proxies in the hands of single individuals, though no meetings whatever were held in such counties. And all this was done in the interest of the friends of continued proscription and of their candidate.

Those members of the convention who deemed it their duty to stand faithfully by the best interests of the State and the pledges of the Republican party—actuated by a spirit of moderation and forbearance—made several attempts to correct some of the outrages above enumerated. Twice a resolution was offered to put the representation of the colored voters upon an equal footing with that of the whites, and to secure the representation of men instead of the representation of bare acres—and twice that act of justice and fairness was denied. A fixed determination was clearly visible on the part of those who had planned and instigated those iniquities, to reap the whole benefit to be derived from them. Still we submitted.

But when finally, after a full debate, a resolution, declaring the time to have come when the solemn pledges of the Republican party should be redeemed by the adoption of the enfranchising amendments, was voted down, and a substitute was adopted, drafted and